Five Stages of Adult Behavior

To build a project effectively you have to have a deep understanding of the building materials, tools and installation methods.

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You need to understand what works best in which situations and that is your value-add.    

Talent Tools: 5 Stages of Adult Development. Book: Changing On The Job by Jennifer Garvey Berger.

Leading a construction business is about leading people.  The larger your team gets the more important it is to learn as much about talent development as you have learned about construction means and methods.  These are not skills that can be delegated to someone in HR.  

A couple things to consider as you go on this journey:

  • As a whole we are much further down the road to understanding building materials.  You cannot expect to find the same level of prescriptive formulas about how the human mind works as you can find about engineering calculations.    
  • At first there will seem to be dozens (or hundreds) of different models about how the mind works, how we learn, team dynamics, etc.  As you study more you will see a lot of commonalities and this will help you develop your own style of leadership.  

Changing on the Job is one of many great books on the topic of adult development in a professional context




Builder and Business Manager Integration
A successful and sustainably growing construction business has the right balance of builder and business manager skills on the team.
Planning is Useless
Planning how to build a project and planning how to build a contracting business are VERY different and must be approached with a different mindset. When planning ‘how’ to build a project the ‘what’ is mostly known.
Market Share and Margins (Economic Theory and Practice)
When evaluating or deciding on a market strategy, it is helpful for contractors to understand some economic theories and real-world examples of how margins and market share relate to each other.