Mediocrity and the construction industry don’t go together very well. No contractor I know will ever admit to purposely recruit mediocre workers. Yet, many of the same contractors do admit to having a great many workers who are far from excellent or highly motivated to learn. Welcome to the reality, the nightmare really, of working with mediocrity.
The definition of mediocrity is quite interesting. You will find several definitions, including:
“The quality of something that is not very good;
a person who does not have the special ability to do something well.”
For contractors who sell quality, “best in class,” and No Bad Job projects, the reality of employing workers who are, quite honestly, not very good or who do not have the special ability to do something well, the future can be quite depressing. Where is a contractor to find workers who are better than mediocre?
Not sure if I can add a whole lot more to where to find more productive workers than what I’ve written in past articles through the years. However, what I do think is worth addressing is more focused on how to deal with those employees who you might consider to be more mediocre in their work habits, performance, and results.
There are no secrets here or any magic pills to ask your workers to take to move them up a notch or two on the performance ladder of effort. But, there are several actions you can take to insure that you are bringing out the best that is possible from those workers who may be performance challenged.
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Spend Additional Time Spelling Out Daily Expectations
Setting out the weeks schedule might work for your best performers but for the mediocre worker, a daily dose of “what we are going to do today” cannot be overemphasized.
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Turn Follow-up a Quarterly Habit
If you quarter up your day you will find that there are about four 90-120 minute sections of time. Each “quarter” should engage your touring your work areas to insure that workers, especially your known mediocre workers, are doing what they were assigned to do.
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Build on Every Positive Demonstration of Productive Movement
Sounds crazy but you will need to reaffirm each and every positive effort put forth by those who do not quite hold the bar of performance excellence as high. Such positive reinforcement can go a long way to winning these folks over to putting out more effort.
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Keep the Bar Raised on Needed Productivity, Quality, & Commitment to Excellence
Don’t allow the workers who are mediocre to subtly dictate to you that some days will not be great. You might shoot for greatness every day and on every project. Let your guard down just a little here and you will have a project go south on your faster than you can shake a stick.
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Don’t Settle for Less than Needed Results
OK, let’s face it, not everything that even our best workers do is perfect…every time. However, when the results are not quite there and reworking it will not cost you too much…do the rework to insure that your workers realize the seriousness of doing things right the first time. There is an old adage that goes something like, “Perfection is the enemy of effectiveness.” While true, you want to lead, mold, and maintain perfection in following important processes and procedures.
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Engage Your Customers to Give Workers Feedback on Their Results
Often, what a customer might say can have more impact on workers than anything an owner might try to communicate. The boss can discuss how important quality is all day and not raise an eye lid from their workers; have a customer say the same thing and suddenly the workers are knocking themselves out trying to meet the customer’s expectations.
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Engage More of Your Mediocre Workers in Job Reviews & Best Practices Learned
Because many mediocre workers often display low interest in getting better, contractors will naturally focus more improvement discussions on workers who appear to care about quality and getting better. This can be a huge mistake, as often the mediocre folks need to be brought into discussions about getting better. The effort will encourage them to feel like they are part of something that includes and welcomes them and their ideas. Remember, it’s this group of mediocre workers that have often been forgotten by leaders who were more interested in working with those who clearly demonstrate their interest to be better.
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Engage Your Mediocre Workers Face to Face
It is very common for the mediocre workers to feel like they are just a number. For many, this is a comfortable existence that doesn’t single out or make an example of. However, by pushing past this and actually engaging your mediocre workers, face to face, you are challenging them to listen, to step up, to do something beyond just showing up to work and moving through the motions. This effort will “arm twist” your worker to respond and to react to your proactive effort.
OK, while I know that for many workers of mediocrity, not one of the eight suggestions just listed may have the desired result, the effort may still connect with some of your workers. Sure, you can terminate the mediocre employees but you might be surprised about how many that might actually include.
Rather than get all worked up and frustrated about what is not happening it’s very important that you go on offense in playing this game. Influencing our workers has never been a defensive strategy but instead one that “takes the game to them.”
We all employ mediocre workers. In fact, some of our best mediocre workers have been with us for five, ten, fifteen or more years. So, instead of complaining about them, let’s engage them by integrating some or all of the efforts listed earlier. What do you have to lose?
Here’s to working with mediocrity…and maybe, just maybe, learning to win!
Brad Humphrey
The Contractor’s Best Friend™
For more information about Brad and his organization, go to www.pinnacledg.com Sign up now with Brad’s company App and keep the educational process rolling in your company.
