Contractor Business Coach- The 5 “W’s” of Forward-Planning

Working with a contractor business coach, you will learn the importance of forward-planning. 
Project management is a huge factor in building any type of home renovation and forward
planning helps mitigate problems before they arise.  This will not prevent the problem
occurrence but will serve to manage the incident in a sane manner.
A contractor business coach will work with each department manager individually or in group
sessions, depending on your company’s needs.  Depending on the management role the
employee’s anticipation view will vary.   The higher in management, the longer view the
employee will have.
 
For an assistant project manager, the view may only be for a few weeks to a month, a Project
Superintendent or Project Manager should be looking no less than three months down the road
and will vary based on project size. This is what planning and management are all about, which
is what leadership is made of.   Your contractor business coach may review every job you have
with you, or just review the company, depending on your needs as a business owner.
 

Some topics you can expect your contractor business coach to review is how to prepare and
plan for hiccups or complications that typically occur during a major renovation.  A goal, for
example, would be to turn your project managers into proactive rather than reactive leaders of
your organization.
 
You can’t lead from the weeds a big picture view is required and putting out fires is not
management. For every fire, there should be a bucket close by or a spark that never materialized because it was anticipated.

Managing Construction

The largest portion of work for project managers is pre-production and everything that happens
before the project is 50% complete. Once the halfway point is achieved the mindset should be
maintenance and closeout and the ongoing changes.
Being essentially complete with the planning phase will allow ample time to manage the last-
minute changes for which everyone wants to be implemented without time impact. A well-
planned and managed projects will go a long way in incorporating those changes. The completion portion of the project is also the one that will be freshest in your client’s mind, not
the pre-construction or rough phases of construction.
 
Having the project well underway with time to manage completion is essential to a smooth
finish.
 
In managing any project, you should be continually looking into the crystal ball; ask yourself
what activities are coming up and then the five “w’s”.

1. Who is doing it, are contracts in place, support documents, etc.?
2. What are they doing, do they have everything they need?
3. Where are they working on the property will the other work be completed and ready
4. When will they start, check the schedule for conflicts
5. How – what will the application of the installation look like? 
    
   In project management, you hope you never have to ask the “why” question because by then it
   is too late.  If a problem does arise and you need to ask “why” – do that AFTER you have found
   out “how” you will fix the problem.
   By forward-thinking you and your team will be five steps ahead and always moving
   forward.  If you are ready to speak with a contractor business coach to begin elevating
   your company, give me (Duane Barney) a call at 203-826-8096 to begin the process of
   elevating your construction company.