Eric,
I was originally hesitant to engage you to conduct your Foreman Leadership Academy, because of the cost. $20,000 is a lot of money, but with the size of my business and the cost of my payroll I knew I would make that money back in a matter of months. I justified the expense because I felt the bonding, teamwork, and employee retention was worth it. I knew I would get a good ROI on my money. I was spending money to make money and just really felt it was worth it, especially after the classes got started.
I felt like you were engaging, that you got the guys to participate and they looked at it like they were getting really good information. I think that the foremen are looking at that and they’re opening their eyes to what it takes to run a company with real returns.
With regards to the executive coaching and advice you’ve provided me, I liked how specific you were and how you could cut to the chase. When we first sat down, you asked what I wanted the most out of our partnership. I told you I didn’t want more money, better jobs, or better employees, I wanted time. You immediately said boom, boom, boom, here’s your Friday, this is how you do it.
Recently I came to you for help on how to deal with a problem employee. You gave me clear advice on how to work with him, how to talk to him, and how to hold him accountable. As a result, I saw that employee in a different light and feel like we were able to work through something instead of having to fire him and pick up the slack myself. That would have ruined my ability to work on the future, trying to land work in 2019. So, now, I’m working on million-dollar jobs instead of doing a $100,000 a year superintendent’s job, and I feel like the employee’s job is going to be salvaged, I feel like our working relationship’s going to grow and he is going to grow, be able to fit into the company, keep his job and be a valuable asset to us. Whereas without your coaching, I would have grown frustrated and fired him.
Another one of the biggest benefits of working with you is being able work on my business as opposed to in my business. I can look at a work site from a higher view and see the issues from a different perspective from my employees who are staring at a localized thing and and then assess the project. I can ask why they are using that small jack hammer, when I know for a fact we have a bigger jack hammer that’s faster and easier to use. I can tell them to get a golf cart on site that costs $8000 but will save us $60,000 in man hours.
I would, without a doubt, recommend working with you. People who work with you are going to increase their personal time and profit. They will increase their employees’ knowledge and team building, so they will have better employee retention and more time. They will get more time the more they work on their business rather than in their business, and time is money.
