What are your strengths that set you apart? We all have them. It’s part of what makes us human. The challenge is identifying them, developing them over time and then using them. It’s something we work on all our lives.

Again, thanks to my parents, my strengths lie in reading, writing, and communicating. And thanks to my grandparents, I’ve got persistence, determination and grit in my DNA.

Being thoughtful helps. So does being a good listener and taking notes. I was taught to follow up and to follow through.

Ingrained in me were the qualities of being respectful, responsive and responsible. I’m comfortable with dealing with people, both men and women. I don’t need to make it all about me.

All of those traits and skills didn’t just help me in my craft. They were tremendous assets in becoming a successful general contractor.

Why?

Because those are not most trades’ strengths.

This business is not rocket science. It is communication, following up and following through. It’s not taking things personally. It’s about putting yourself on both the clients’ side of the table and the trades’.

Look, if the trades and vendors did what they said they were going to do when they said they were going to do it, general contractors wouldn’t have a business.

However, because of human beings and their natures, there is always work for the responsive and responsible general contractor who communicates frequently. You just have to become known for it.  And that’s called marketing.

Before we get to that though, let’s talk a little bit more about communicating. When I was a younger contractor, I procrastinated on having those tough conversation with clients. You know the ones… those conversations about unscheduled delays, cost overruns, changes, errors in plans, items not accounted for, trade contractor issues, personality disputes, change orders, etc., etc.

I found putting off those tough conversations to be unproductive. First of all, the anticipation of having one of those conversations stressed me out. It was an unnecessary burden that I carried around.

Your savvy clients know that it’s not a perfect world in construction. They do expect you to have solutions though. So if you lay out what’s happening as soon as possible so that the clients are not blindsided, that takes the stress off of you.

However, at the same time you’ve also got to present two or three work around solutions for your clients and the design team to consider. You can’t just lay down a problem at their feet without a solution or two. If you do that, you end up losing control.

You lose control because you were hired to be a problem solver, not a problem creator. If your clients lose faith in your ability to figure things out successfully, then they become anxious and fearful. That’s when they start wanting to take matters into their own hands.

I’m a big believer in control, not with a heavy hand, but working quietly in the background. So have those tough conversations early, offering options and potential solutions. Clients are hiring you for your professionalism and expertise. Prove them right. Show them that you got this!

And the importance of consistent frequency of in depth communication with your clients can not be emphasized enough. In the absence of information, people make shit up!  So, keep them informed of both good and bad news. A key point is that not communicating is not a solution.

I’ve defined 1 of my 10 ten personal “intolerables” as “no news”. I enjoy good news. I am fine with bad news.

I cannot tolerate no news.

Good news is great. Bad news? Well, there’s always a work-around solution. And the sooner you know about it, the sooner you can manage the project. But no news? That’s when you get blindsided at the last minute with few good options.

I’ve never understood companies where bad news is discouraged, especially by the boss, where the culture is such that employees are scared to bring up bad news for fear of looking bad, being disparaged or even fired.

Look, this is construction! Real life, real people, trying to put together a complex piece of work in a collaborative and efficient manner so that they can all make a living. So stuff happens. But if you know about it, you can do the dance, adapt and carry on.

The other reason I like putting all the cards on the table as soon as possible is because there’s a lot of smart people sitting around the table. They’re going to have good insights. Which if you’re listening are going to be valuable.  I learned this from Mike McCarthy, a client of ours who also happens to have built one of the nation’s largest engineering contracting firms.  https://www.mccarthy.com/

So, put your cards on the table. But you mush have solutions and options in your hand first. Come prepared as a problem solver, not a problem creator.

So I found that listening, communicating and following through are my strengths. Pretty simple. Pretty straight forward. Now I just had to figure out a way to become valued for that.

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