How to become a successful builder: #1 Stay in Control
Successful Builders Master the Habit of Staying in Control
Someone stuffs up on the renovation building site and you explode? Right! Hmmm. Does it help? “No. But it feels good.”How about when your client is involved? Do they see you out of control?Highly successful builders always stay in control. Wouldn’t that be a nice habit!In this article I outline 4 attitudes that can help you to become a successful builder by keeping you in control.
1 How to become a successful builder: Reject the blame game.
the-successful-builder-rejects the blame game
It’s inevitable in renovating buildings that things go wrong. People stuff up. Arrive late. Send the wrong stuff. It’s then that it’s important to reject the blame game and not make excuses to your client or even worse claim no responsibility! [Note: There is a place for apportioning due responsibility, but it’s not now.]This simply raises the temperature of all concerned and adds pressure. It gains no sympathy from your customer. You see, apportioning blame does nothing to solve the immediate problem.
2 How to become a successful builder: Choose to be responsible.
Instead of losing her cool or looking for someone to blame the successful builder takes responsibility for the situation, and commits to finding a workable solution. Should she be responsible for the stuff up, she’ll accept responsibility and get on with fixing it. If a subbie is responsible she’ll deal directly with that subbie and call him to accountability to the agreement in place. If it’s a team member she’ll deal with it properly.
3 How to become a successful builder: Refuse victim mentality.
the-successful-builder-Master the Seven Habits of Highly Successful Builders #1 –Stay in Control
This really is the crux of the issue. The builder who shifts the blame to someone else makes himself a victim.You see, a victim is someone forced to accept with another’s wishes or actions. So when a builder makes excuses or lays blame he is admitting defeat. That is assuming the attitude of a victim. Who wants a victim running their renovation project?
4 How to become a successful builder: Determine to Overcome
By refusing a victim mentality the builder is demonstrating he can fix the problem. He is not beaten by a sloppy subbie or supplier. Instead he takes action - immediate and long term. Immediate? Solving the situation. Longer-term? Changing the processes that created the problem in the first place. Does he need to clarify expectations? Does he need to improve selection processes? Does he need to modify systems? By doing this he is demonstrates that situations do NOT control him. Rather, he is in control. This is the kind of builder I want on my building project.
Example
The new carpenter spends two days erecting and lining walls without the required bracing. The site supervisor chooses not to vent his anger, but to calmly issue instructions to fix the problem. Later, he reviews the new team member’s CV and discovers he is from out-of-town, from a region with low risk of storms or earthquakes, where local requirements are different. This was overlooked in the hiring process. As a result the hiring process was modified.
Question
How do you respond to stuff-ups on site?I’d love to hear your stories.Post your stories/comments below
View more in the "How To Become A Successful Builder" series:
How To Become A Successful Builder: #6 Unleash Effective Systems
How To Become A Successful Builder: #7 Work The Business Cycle
Graeme
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