Can You Be Happy and Insane?
If you’re like most construction executives you are happy that the economy is booming. There is plenty of work to do, but you are also overwhelmed by the sheer volume of projects. Clients are demanding, deadlines loom, labor is tight, and if you’re not careful profits can fade…quickly. It’s easy to feel like you’re are going insane with the busyness, get mesmerized by the pressure and stress, and slip into sub-par performance.
A Simple Three-Part Performance Framework
How can you keep your head above water, regain your focus, and deliver on your commitments?
Identify:
What you have control over and what you are responsible for. These things should line up. If you don’t bear responsibility or have control of something, don’t focus on it.
Prioritize:
You cannot get everything done in a day, and nothing is perfect.
Look at your duties, pick the most important one. Ask two questions “Who owes me something?” “Who do I owe?”
Who owes me something:
What piece of information from someone else do you need before you can carry out my task? Do you have that information? If not, what can you do, right now, to get that information so you can move forward?
Who do I owe? Perhaps it’s a submittal, proposal, phone call. Whatever the case make sure that you are carrying out your duty and getting out to others what you owe them.
Focus on one priority until you are finished, then move on to the next one.
Compartmentalize:
Concern yourself only with what is presently in your control and under your responsibility. Past failures may impact present circumstances, but you can’t change the past, you can only do your duty, right now. Future events may be causing you anxiety. Focus on what you can do in the present to positively influence those future events.
Focus on Excellent Activity, not Perfect Outcomes
Don’t worry about the stuff that you have no control over. Concentrate on doing your very best in your sphere of control and responsibility, and content yourself with the excellence of the activity, not the outcome. You don’t have complete control over the outcome, but you do have control over how you undertake the activity.
Construction is full of problems. Today’s problems will not be tomorrow’s. The economy will slow at some point, and you’ll face different challenges. In the meantime keep grinding and remember these words of wisdom:
“Low Overhead, Stay Humble, It’s not What You Make, It’s What You Keep”
