Masonry Magazine June 2000 Page. 32
The Revolution Is ON
# A REVOLUTION
is occurring from boardrooms to shop floors across the country. Contractors are searching for and finding competitive advantages by making an investment in their people. We will look at how that strategy can impact your competitive posture, how to structure it for success, and how to apply the benefits to your organization. 32 MASONRY-MAY/JUNE, 2000
By Cynthia Paul
Change is always the mantra of business. Contractors are no exception. The challenges most contractors face today, however, are different from the past. Sometimes the greatest challenge is the speed at which change is occurring. Organizations respond to changes in the marketplace only to find the market moves on before their changes can receive full value for the efforts invested. Other organizations may be challenged by maintaining their financial flexibility in the marketplace. And still for others, it's the search for a profitable niche that can be the basis of future growth. Regardless of the primary focus, what do all of these organizations have in common? The need for effectively reengineering their organization's capabilities.
Contractors today are searching for strategies to develop high calibre, dedicated, innovative, and hard working people. Imagine what the impact would be on your business to have all of your key managers operate at the level of a senior executive. Key field personnel, project managers, estimators, engineers, and business development managers all operating with the total company perspective of a senior executive. Someone who is able to read the changing winds of the marketplace and build effective strategies to exploit windows of opportunity. Imagine having a project manager streamline field operations and improve effectiveness while maintaining quality and safety. Imagine the impact to your business.
How you get there is the objective of this article. We will explore the strategies necessary to make all your key managers highly effective senior managers. That means having every key manager focused on finding "new successes" for the organization. People who are vested in discovering strategies that will maximize corporate success into the future. People with those abilities will consistently operate at the pinnacle of performance, their absence can dramatically change the picture of the future.
So how do you go about securing a talented pool of key managers? You can do what a hotel chain proclaimed a couple of years ago with their ad campaign. The headlines read "We don't train our people to be nice." The fine print reinforced the underlying strategy for success. "We don't need to, we only hire nice people." Certainly that would simplify the process of finding employees who treat customers with service and respect. You as contractors need people with unparalleled technical expertise be that engineering, estimating, project management, production, and management. In addition to high-value customer service, construction people may even need to navigate their way around job costs, project control systems, legal aspects, and insurance. It's not as simple as having "nice people."
Right now there is a vast group of talented people available. People who can help guide your organization into the future. Luckily the search will not have to be elaborate nor far reaching. The people that you are looking for already work for you.
How can that be so? You might think you have a bunch of 6-7-8's when what you really need is a bunch of 10's. But who better to be a 10 than a current 6 or 7 who is looking for more responsibility and better opportunities? I am not talking about the alchemy experiments of eons ago. The process of turning lead into gold. If one of your people can become a 6, 7 or 8 largely due to their own efforts and sweat equity, they have the ability to evolve into a 10 with some structured assistance from you.
Management development efforts that are at the cutting edge today are unlike the past processes. Management development is more than participating in a training program on a periodic basis-regardless of how good the training may be. Effective management is a systematic process of elevating the skills and abilities of people. Elevating them to the level needed for the company to capture continued success in the future. Development starts with a focus on the individual's strengths and weaknesses. It is a process of changing behavior that will generate results for the company and the individual. It's like gas to a combustible
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