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Over the years, I have noticed how many people get attached to job titles, particularly in their letters and on their business cards. Some are in the game for a higher rank, and achieving their desired title is almost like wining an Olympic medal. It’s something for them to hold on to.
If I had my way, we at Stewart Perry might consider having no titles on our business cards at all.
Some of our team members wear so many hats in their day-to-day tasks that a standard business card couldn’t hold enough words to properly title them. Having said this, I suppose the reality is that we all need titles to communicate a general idea of our role to new contacts. After they get to know us, our actions and our good word should be our title.
As an example, there are two titles in our organization that are co-mingled: estimating and project management. I like a team approach where one person’s job is primarily estimating, but with the ability to negotiate subcontracts, develop scopes and create schedules. This estimator would partner with a project manager for follow though.
Our estimating team members sometimes know the market in a different way than those who have been involved in the “trees.” They see a total view of the marketplace and beyond. Estimating requires a bit more of an engineering personality – more cautious, careful and a bit more clinical.
Depending on client needs, estimating doesn’t always take the lead on a project. Sometimes our project managers will guide the estimating function of a job with a teammate from estimating. By getting involved early, project management becomes a stakeholder in the success. I’ve found this minimizes communication breakdowns.
Either way, I want the team to own or manage a project from all angles so we can we provide the best results, value and delivery to our customer relationship. The simple truth is each team member likes doing different things. When they all work together, we’ve got a winning combination.
If properly approached, it doesn’t really matter which job title is completing which task. The sum of the parts is always greater than the whole.
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Merrill Stewart is Founder and President of the Stewart Perry Company, a commercial building contractor based in Birmingham, Ala. Contact him via email.
In my opinion, good listeners are continually refining their skills of attention, empathy and most of all, reticence. Listening comes more naturally to some, while others have to work hard to silence themselves and fully digest the thoughts of others. Over the years, I’ve made a conscious effort to improve as a listener, and I do think I’ve gotten better.
I recently heard a speech from Robert “Robin” Henry Alexander Eames that reinforced and broadened my thoughts on the subject of listening. I’ll get to how, but first, a little context. Lord Eames served as the 103rd Archbishop of Armagh in Ireland for 20 years. He was a confidant of Irish and British prime ministers and a negotiator between the Irish Republican Army and Loyalist paramilitaries. He contributed greatly to the peace process in Northern Ireland, so much so that he and Desmond Tutu have been the only two recipients of the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Award for Outstanding Service.
When Lord Eames started working for accord in Northern Ireland, he first had to get to a cease-fire and then try and build relationships in a volatile environment. He was successful, and he shared his tactics with our audience. He urged that we become better listeners to help reconcile the differences we must work through in our daily lives. To do this effectively, we must move from the ideal to the accomplishment. He shared that reconciliation has to do with truly understanding relationships. This is a journey with no end.
As I sat there, I realized the truth and relative simplicity in this notion. Leaders should get an armistice of sorts so that we all start to listen to each other. Too often, we are fond of hearing the sound of our own voice. “I must tell you my opinion. Wait until I tell you why I’m right—you’ll agree with me.” How many times have I felt those words implied over the years? Maybe, if we all listened a little more, we would pick up on a detail that could ultimately lead to resolution of a conflict.
In this process you might see value in a new viewpoint and vice versa. In order for that to happen, you must first be willing, and then have the courage “to put your head above the roof parapet” as they used to say in Northern Ireland. Be the bigger person and silence yourself long enough to hear others. You’ll become a better leader. I’ll be there with you, taking Lord Eames’ challenge to hone my listening skills.
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Merrill Stewart is Founder and President of the Stewart Perry Company, a commercial building contractor based in Birmingham, Ala. Contact him via email.
As I sat in my living room last Sunday evening and watched the New Orleans Saints become the world football champions, I couldn’t help but think back to the days following Katrina. One of our customer relationships called right after the storm to tell us they weren’t sure what happened to their properties in New Orleans. They couldn’t make contact with the managers. Could we help? I immediately said yes. When a friend asks, you step in and do anything you can.
Two days after Katrina smashed into the Louisiana coast, I made a call to a friend at the FAA and he gave us clearance to fly. We rounded up a four passenger Bell Jet Ranger Helicopter and proceeded to New Orleans MSA. It was a relief to discover that, other than minor damage, the properties were not affected. They were even more fortunate that their entire team was accounted for and safe.
These images taken by Clinton Smith came from that uneasy helicopter tour. Revisiting them reminded me how tragedy can affect us all when we least expect it. Nine months after Katrina, I was back in New Orleans and cars remained stacked on top of cars underneath Interstate 10. Many of the shops on Canal Street were still not open.
But instead of being a defeat, the battering from the storm united the city and strengthened the ties that bound residents. The Crescent City has come a long way since the tragedy they endured four years ago. Today, New Orleans is back in business and home to a championship team. A new set of fans rallied around the Saints not because of their football skills, but because of what they represented—the American dream of rising above a challenge. Super Bowl XLIV became the most watched program in television history.
In the final few minutes of the game last Sunday evening, I e-mailed my customer in New Orleans to get his insight on the game. How did it feel? His response: “Who dat gonna beat ‘dem Saints?” What a great story of triumph over adversity.
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Merrill Stewart is Founder and President of the Stewart Perry Company, a commercial building contractor based in Birmingham, Ala. Contact him via email.
I never get through all of the newspapers I wish to read each day. I bring them home and they stack up on my kitchen counter waiting to share their knowledge with me. At the first of last year, not seeing all the news and forecasts might have been good for my morale.
With so much anxiety in the market and many speculating that we were headed toward another Great Depression, I suggested my 84-year-old mother and her friends turn their televisions off. I thought that instead of listening to the negativity, they’d be better served talking with each other and being thankful to live in a U.S. where we aren’t on the brink of fighting a world war.
If you’ve ever known someone who, like my mother, was a child in the 20s and 30s, you are talking to a person whose life was forever changed and shaped by the economic climate. The Depression will always be a part of them. I tell our young people around here that while times are really tough (approaching Depression era unemployment rates in construction) we should be thankful. We didn’t go through a Depression. The first beach we saw was not Omaha Beach.
Over the holidays, I finally got to catch up on my newspapers and was pleased to notice a more positive trend. I read through eight publications and thought I would share my takeaways here:
-Christmas tree sales had their needles pointing up. To translate, it was a great year for tree sales, which is a good gauge of the strength of the holiday shopping season as well as people’s outlook and confidence.
-Federal Express, UPS and DHL all reported up ticks in their shipping—both here and globally—and they continue to be upbeat. A good sign.
-October retail sales were so-so. Momentum picked up through November and December. Internet sales are going well.
-Retailers are doing a better job of managing inventory this year. They’re walking with little more zip in their step.
-Corporate earnings are strong, but I’m wondering how long can we push down cost to earn a profit? At some point the top end needs to grow as well.
-The annualized GDP growth rate is somewhere around 3% plus for now. That’s positive.
-The Feds plan to keep the rates low for a while yet.
-Housing inventory declined in November. Annualized new home construction is around 600,000 units. We still have a ways to go, but these numbers are certainly better than the end of 2008.
-Mortgage companies are beginning to ease down payment standards, moving toward to 95% LTV. Let’s hope they never again forget to do the paperwork, including real documentation and real credit reports.
-Confidence in the housing market values is increasing market by market.
-Commercial Banks still have a ways to go with lending for commercial properties.
All things considered, it looks like we’re starting our climb out of this valley.
My New Year’s message to Mother: It is now ok to watch CNN and to read the news again. We’re not out of the woods but we’re certainly better than we were 12 months ago. Love, Your Son.
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Merrill Stewart is Founder and President of the Stewart Perry Company, a commercial building contractor based in Birmingham, Ala. Contact him via email.
Last week we received a plaque from The Heart of America Foundation for the improvements we provided an inner city Atlanta elementary school. It’s a beautiful memento covered with pictures of students enjoying their new space. As I looked at all the smiling faces, it reminded me why we made the commitment last June.
Jim Gustafson and Patrick Davis, two of our strategic partners at Target, called to ask if we would be interested in teaming on the rebuild. I agreed, mainly because of the people who asked. When I got off the phone I started second guessing myself. With the Recession and our revenues down, what was I thinking? Fortunately, my conscience kicked in and helped me realize that it doesn’t matter. A friend asked for our partnership—they could help with supplies and we could help with the balance need—and children would benefit for years to come. We would figure out how to make it happen for these kids. Clinton Smith, who led the initiative from our end, did just that.
The library at Beecher Hills Elementary received a complete transformation including 2000 new books, updated technology and colorful interiors conducive to learning. “We know that pre-K through fifth grade is the period that sets the tone for reading,” said first-year Principal Crystal Jones. “Getting this done will go a long way toward making that happen.” Maybe the library can even provide a “tipping point” for these kids just like Malcolm Gladwell mentions in his book.
“You have not just changed the library, you have changed the lives of our children forever,” said Dr. Sharon Davis Williams, executive director of Atlanta Public Schools for southwest Atlanta schools.
I knew the children were thrilled, but looking at the pictures last week it made it all worthwhile. I called Jim and Patrick and asked them to sign us up for another school next summer. I couldn’t pass up the chance to help kids learn.
Check out more of the library renovation celebration on my flickr photostream.
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Merrill Stewart is Founder and President of the Stewart Perry Company, a commercial building contractor based in Birmingham, Ala. Contact him via email.
As 2009 comes to a close, I have thought about what I could have done better, the mistakes I made, and the wins we achieved. To me, we always learn more from our failures than from our wins. Winning makes us think we are smarter than we might really be.
Never confuse success with a rising tide.
Two months ago, I ended an initiative I launched for our company in 2007. It will cost me somewhere in the neighborhood of $175,000—hopefully a little less depending on any residual benefits. I thought I covered all the bases, asked the right questions and set things up for success. In the end, it was a bust. Fortunately, I took action to correct things and have moved on to other trails. I must say that earlier in my business life, I didn’t have the courage to end this kind of initiative and admit I’d made a mistake. That makes failure even more costly.
The good news is that I have made some better choices during this same time to balance out the bad judgment. I still wish I had the money back, but not nearly as bad as I did from a hit in the late 80s.
That’s right. I’m a member of the Million Dollar Loss Club. That was really stupid. You know the saying, “Pride comes before the fall?” Well I certainly went with my ego on that call. I came away with firsthand evidence that age and wisdom will sometimes outperform youth and energy. With that said, I’m of the opinion that it’s not a matter of what you lose, if you can come back. The lessons taken away are more important. To grow from a negative experience, you have to be brutally honest with yourself. Otherwise, you’re at great risk of repeating the pattern.
Back when I was a member of the Million Dollar Loss Club, I was in denial. It was like gangrene. First it was in my foot; then it spread to my ankle and leg. Fortunately I had the courage (or maybe I’d be more accurate to say that others “encouraged” me) to cut the loss and save the heart and mind to fight another day. It took an enormous amount of energy to come back, but only in the face of adversity do we grow.
Because of my experience, I hope I’m mature enough to view the mistakes others make in my company as an opportunity for learning. I hope that after they admit fault and take responsibility for their own decisions, they will tell me what they learned and the “workout.” Thanks to the people around here, we will always be looking for better ways to do things. Turning mistakes into growth is just another way to improve as individuals and as a company.
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Merrill Stewart is Founder and President of the Stewart Perry Company, a commercial building contractor based in Birmingham, Ala. Contact him via email.
We recently completed a major expansion for a customer relationship in Charlotte, NC. A regular shopper at the store sent me this note: “You guys were invisible. Every week during the project I would shop there and things just seemed to change. I never noticed who was doing the changing.”
I didn’t expect such a nice unsolicited note. This job was the 800-pound gorilla of all projects. It covered 130,000 square feet and none of the four walls were square with each other. We expanded in three directions, with tight site conditions on two sides. Relocation of utilities had to take place, the store had to stay open and the adjoining tenants had to remain satisfied.
The store remained open seven days a week and their sales actually increased during this time. (We were thrilled since it’s every contractor’s nightmare to be blamed for a decline of revenue.)
Our project manager offered these takeaways for success:
• Take a holistic approach from design to construction. Promote clear and constant communications with everyone involved.
• Be aggressive and detailed with scheduling. Retrofits and open-store remodels will take much more hands-on work to be successful.
• Work hand-in-glove with the municipality and constantly be thinking when working through inevitable challenges.
• Create temporary offices and customer service areas to foster good customer relationships.
• Make use of 2nd or 3rd shifts when performing demolition as to not disturb the adjoining business or tenants. Surrounding tenants can shut you down with complaints in a second flat.
• Be aware of security needs. Add an additional guard at key times to keep the project moving rather than bottleneck construction to one door at a time.
• Make it look like you aren’t there. Be invisible to customers and surrounding businesses.
• Maintain routine communications whether you’re sharing the good, the bad or the ugly.
• Take total ownership in the process. Never be afraid to admit a mistake.
• Make extra efforts to keep everything clean during the process. You’ll produce a better quality product and ensure project safety.
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Merrill Stewart is Founder and President of the Stewart Perry Company, a commercial building contractor based in Birmingham, Ala. Contact him via email.
I’ve always been a believer in reading history, as it often repeats itself, or at least offers a case study for how to do (or not do) things. A recent trip to London seemed like a good time to pay tribute to a wise Brit, so I dropped into a local shop and purchased a small book on Winston Churchill.
As I read through Churchill’s sayings and speeches a couple of things occurred to me. First, while we are all struggling through these times, our parents and grandparents would gladly change places with us from their hard days in the Depression and a World War. Secondly, keeping the faith in our own abilities and ourselves will help get us through this rough patch. To use the wise words of Mr. Churchill, “Never, never, never give up.”
I’ve experienced hardship personally. Since leaving college, there have been two times that I’ve been financially broke. In a strange way, I’m glad I went through those periods. We learn a lot of lessons as we walk the trail. This week I was visiting a long time customer relationship in Minneapolis. During the course of conversation he said, “in life we all get educations and they all come with a price.” So wisely said. My “school of hard knocks” lessons were personally costly, but I’m convinced the trials made me a better person, someone capable of empathy.
This week I had dinner with a friend who I initially met as a business contact. Last spring, he called to let me know that he was in the same boat as millions of U.S. citizens. He had lost his job. He questioned his abilities and a lot of other things during that initial period of “why me?” but quickly recovered and reached out to friends. He did everything textbook. He got out of the house and volunteered every Saturday as a swim team coach for children with disabilities. He took business courses to better his managerial skills and most importantly, he networked and then networked some more. He refused to accept a misfortune as defeat.
Our recent dinner was celebratory. We toasted his new job as real estate director with an international Fortune 100 company. My friend had a new look. His face showed the confidence of someone who was faced with adversity, met the challege and is looking at a bright future. His new start came in our worst recession since the Depression. The best news of all…He doesn’t plan to quit his Saturday job at the swimming pool with his swim team.
My friend followed Mr. Churchill’s advice well. Never, never, never give up.
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Merrill Stewart is Founder and President of the Stewart Perry Company, a commercial building contractor based in Birmingham, Ala. Contact him via email.
When business is good, it’s far too easy for leaders to get busy, ignore their company’s weaknesses and forget to brainstorm ways to improve. It’s an easier focus now since business is down and we all have a little more time. As a company, we are using the lull to evaluate and reevaluate every aspect of our infrastructure, ensuring that we have the best and most current tools in our “tool drawer.” It’s my belief that our efforts now will give us competitive advantage when this cycle ends.
In the spirit of getting ahead, we’ve been working with Los Angeles-based consulting firm WP2DC to develop a systematic approach for sharing information within our organization. Before we commissioned their services, our knowledge sat in too many places, which stirred up confusion and often resulted in team members recreating the wheel, so to speak.
The industry term for that fragmentation is an information silo – a management system that operates independently, incapable of reciprocal operation with other, related management systems. The goal is to have cloud computing – a pool of shared resources that can be accessed on demand on the Internet.
This concept is logical to me. Why not make use of the networking capabilities that are available now? We’ve been pleased with WP2DC’s work for us and are launching the first phase of our “cloud” this month. Here are the benefits I’ve seen so far:
- Having one complete database ensures that everyone has the same information and none of it is lost.
- We can track our projects and see the progress as they move from concept to reality.
- All employees have the ability to stay current with our customer relationships.
- We can share information with contacts outside the company if we’d like.
WP2DC has already begun developing an additional cloud where we will manage our subcontractor and vendor data. This has always been a challenge since we build across the Southeast and mid-Atlantic states, creating a huge chunk of contacts. The system will make our knowledge more efficient by tracking current subcontractors/vendor capacity in almost real time. We will also be able to locate and evaluate new talent, so that we can provide the best product for our customer relationships.
What are you doing with your extra time? Can you make way for clouds in your office? It might just prepare your for the next big storm of new business.
For more information, see this Wall Street Journal article on cloud computing.
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Merrill Stewart is Founder and President of the Stewart Perry Company, a commercial building contractor based in Birmingham, Ala. Contact him via email.
To me, two simple words can be the foundation of long-term business relationships: character and culture. When these values are the same between a buyer and a seller, opportunity for long-term growth exists.
We have always looked to build customer relationships with companies and individuals who have a similar character and culture as ours. Roughly 20 years ago, we formed a strategic partnership with Target Corporation. Since then, they have trusted us to build or remodeled approximately 80 of their stores from Virginia to Florida, to the Carolina Coast and over to Louisiana. In this process, we have formed numerous lasting relationships with the Target Team, which I know have made us a better company. Hopefully we have helped them along the way.
I have found that while there is a contractual association formalized in writing, the personal business relationships motivate me far beyond what’s on paper. You do things for your buddies when they need a hand. In return, you feel comfortable about admitting a mistake and asking for help.
Through trust comes innovation and through innovation, true quality and value evolve.
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