The sport called crew is an Olympic event. If you have ever witnessed a live crew event, you are immediately impressed with the coordination, leadership, positioning, and skill needed to bring a group of individuals together into a single rhythm. One member of the team who is just a split second early or late can take the entire boat off course.
Perhaps the most visibly distinctive trait of a construction field leader is the ability to keep the "troops" focused on their current and future work. Some practical techniques that you can incorporate immediately are: create a vision, cast the vision, and then recast the vision.
It started at the very beginning while preparing the ground for the forming crew. Bob had to delay the forming crew by a half day because the job was graded incorrectly. To add insult to injury, the forming crew then placed the forms several inches off the mark in three critical places. Having corrected these two mistakes, Bob thought he was safe until the concrete truck showed up with the wrong mix, causing another delay with additional labor cost. Now Bob could only watch as a once-profitable job was shriveling slowly toward breakeven.
While financial statements are critical to managing a profitable company, other key measurements can also shed light on the operational and customer satisfaction improvements your business is making. This article examines one measurement that sheds light on operations, sales, and satisfaction—"customer callbacks."
This article discusses techniques that contractors find effective to find good workers. It also looks at some more creative avenues, such as Internet postings, local contacts, job fairs, and signing bonuses.
