Masonry Magazine July 2008 Page. 53
COACH GARY SAYS:
"A Major Leaguer will get a hit about once every four at-bats. A really good hitter will only hit about one in three."
Season three, our third-grader finally faces an opposing pitcher, but only after a couple of years of practice. In T-ball, you can't strike out. You will hit the ball. The worst you can do is to hit the ball somewhat and run for first base. The only way to fail in T-ball is to not play the game, to quit and never get up to bat. How sad is that?
Let's look now at our rookie PM who has the title, but has never practiced, never grown. How does he learn the game?
1) He tees it up, too. He has studied the game and knows that certain issues present themselves as absolute gimmies: The architect sends out a bulletin and notes a change to the plans and specs. All our batter has to do is put it on his "tee" by writing an RFI and saying, "It's not ours. What should we do?" And the architect/CM will have to ask him to price it out. It's a hit!
2) Many times, the opportunities are not that easy, but are still like a slow-pitched softball. Like when you suggest a substitution or maybe some value engineering, and your company picks up a little extra for the bottom line. An easy hit.
3) After a while, you begin to get a little confidence. The next time the project superintendent asks when you are going to do such and such, you write an RFI explaining that "such and such" is not in your scope of work, because it is not in either the contract or the project specs. Wow, a stand-up double!
4) Now that you've gotten a little experience, you'll be able to tackle even more challenging issues. Maybe the issue isn't really clear cut or black and white, but you take a shot at it anyway. Sometimes you win, sometimes you don't. But you are always excited to take your turn at bat. And, you'll get your fair share. You'll at least get to first base.
Good hitters get that way by becoming students of the game, working with the coaches and practicing the craft. Project managers do the exact same thing, even if it means studying under a first-grader. IMAS Gary Micheloni is a working project manager, speaker, author and consultant. Got a question? Go to the Blog and ask him. Copyright 2008 Gary Micheloni
COACH GARY'S CORNER:
This is the year to lead your team. Start by getting some coaching to deal with the changes that crop up on every jobsite. Get Coach's free course on Winning RFIs. Go to the Web site, www.Full ContactBlog.com. Check out the free audie updates and other info that will help your projects. Also, you can get Coach Gary's book "Get Paid for a Changer
Why Don't Employees Want to Change?
MASONRY NEWS CONTRACTOR TIP
If change is a constant and a must for any business to survive, why can't we get our people to change when necessary? One thing we know for sure is that the greatest businesses are not developed overnight. Bill Gates didn't suddenly wake up and become the richest man in the world. And, as I like to explain in my seminars, if we change one thing today, one thing tomorrow and one thing the next day, then over time, we will have built a tremendous organization.
I only like to work half days anymore! I don't care if I work the first half or the second half, but 12 hours is long enough. During my time at work, I have one main goal: to call as many shots and make as many changes as I possibly can to make the future of the companies brighter. Of course, a lot of our people, especially our long-term employees, reject this constant change, but we make them anyway.
Often when we are making changes, things will get worse in the short term before we see improvements. It is sort of like leaming to play golf. If you want to improve your game, you have to make swing adjustments, or maybe grip adjustments. These adjustments will make your golf swing feel uncomfortable at first. In fact, your game will usually get worse in the short term. This is when most golfers give up, never giving themselves the opportunity to improve long-term. These players will never get below the 80s in most cases and, usually, stay in the 90s, regardless of how much they play. That's why there aren't many exceptional golfers out there. For the golfer who sticks to his guns on the swing changes, he will come to be a much better golfer in the end.
When we started paying our office staff based on monthly profit and loss, the first few monthly meetings were tense. As we presented the numbers, you could actually feel the tension in the room, especially on the bad months. Now, three years later, we have employees coming to us and saying that they believe these meetings have driven their divisions of our companies into making business decisions that have greatly increased the bottom lines for their companies. Of course, since they all get paid part of the increased results of the company, they have become excited to attend these monthly meetings. Had we not stayed the course and dropped these meetings due to the growling, we would have never known the tremendous impact that the profit-and-loss payouts and meet ings on our companies.
A friend of mine who is always looking for a get-rich-quick scheme told me at a party that he is going to get rich quick, he just didn't know how yet. I replied, "There is only one way to get rich: slowly."
The next moming you start work, ask yourself what changes you will make today that will change the way you do business tomorrow?" Mea- sure your success based on how many shots you have called by the end of that day, remembering that your business won't be built overnight, but over time. If you make one change today, one change tomorrow and one the next day, then over time, you will have built a tremendous organization.
Damian Lang is a mason contractor in southeast Ohio with four companies that do combined sales of $18 million. He is also the author of "Rewarding and Challenging Employees for Profits in Masonry." To order a copy of his book, or to attend one of his seminars held specifically for mason contractors, call Linda Hart at Lang Masonry, 800-417-9272.
Provided by Damian Lang, President of Lang Masonry Contractors, Inc., and EZ Great Corp.
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