The Owners Brief: 6 Signs You're Losing Your Team
The Cashflow Contractor Podcast • Martin Holland & Khalil Benalioulhaj
THE BIG IDEA
You may be losing your team before you realize it. As Khalil puts it, the solution is always going to be leadership, and you lead by example.
SIX SIGNS WORTH KNOWING
You're the last to know about problems
A company I know drills oil wells, and the CEO’s number 1 rule is simple: He NEVER wants to be the last one to know they drilled a dry hole. You don't need to hear that somebody came in late, but you do need to know a job is $10,000 over before it shows up on the final invoice.
Your best people stop pushing back
When the foreman who used to say "that schedule won't work" just shrugs and says "you're the boss," he hasn't started agreeing with you. He's stopped caring.
Your A players are leaving
Your best project manager gives two weeks' notice and you never saw it coming. Good people rarely leave over one thing — they leave after watching the C players be tolerated.
People stop asking for help
The questions dry up. That means people are either afraid of looking stupid or they've quit caring enough to ask.
Commitments slip with no explanation
Your PM says rough-in will be done Thursday, and you find out it wasn't by driving past the job the following Monday. Sometimes that's a crew over capacity. Sometimes it's how people behave when nothing is ever followed up on.
You're managing tasks instead of leading people
You tell someone to drive a nail and then they stand there waiting for the next instruction. That's not their failing — it's what happens when people are assigned tasks instead of outcomes.
The takeaway: Look at your team through these signs. You may not have a serious problem yet, but this is the time to act, before you do.