Get the Hell Out of the Hourglass – Part 8

When we start a business, we wear all the hats. But you don’t want to keep wearing all the hats. I know you are trying to crawl out of the hourglass, so it’s time to populate your company with the right people.

As you organize these folks, it’s all about the ability to push down decision-making.

• First, get a couple of potential leaders, people you think might be able to run things, and mentor them. Share the vision statement you wrote with them, and explain how you want things to run – the systems we discussed last Thursday.
• Next, it’s about shared success models, with performance pay for when things go well.
• Finally, it’s about getting enough other people in your world that care about the business and know that you care about them, too.

I’ll devote a whole blog series to cascading leadership in July. But for now, we’ll say it is what happens when leaders care about those above and below them. They overflow with enthusiasm and engagement. They care to invest in engaged people with the same vision.

In my world, it’s about the crew leaders. There’s no structure more critical to scaling a contracting business than a crew leader (job leader) system in which the owner does not have to be at every job. I am confident that my crew leaders will run the job the way I want them to because we’ve documented everything, and they’re being trained well. They know how to start a job. They know how to talk to a customer. They know how to delegate to a crew. They understand the hours on the job. So you or somebody in your company has to document those systems because systems will open up the hourglass!

Identify a few people you feel are the right fit for your organization and invest in them! Then, mentor and train them in the systems you’ve created. Once they are engaged, they’ll help you develop more systems.

I had a tough time finding the right people in the early years of my business. One thing that makes it hard is trust; it is difficult to trust others with the company that is precious to you and your family. I get that. We’ll talk about trust on Thursday. See you then. Build muscle.