The Art of task delegation for your construction business

Delegating tasks and clearly defining management roles allows you to focus on strategic planning and high-level decisions while empowering your team to excel in their area of expertise.  Having worked for several large contractors and now working with many smaller contractors, task delegating seems to be one of the largest issues I hear about. The chaos and fast-paced nature of the business keep so many high-level executives from taking a moment to evaluate how they can achieve their goals more efficiently by utilizing their employees better. So many feel they need to just keep hiring and throw more money at a problem when many solutions are staring them straight in the face. In addition, hiring is a necessity when scaling but often times owners find out that the person they interviewed was great at interviewing with a fluffed resume but turned out to be less desirable.

As you continue to grow an employee can no longer be the Super, PM, or Field Engineer, then go back to the office in the afternoon to estimate. This will burn out your staff and you’ll have high employee turnover. You as the owner need to continue to step out of the day-to-day operations so you can work ON your business and continue to build great relationships and implement strategic goals. Just as you need to learn to step away from the day-to-day operations, as you promote your employees to higher positions, you need to have a strategy to support them as leaders as well.

The below sections will explore how business owners can evaluate their current staff’s skills and master the art of task delegation in construction so they can scale their business and run more efficient projects

The first part of understanding task delegation is known your current staff's skills and goals. Take stock of who currently is working for you, what are their strengths and weaknesses, and what are their goals. Provide quarterly evaluations but also engage in small talk in the office or on-site and fully understand what motivates them and what they care about doing. When employees are performing tasks they care about, they naturally hold themselves accountable and reduce making excuses for why tasks weren’t done. Clearly understanding what you have at this moment will reduce a lot of stress immediately and give you a clearer picture of how to proceed.

The next step is mastering the art of task delegation in your construction business and projects.  Understanding your current staff's personalities, strengths, weaknesses, goals, and what motivates them is the start. Now you need to clearly define the roles of each of the positions you have. What does a Super, PM, Field Engineer, estimator, etc. all need to do independently every day to get their job done successfully? Once you do that you can match skills with the roles. The steps are as follows:

Clearly define the tasks to be done for each role

Match skills with those tasks

Provide trust. Allow your staff to take on new roles and give them the authority to make decisions.

Don’t overwhelm your employees. Provide realistic and achievable goals. Provide the support needed.

Monitor the progress.

I find that most owners wait too long before they take the above steps. They become so embedded in the day-to-day operations that they no longer have the time to step back and perform these evaluations and put a process in place so they, the owner, can step out of the business and start enjoying the life of an entrepreneur who has a business that runs itself.  

In conclusion, successful business owners understand the importance of delegation in scaling their companies. Evaluating the skills of the current staff and effectively delegating tasks are fundamental to maintaining efficiency and promoting growth. Additionally, making wise hiring decisions ensures that your company attracts the right talent to tackle future challenges. By m