What are the 3 key responsibilities of a leader in a residential building business?
Learn from leadership mentor Helen Rogerson
As owners of residential construction businesses, you have a responsibility to lead your team.
In this blog we are sharing a preview from one of our mentor sessions inside ELEVATE with our Leadership Mentor, Helen Rogerson from Leadership EQ. Watch this preview now, and learn more about being an effective leader, or read the transcript below.
We are examining what a leader does. And if you take nothing else away from this presentation except this, then this is probably the most powerful slide for you.
This is based on the work of John Adair from the UK, and John Adair says that leaders have three responsibilities, and they are
- Tasks
- Individual; and
- Team.
So let’s explore what each of those responsibilities are in detail.
1. Leadership Tasks
We can see that at the very beginning it is ‘task’. As a leader, you have to ensure a task is completed to standard within timeframes and within budget. That’s every leader’s responsibility. You have to ensure that everyone on your team knows what to do. So every person thinks, yes, I know what I have to do.
Now this focus on task is basically what everyone is measured by.
If you don’t deliver the house, if you don’t deliver the renovation, if you don’t deliver the project, that’s the task, then you’re judged harshly for that. So that is why this is the first one.
Now, I’m going to talk to you about leadership versus management here. Because oftentimes, they’re separated, that leadership is different to management. And yes, they are.
But you cannot be an effective leader within your context without being an effective manager.
And the management of your projects, the management of what you do is what we’re talking about here. And there are three key areas that you need to consider for the task.
Position Descriptions
Do your people have position descriptions? Do they know what to do? Have you clearly articulated the tasks that they’re performing?
Processes
Have you got processes that people can follow? Are they clear? Does everyone have access to them? Does everyone understand the processes to make sure the task is completed?
Key Performance Indicators [KPIs]
What are you measuring people on? Because what’s measured gets done. So your key performance indicators are what’s important to your business to achieve the results.
Now, that’s only three within that task space. So as a leader, if you look at implementing at least one of those, then you’re ticking off that task. There’s a whole heap that we’re going to go through over the next 12 months in that task area. So, as a leader you’ve got to ensure that everyone in your team knows what to do.
2. Leadership as an Individual
The next area that we’re going to look at is ‘individual’. Your role as a leader is to support and develop each individual on your team. And to make every individual know that they are valued. Because if they feel they’re valued, they will go that extra mile for you. We all want to feel valued, we all want to feel important.
So how do you make people feel valued? And we’ve just got four simple ones here that you can implement pretty much instantaneously.
One on One Time
The most valuable thing that we all have is time. That’s the most valuable asset that you can give to anyone. So spending one on one time with each of your team members is so powerful and actually listening to them. So you need to schedule that. Whether you do that once a week, once a fortnight or once a month, at a minimum, you need that one on one time. You need to devote that time.
Motivators
Each person has different motivators, we’re all motivated by different things. So as a leader, building that relationship, spending one on one time getting to know each of your individuals, makes you understand what motivates them.
For example, what motivates one of your team members, Joe, could be ballroom dancing. And you happen to know that through conversation that Joe has ballroom dancing every Wednesday afternoon. So every so often you go up to him and say, hey, look, mate, I know you’ve got ballroom dancing this afternoon, if you want to leave a little bit earlier, that’s fine. And he thinks, “oh wow, that person cares”. They know what’s important to me.
Other people are motivated by career advancement. Some people are motivated by money. Well, that’s not really money. It’s what money can buy them. But everyone has a different motivator. If you can’t tell me what motivates each of your team members, then you are not fulfilling this particular requirement of supporting and developing each individual in your team.
Notes
Now the next one is a sneaky one. You’ve all got mobile phones, keep notes on each person, because sometimes you can’t remember. Keep notes on what their motivators are, keep notes on what’s important to them. Keep notes on they might have said ‘oh It’s my son’s birthday next week’. Make a note of that. And then on that day, make a comment. Oh, it’s your son’s birthday today. Have you got anything special planned? They will appreciate those little things. So don’t be afraid to keep notes on your team members about all these aspects of their individual motivations, what they find important.
Birthdays and Anniversaries
You work in fairly small teams, you should know the birthdays and anniversaries of your team members. You should know it because it’s on file, these are records that you’re required to keep. So forgetting a birthday is a major no-no. If someone comes on site and you completely forgot their birthday, they’re going to think well, they don’t really care about me. A simple “hey, mate happy birthday” or “have a beer on me” or something. It doesn’t have to be big, but a simple acknowledgement. And again, anniversaries – “congratulations, you’ve been working with us for two years, woohoo”.
Now, these are little things. They’re not big, but they make a difference. They make people feel valued, they make people feel important. So four simple steps in that particular space.
3. Leadership as a Team
Now let’s look at the last one, which is ‘team’ and ‘team’ is about creating and maintaining a team. And the object here is that each person feels like they belong. It’s that sense of belonging.
We come from a tribal background. Our ancestry is that being part of a tribe, and part of that tribe is that sense of belonging and that connection to each other.
I’m going to give you some examples of teamwork in action. And I’m going to refer to the Live Life Build Friday wins because this is a great example of team. So for example, if we look at what a team does, a team is a defined group. And we have on the Live Life Build Friday wins, a defined group with a Facebook group.
You’re all connected to Live Life Build, that’s your team. You all have shared goals. Everyone wants to be better at what they do. And that’s a shared goal. You all have a shared language, you use common terms, so that you all know what you’re talking about. So you’re all part of that tribe. And one of the things with tribes is the lingo that’s used. You go to a different tribe, and they have different lingo, you go to a different company, they have different acronyms.
And the other thing that the Friday Wins does really well, is it produces serotonin. Now there’s three major neuro chemicals that are the buzzwords at the moment. There’s dopamine, there’s oxytocin and serotonin. And you’ve probably heard about them. We’re just going to talk about serotonin today. And if you look at the word serotonin, SE, and I, it’s an easy one to remember because ‘I see you’.
Serotonin is produced when there’s acknowledgement, and people feel like they’ve been recognised, and they’ve achieved something. So ‘I see you’. So when you’re sharing your wins, you’re actually recognising yourself, you’re acknowledging what you’ve achieved. And that actually produces serotonin in you.
But the best thing about serotonin is that we also get it when we see other people have wins. So when you’re sharing your wins with someone else, and they’re watching it, they actually feel good as well. And it’s the serotonin that actually produces that.
Now, I would ask each of you to think about your Friday wins. And think about when you watch it, how do you feel? And I would suggest that each of you feels pretty damn good after those Friday wins after watching them, because that lifts you.”
And that’s the end of this preview of one of our ELEVATE mentor sessions, with Helen Rogerson, our Leadership Mentor.
Want more on this topic?
Check out the following resources:
- Is Your Team on the Same Page?
- Setting Expectations in Your Team, and
- How to Keep Your Team Motivated at Work
For the full mentor session, plus loads more help and resources to help you have a successful and thriving building business, head to our group mastermind and coaching program, ELEVATE to join up. We know that being a member provides you with the support and accountability you need to improve your projects, business and life.