Every time: aim at nothing and hit it

Masonry Construction, Jan, 2003 by George Hedley

Most companies, managers, project teams, and field crews do not have a clue when they hit a home run at the jobsite. Employees are told to "do your best" or "work as hard as you can" but are not given specific milestones to shoot for.

Most companies and managers never sit down and write out their business or project goals before starting a new job. Feedback and review of the project's success or failure are rarely discussed with those who actually do the work.

These facts and more were discovered from a recent survey that I conducted with over 2000 construction industry companies.

Do you aim at anything?

You may know exactly what your profit and sales goals are, but only 46% of those surveyed set and track the company's progress toward its annual profit and sales targets. The rest seemingly try to do as much as they can and stay satisfied with whatever happens.

Does your company have specific written targets for every area of the business? If you don't, you are in the majority.

The survey revealed that only 30% of the 2000 companies have clear targets for their overhead budget, 24% for safety, 17% for customer service, 12% for employee development, 8% for repeat customers, and 6% for bid-success ratio. This lack of targets affects everyone from the top down. Less than 29% say that the field employees have specific written goals for any area of their work.

Baseball without batting averages

Can you imagine a baseball team where the coach didn't have a team goal for winning games and players didn't have individual goals for hitting, fielding, or pitching? Sadly, most companies send their teams onto the business field without targets.

At the project level, only 40% set clear goals for profit, 30% for schedule, and 29% for productivity. Even in companies that do set goals, only 38% ever tell the employees what they are.

The result is that most management, field, and administrative players don't know when they get a hit or make an error, what is a good batting average, or if they win the game.

Aim at something

The truth is that people who have written goals are twice as successful as those who do haven't. The first step to success is simple: write the company's targets down.

Consider using my "swat.com" method to set your goals.

Start with your overall company goals and then drill down to write project and individual goals. If a company goal is to finish every project on time, each job must have written goals with specific action steps.

Use this typical worksheet example to set your goals.

Project goal: Finish job on time

Deadline: Complete project by July 31st

Action step #1: Get project team together

Action step #2: Identify resources and responsibilities

Action step #3 Set project team meeting schedule

Action step #4: Implement weekly field reviews

Action step #5: Track progress weekly and adjust resources

Incorporate goals into the company's mind-set. If the priority is to stick to a schedule, make sure that the team knows this area is a priority and what the milestones and deadlines are. Otherwise, it is too easy to get sidetracked by "urgent" job problems and miss the company's targets.

Your No. 1 priority is to keep your No. 1 priority your No. 1 priority!

Set weekly targets

Use Monday morning team meetings to get your people together and stay on target. Set weekly goals, write them down, and give each team member a specific target to hit, regardless of his/her position.

Set monthly goals

Get the team together monthly to review progress on the company's targets, such as customer satisfaction, quality, safety, productivity, profit, and schedule. Also consider setting goals for general conditions, estimated job costs vs. final costs, and labor and equipment budget vs. actual.

Set pre-project milestones

Get the estimator, project manager, field superintendent, and foreman together to set overall project goals before starting a job. Hold a pre-job team meeting to discuss the targets and ensure that everyone is on the same page. Follow up with weekly and monthly project team meetings. Conduct a general review meeting at the end of the project to decide where improvement is possible and refine the goals for the next job.

Aim at something, write it, track it, communicate it, and hit it out of the park every time.

S = Specific

W = Written

A = Attainable

T = Time-Deadline

C = Challenging and Clear

O = On-Purpose ...
    On-Target

M = Measurable

George Hedley owns a $75 million construction and development company and Hardhat Presentations. He speaks to companies on building profitable businesses, leadership, and loyal customers and holds monthly 3-day, in-depth "Profit-Builder Circles" that are open to construction company owners. The "Profit-Builder System" includes proven tools to always make a profit, build equity, create wealth, win profitable jobs, motivate people, and enjoy the benefits of owning a profitable company.

For information on Mr. Hedley's programs or to receive his free management e-newsletter, visit www.hardhatpresenta tions.com, call 800-851-8553, or e-mail him at gh@hardhat presentations.com.