1. Not Holding Your People Accountable

Know what accountability means. In very basic terms, accountability means that every critical employee knows specifically, the minimum that is expected of them each day; that their job performance is relative to the profit and sales of the company, is measurable and therefore objective to results; that the measurement is communicated to them regularly; and that their ability to exceed the company standards will impact how much they earn each year or, if performance is a standard, that they may lose their job. Standards and measurements can be developed when revenue is planned and controlled, when a plan of sales, gross profit, labor productivity, schedule, material controls, general conditions, overhead and profit is linked to what employees actually do every day, week, month and year.

Know what accountability means to sales and profit. The process of lead generation, selling, estimating, pre-construction, buy-out of materials, labor scheduling, labor productivity, project management, dispatching, parts, tools, vehicle, materials usage, job costing, punch list, post job completion reviews and marketing is linked to the selling and profit making process. It does not matter whether the standard of performance is specific to a sold job directly or to an office support function. If employees are clear about their job expectations and the measurement of their performance, and they accept that they can do the job defined for them at the standard of performance required, then accountability can and will exist when routinely managed.

Learn to manage accountability to attain it. Managers are accountable to the results of their managed processes and to those who report to them. Managers must communicate with their employees, support their achievement of planned results and get out of their way of doing their jobs. Also, the employee standards linked to the profit and sales plan of the company must be clear to the reporting employee. Managers become a resource to their employer and to the people they manage, as long as they have critical measurements available in a timely and accurate process with proactive communications of great work, problems, or potential problems provided to the company. Standards and results make the company work. Attaining “accountability” does not mean there are no problems. In construction, there are potential problems every day. Accountability mitigates problems and their effect on profit and sales. Accountability creates an open process of preventing the same mistake being made over and over again. Accountability saves the cost of those problems due to someone not knowing, not being sure sure, or not wanting to say that the problem was a problem.