Workforce management is often considered to be the result of various management processes used by a company to optimize employee productivity and resultant personal success. This article focuses on a different type of workforce management in which the employee attains personal success through the building of positive character.
Being a construction contractor requires toughness, persistence and taking risks. It’s the will to succeed, not the unreasonable overly optimistic Pollyanna approach, just a strong drive. Competition is such that second place is reserved for the first loser.
Survival requires the resiliency of a rubber band snapping back from being stretched. You can only allow a brief period of disappointment and frustration after being bested by a project award before you must extend your efforts again to get the next construction project. It hurts to try hard and still experience failure, especially when the cycle can be relentless. All of this requires positive character. You will have character-forming experiences often. These experiences occur when something happens that creates either a good or bad experience leading to emotions. Those emotions lead to reactions, which lead to behavior, which then defines your character. When you are in a situation and you are feeling something, can you put your finger on what it is you are feeling and why? Can you control it?
Whether your emotions are positive or negative, they must be managed through emotional intelligence, which has two elements: internal and external. Internal emotional intelligence is your ability to detect and manage your emotions. External emotional intelligence is your ability to detect and manage your reactions to the emotions of others.
Emotional intelligence is one part of the picture, and the things we choose to dwell on is another. Positive thoughts lead to positive character. Negative thoughts lead to negative character.
Often, in our lives, we reflect too long on the negative and not enough on the positive. Is it because we somehow feel guilty about being happy?
This article was written to encourage you to maximize your victories and minimize your setbacks, emotionally speaking. This can be a survival guide so when the inevitable setbacks come, you will be ready to accept them and react through positive character.
When setbacks happen and your customer brings their complaint to you, their intuition is telling them that you can be trusted to solve the problem.
Initially, the question about who is right and who is wrong does not matter. Instead, show empathy, apologize, thank them and make decisions for what is in their best interest. What matters is getting in position for your next sale. Don’t make excuses. They usually don’t care why the problem occurred. They just want to know what you are going to do to resolve it. Overmanage your customer complaints. View it as an opportunity to solidify, not destroy, your relationship.
And keep in mind, just because some of your customers do not complain does not mean they are happy with you. It’s their plan to just let you fade away. One of the most aggravating things you can do to a customer is to be a “Sorry, but … ” type of person. When you are asked to help and instead reply with, “Sorry, but that’s our policy,” or “Sorry, but that’s all I can do,” or “Sorry, but you’ll just have to wait.” You will be a very sorry person when your customer calls your competitor to solve the situation that you were unwilling to resolve. Unforeseen conditions and surprises happen in construction more frequently than in most industries. We don’t get to rehearse, so problems can arise, often resulting in conflict.
For example, opposing expectations, scopes of work disputes, deficient plans and specifications, owner-caused delays and disruptions, delayed or denied payments and warranty disputes, and more. Recognize that some conflicts can be a waste of your intellectual and monetary capital, resulting in hollow victories tantamount to defeat. If you position yourself for a win-lose conflict, such as drawing a line in the sand with a permanent marker, then prepare yourself for stress, payment disruption, potential lawsuits, tarnished reputation and rejection from future bid lists. In conflict, it’s important to stick to the facts and manage your emotions.
Be considerate of the other person’s position, even if you don’t agree with it. Work to preserve the relationship and not to destroy it. When deciding whether to enter a conflict, ask yourself, “If I do this, how will I feel six months from now?”
Be principled about choosing your conflicts. Do not choose conflict as a remedy for retaliation or antagonism. That may feel good in the short term, but it will take you off the high road and lead you down the low road of bitterness and regret.
In attempt to resolve conflicts follow the triage of negotiation, arbitration, mediation and litigation. Negotiating requires each party to give something up to get their own needs satisfied. Make a list of what you are willing to give away to get what you want. Don’t give anything away unless you get something in return. Bear in mind the wise words of first lady Eleanor Roosevelt, “Never allow a person to tell you no who doesn’t have the power to say yes.”
The ability to negotiate with someone requires an open and honest rapport so problems can be settled objectively and without drama. Negotiation is best when you are willing to count to 10 before hitting send. Restrain from knocking the hinges off the door when you slam it in the other person’s face.
Failed negotiations can result in arbitration, mediation or litigation which typically stems from bad faith, hurt feelings, hardheaded egos, stubbornness and unwillingness to admit weakness.
Those methods are time consuming and require expensive payments to a third party to convince you of your weakness, liabilities and vulnerabilities. Litigation should be short for “scorched earth.”
On the positive side, there should be a relationship bridge where your construction company is on one side and the customer is on the other. The reason for the bridge is to transfer money from the customer’s bank into your bank. Money is transferred when you do two things for your customers: solve their problems and make them feel good.
The brick and mortar of the relationship bridge is called trust. The customer trusts you to fulfill what is required and that you will not take advantage of their vulnerabilities. If there is no relationship bridge, then no money is transferred. Why go to work?
Relating to the customer starts with first impressions. Psychologists agree that within the first five seconds of meeting someone for the first time, that other person will make five evaluations about you. These evaluations could be good or bad, or right or wrong. The first impression is an observation of your appearance, the others are impressions about your level of:
- Trustworthiness
- Aggression
- Likeability
- Competence
You only have one chance to make a good first impression. If the construction industry had a map to success, I believe the words and directions would be easy to read and comprehend. However, the actual route would not be simple. The map would illustrate many challenging situations in an industry that requires the navigation of many ups, downs, roadblocks and blind spots, as well as access to great opportunities and enduring relationships. Successful travelers have the street smarts to know that peril and unfortunate situations may be waiting around the corner. The itinerary for you — the navigator — is in the answer to the question about what route to select. Will you ascend to success or descend to failure? That ascent is more about the person’s character than the environment. Going in either direction starts with the first step, so watch your step. Success is about doing hundreds of things right and successfully managing the hundreds of things that go wrong.
Fix your mind, not just on surviving in this industry, but on attaining great success. Remember, the road to success is always under construction.
