These 5 Communication Problems Are Holding Your Contracting Business Back

June 18, 2015
Category: Achieve Consistent Business Success,Be a Highly Effective Owner,Build an Accountable, Self-Sufficient Team,Business Tips,Define Your Vision and Plan,Problem Solving

Communication within your company to keep everyone aligned, motivated and working together to achieve your business goals is a big challenge now that you’re a multimillion dollar business with lots of employees. When it used to be just you and your crew communication was easy, but now you have office staff, key managers, foremen and lots of folks in the field; communication no longer “just happens”— it now requires a conscious effort and an established system.

Most businesses that I talk to don’t pay much attention to internal communication. But internal communication problems can often lead to major issues that can stunt your company’s growth and prevent your business from being the smooth running, profitable business that you want it to be.

Here are 5 of the most problematic internal communication issues that I see among my clients. As you read about these 5, pick the ones that are the most challenging for you. Fix them and you’ll be on your way to making meaningful improvements to your business.

Poor Communication of Your Vision and Values

It’s tough to come up with a clear vision, mission and values for your business. It’s even tougher to get everyone to embrace your values and to work together to achieve your mission and goals. When your employees aren’t on the same page, it’s reflected in their performance. You’ll notice that you spend more and more time putting out “fires” that shouldn’t have happened in the first place. On the other hand, when employees are aligned with your goals and with each other, you will see an overall burst in productivity and increase in profit.

Aligning everyone with the direction that you want to take your company isn’t a once-and-done thing. I have my clients spend significant time communicating about the company direction to all employees in a variety of ways from an annual kickoff meeting to monthly updates for all employees, to annual planning meetings and weekly one-on-ones with key managers. We also spend significant time teaching every employee how their role in the company contributes to the bottom line.

Finally, if you want your employees to embrace your vision, mission and values, you and your management team need to walk your talk. If you don’t, all of your internal communication efforts will be wasted.

Not Giving Employees Regular Feedback on Their Performance

Failing to provide feedback is one of the most common mistakes that leaders make.

When you don’t give prompt feedback to your people and wait until their performance review (if you give reviews), you’re missing a big opportunity to help them improve their performance. Your field crews, office staff and the key managers all need to hear timely, specific feedback on their performance, both the areas needing improvement and the positives too. Otherwise, they won’t know how they are doing or what they need to improve.

And, when you fail to give regular feedback, you’re hurting your business! More than you know! Each time you fail to give one of your employees feedback when you see them doing something that is not up to your standards, you are making your company a little bit worse. Multiply that by all the feedback opportunities you let slip by and it’s little wonder why your business isn’t performing the way you want it to. It’s death by a thousand cuts!

Not Using Employee Feedback

When was the last time you asked your employees for feedback or input? Never? Employee feedback is a goldmine of information you can use to improve and grow your business. Your people see things that you don’t and may have suggestions and insights on how to improve your business, streamline service delivery or cut down expenses. They just don’t tell you because they don’t think it will do any good.

If you encourage open communication and establish a process for the sharing and implementation of ideas, you will see improvements across the board. Some of my clients have gotten literally hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of business improvement ideas just by asking their employees. And your employees will feel great because you asked!

In addition to asking them for ideas, it’s also a great idea to show interest in your employees’ satisfaction by doing an annual survey.

Whenever you gather employee feedback, you must be committed to doing something about the information you gather. If you aren’t willing to make changes based on what you learn, don’t bother asking. If you don’t take action, your employees won’t be willing to tell you what they think the next time you ask.

Informal Delegation

Informal delegation, also known as “drive-by delegation” is a common issue in many large businesses like yours. Picture this: you are heading out of the office and bump into your foreman. And then you say: “Hey, while I have you here, could you make sure that your crews clean their trucks out at the end of the day. I looked in a few last night and they’re a mess!” Your foreman says “sure,” but because he has a hundred other things on his plate and no pen to write your request down, this never gets done. As a result, you are frustrated and your crew can’t complete the job on time.

To avoid similar situations, make sure that there is a clear hand-off of all tasks that you delegate. Make sure that the person you delegate to knows exactly what they are supposed to do, when it is supposed to be done and that they, and you, write it down. Delegating this way promotes accountability and helps ensure that the task you delegate actually gets done!

Poor Hand-Offs Between Sales and Operations

Ineffective communication between sales and operations of the client’s vision and the scope of the job is a big source of lost revenue, dissatisfied customers and conflicts between sales and operations at many companies.

To ensure an effective hand-off, provide job specs and budgets in writing and preferably accompanied by an in-person meeting. This is not bureaucracy—it’s the best way to get everyone on the same page. Providing more information and details is better. Pictures are great for confusing situations. Just because it’s obvious to your sales person, doesn’t mean it’s obvious to the folks that will actually be doing the work. And make sure that your sales team is accessible to clarify any details of the project.

To improve the hand-off process over time, make sure that operations give feedback to sales after the jobs are complete. This will help ensure that operations get the information they need to do the job right the first time and this will also give sales potentially valuable estimating input for future estimates.

Addressing Internal Communication Issues

Did any of these communication issues ring a bell? Tackle the ones that are the biggest problems in your company and you can have a big positive impact on your sales, profit and create a smooth-running, enjoyable business to work at in the process!

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