Why Your Team Isn’t Executing (The Simple Fix Most Construction Leaders Miss) with Jon Dario | Ep. 386

Jon Dario is an author, speaker, and retail leadership expert who has held leadership roles with some of the top companies in the retail and financial services industries including Macy’s, Gap, and Bank of America. He is currently CEO of a real estate company in the metro NY area. Jon is the creator of AIM, a system that turns managers into execution machines and enables them to deliver radically reliable results. His fifth book, AIM, is available for purchase.

So why should a construction company owner care what a retail leadership expert has to say? Because the problems Jon solved in retail are the same ones you face on your jobsites. Your people don’t always know what winning looks like. They’re making decisions based on their own priorities instead of yours. And you’re probably not following up enough to fix it.

What You’ll Learn:

• – What the Pyramid of Standards is and how to build one for your company
• – Why “get the money to the bank” is the foundation of any business
• – How to observe your business through the customer’s eyes, not your own bias
• – The “Regina story”—why follow-up frequency matters more than follow-up intensity
• – Why the smartest leaders adopt a “white belt mentality” and stop pretending they have all the answers
• – How to unlock the answers that are already in your team’s heads

Listen or Watch the Episode

The Pyramid of Standards

Jon built a framework he calls the Pyramid of Standards when he moved from running the Gap flagship store in Manhattan to leading the outlet division. The outlet business was completely different. Customers weren’t there for the experience. They wanted to find their size, know the price, and pay fast.

But the managers—all transplants from high-profile Gap brand stores—were focused on folding clothes and visual merchandising. Meanwhile, customers were dropping merchandise on the floor and walking out because the register lines were too long.

The Pyramid of Standards is a way to define and communicate what matters most. The base of the pyramid holds the non-negotiable operational standards. The middle holds things the team focuses on only after the foundation is solid. The top holds the supplemental stuff—the great things you get to when everything else is running well.

In construction, that might mean profit at the base, schedule in the middle, and quality finish work at the top. Or it might look completely different depending on the builder, the customer, and the market.

Follow-Up Changes Everything

Jon tells the story of running a regional sporting goods store with six department supervisors. Every Monday he’d walk each department and build a list of what needed to move before the weekend sale. Every Friday he’d check. And every Friday, nothing was done.

So he started checking on Monday afternoon. Nobody had anything done. Tuesday afternoon—same thing. But on Wednesday, one supervisor, Regina, had everything done. Her reason was simple: she figured he’d keep showing up, and she didn’t want to disappoint him.

The lesson hit Jon hard. The supervisors weren’t the problem. The frequency of his follow-up was the problem. When he made follow-up predictable and relentless, the team rose to meet the standard.

Follow-up does three things: it catches mistakes early, it sets the expectation that you’re watching, and it creates the opportunity for feedback—both positive reinforcement and redirection.

White Belt Mentality

Jon talks about a concept he calls “white belt mentality.” In martial arts, the white belt is the belt of a learner. No matter how many years you’ve been in your industry, if you think you’ve got all the answers, you’re going to miss opportunities and lose the respect of your team.

Jon learned this the hard way. After succeeding in his district role with Gap’s outlet division, he got promoted and started telling everyone what to do. He hit brick walls. His boss told him: even if you’re right, they’re not going to listen. When he shifted to two-way dialogue, he got better results—and discovered he didn’t actually know everything.

The best leaders aren’t the ones with all the answers. They’re the ones who can unlock the answers in other people’s heads.

Resources

Connect with Jon Dario:

Website: https://jondario.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jondario/

AIM Book (Amazon): https://www.amazon.com/Aim-Managers-Radically-Reliable-Results/dp/1966786778