Building Ships and Vision

There is a whole lot of work involved in building projects and building a construction company.

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It is easy to get mired down in endless to-do lists, processes and problems.  The one thing that holds this all together and accelerates performance is the company’s vision and mission.  

Quote: If you want to build a ship, don't drum up your men to collect wood and give orders and distribute the work. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea. Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Vision and mission are the tip of the pyramid.

It is not enough to just have them written down.  They have to be embedded so deeply into everyone on the team that they taste victory and feel the pain of any delays or potential defeat.  

This is not just for the owner of the business or project.  Each team down to the individual must have total clarity of their vision and mission.  


If the vision and mission for your company is not clear to you:  

  • What have you done in the last month to help make them clearer?  
  • What will you do today? 

If you are leading a team of people - including as a lead person on the project:  

  • What have you done to set a vision and a mission for your team?  
  • Vision Example:  We will be the “Delta Force” crew within our company.
  • Mission Example:  We will be at least 2X more productive than any other branch rough-in crew in our company.
  • What have you done to share this with the team and instill it so deeply in them they run towards that vision every day with excitement?  

If you aren’t leading anyone besides yourself?

  • What have you done to develop your personal vision and mission? 
  • Does that inspire you to be excited about waking up every day? 
  • What have you done today to get you closer?



Quote about Winning - Bob Knight
There is an excitement about winning and definitely a need to instill that vision and passion in your team. This however is just the top of the mountain and reaching the summit is momentary. It's the discipline of preparing to win that is critical.
Aligning Your Team
Nothing will have a bigger impact on a contractor’s business than having the right people on the team and having that team all aligned around a common vision.
Strategic Choices and Operational Execution
The best strategic choices will not outrun the results of poor operational execution. The best operational execution will be limited in performance by the quality of strategic choices. Both must be in alignment.