Managing Managers Made Easy!

by Brooke Smith | 1 February 2024 8:00 am

Managing people does not come naturally to most construction business owners and entrepreneurs. Project managers (PMs), estimators, general superintendents, superintendents, forepersons, and engineers are typically not inherently born as managers. Entrepreneurs who start or own companies are typically effective and confident visionary leaders who understand the big picture and are focused on achieving their dreams. They are hard-working, ambitious, innovative, creative, and customer friendly. They are problem solvers and risk takers. They are also driven by a need to create, build, and grow. They seek opportunities and have the courage to commit and persevere through every challenge and failure they face.

A typical dictionary definition of entrepreneur is as follows: “A person who creates, starts, organizes, develops, and assumes business risk in expectation of making a profit.” Here is another: “An entrepreneur is someone who seeks to solve an existing problem, in exchange for profitability and compensation to achieve their dreams.” Both these definitions stress building a business versus managing one.

Business owners/presidents generally do not make great bosses or managers because they often tend to:

Management by wandering around
Do most business owners manage managers well, effectively, or poorly? In many cases they use the management by wandering around (MBWA) technique, developed by Tom Peters. This involves walking down the hall daily and asking PMs questions like “How’s the job going?” “Are you on budget and on schedule?” “Do you have all the change orders approved?” “Is the customer happy?”

Unfortunately, the PMs typically respond with answers like these, or something like these: “Yes, I’ve got everything handled.” “Yes, we’re generally on schedule, and the budget is in pretty good shape.” “I’m meeting with the customer next Tuesday and they agreed to approve all the change orders.” However, when the owner digs a little deeper, they find out there are eight unsigned COs already completed, the job is three weeks behind schedule, delays have not been documented, the customer is unhappy, and the project is more than $40,000 over budget. In fact, the PM has not kept up with proper documentation tasks: approving invoices or submitting last month’s progress payment request.

People avoid pain at any cost
How did this happen? The owner accepted the PM’s half-true story, even though they likely knew it was not 100 percent true. The PM did not want to admit they were not doing their job and following company standards or systems. Therefore, the PM told the owner what they wanted to hear rather than the ugly truth. In addition, the impatient owner did not want to take time to get into details, confront the PM, or engage in conflict. The project field superintendent, foreperson, and bookkeeper all knew the PM was not doing their job and costing the company money. Everyone was avoiding pain and pushing it forward when, eventually, an even worse outcome would appear.

A simple fix to this problem is for the owner to hold regular weekly project management accountability review meetings, one on one, with each PM. At these meetings, the owner or managing manager can review, in detail, the project job cost budget update, executed subcontract log, schedule, paperwork, documentation, CO logs, payment applications, shop drawing submittals, and correspondence to ensure and verify if the PM was doing their job.

Managing manager
The “managing manager” (MM) is someone who manages a group of people, team, division, or department. In the construction business, this position can include the business owner, president, vice-president, general operations manager, chief estimator, general superintendent, financial manager, or sales manager. (All of them manage a group of people who manage several projects or teams.)

My definition of an MM is as follows: “A person who is responsible for supervising, and in charge of administering, controlling, and directing a department, team, or staff of people to achieve expected results. Accountable for organizing, coordinating, guiding, motivating, and supporting a team responsible for an aspect of an organization’s operations.”

The MM is usually very structured, organized, systemized, and detailed. The MM likes order, easily holds people accountable, tells people the truth without sugar coating it, has no problem discipling or terminating people, sees and does not avoid problems, likes to clean up messes, faces reality, does not accept or make excuses, does not tolerate poor performers, meets deadlines, has a firm calendar, and achieves results. Are you an MM? Consider this list of an MM’s typical roles and responsibilities.

Achieving results

Planning and organizing

Enforcing

Coaching

As companies grow, entrepreneurs reach the level of what they can do, manage, or control themselves. And the entrepreneur often believes they are the best at almost every task and role required to run a business and manage people. But only 10 percent of business owners are good people managers. Unfortunately, owners are never willing—or are slow—to admit they are not good managers. To fix this problem, owners can use “Must-do Tasks & Responsibilities” techniques to ensure required tasks are completed.

Must-do Tasks and Responsibilities

  1. Update the project budget and job cost report with the estimated cost to complete
  2. Update the production labor and equipment scorecard
  3. Review actual production labor and equipment hours versus budget
  4. Review with field foreperson weekly
  5. Confirm all subcontracts and material orders are executed
  6. Review subcontract tracking logs
  7. Ensure all subcontracts and orders are executed within 14 days of the start of the job
  8. Confirm that the submittal process is on track
  9. Review the list of all required shop drawings and submittals
  10. Ensure all are submitted within 14 days of contract and approved within seven days
  11. Confirm all bonds, insurance, permits, and testing are received within 10 days of contract
  12. Review the change order (CO) documentation and process
  13. Ensure no extra work is done without prior written approval of the customer or company officer
  14. Maintain potential change orders (PCOs)/CO logs and ensure all proposed and executed COs are current
  15. Document all project issues, changes, requests for information, delays, and notices within seven days
  16. Price and submit within seven days and get approval within 10 days
  17. Review the updated project schedule
  18. Confirm schedule has been reviewed with the superintendent and foreperson
  19. Confirm field look-ahead schedules prepared weekly by the superintendent or foreperson
  20. Ensure the project invoice and payment process are submitted to customer by the end of
    the month
  21. Confirm all timecards and job invoices to ensure they are current with accurate cost codes
  22. Confirm project documentation and correspondence are updated weekly
  23. Ensure the updated project plans and specifications are current
  24. Confirm whether the project manager (PM) visited jobs every week
  25. Confirm if the PM communicated with superintendent or foreperson daily
  26. Confirm team pre-con pre-project turnover meeting was held within seven days
    of contract
  27. Confirm the PM held customer job meetings on-site weekly or, at a minimum, every
    two weeks
  28. Confirm the subcontractor pre-job meeting was held on-site prior to job start with the superintendent, all subcontractors, and major suppliers
  29. Ensure the project subcontractor job meeting on-site was held weekly or every two weeks
  30. Review the project safety plan to make sure it is in place and maintained and all required safety meetings were held and documented for crews and subs
  31. Review the project closeout, punch list, warranty work, procedures, and documentation

MM as enforcer
In the construction business, the president or vice-president of construction operations generally has PMs under them. As the MM, their job is to ensure the PMs do their jobs. In other words, the MM is like a police officer making sure the PM is following the rules, standards, processes, and systems required by the company. To make sure the PM is meeting the requirements of their job, the MM must hold a regular weekly or bimonthly project management review meeting with the PM to ensure the PM performs their Must-do Tasks & Responsibilities (see right).

When MMs regularly hold scheduled meetings with their team and players, they accomplish the following:

  1. They leverage their time and do not run around checking in with individuals to see if they did their jobs
  2. They have a clear list of Must-do Tasks & Responsibilities, defining all tasks required by each person on the team
  3. Their teams will know when they must be ready to present their results to their boss
  4. They will find managing a list of tasks a lot easier than managing people’s personalities and emotions
  5. They will find it easy to manage a regular event in their calendars

George Hedley, CPBC, is a certified professional construction BIZCOACH and top industry speaker. He helps contractors achieve their goals, increase profits, grow, get organized, develop accountable talent, improve field production, and get their companies to work. He is the author of Get Your Construction Business To Always Make A Profit! (available on Amazon.com). To get his free e-newsletter, start a personalized coaching program, attend his webinars and workshops, receive a list of required Must-do Tasks & Responsibilities position descriptions for most construction company players, or get a discount for his online courses, visit his HardhatBizcoach.com, watch his videos on YouTube, or email GH@HardhatBizcoach.com.

 

Source URL: https://www.metalconstructionnews.com/articles/columns/managing-managers-made-easy/

Copyright ©2025 Metal Construction News unless otherwise noted.