If there’s one thing I’ve learned from working with business owners, it’s this—your business is only as strong as your team. No matter how good your product or service is, or how much drive you have, you’ll always hit a ceiling if you don’t have the right people around you.
I get it. Running a business—especially in construction—feels like firefighting half the time. You’re juggling jobs, cash flow, client expectations, and compliance, all while trying to keep a team moving in the right direction. But here’s the reality check: if you’re not spending at least 50% of your time building a strong team, you’re limiting your business before it even gets a chance to hit its stride.
Culture isn’t about Friday arvo beers or an annual offsite with trust falls. It’s built from the top down, through the character of the people in your business. It’s about how your team operates under pressure, how they solve problems, and how they take ownership of their work. You can’t bolt culture onto a broken team—it has to be embedded in the way you do things.
Strong teams come from strong leadership, and leadership starts with you. Are you clear on your expectations? Are you holding people accountable? Are you leading by example? If you let small things slide—missed deadlines, poor attitudes, or inconsistency—you’re teaching your team that standards don’t really matter.
Almost every industry in Australia is suffering a talent shortage, and it’s particularly bad in construction. I’m sorry to say, but there is no silver bullet here. The reality is that when I say you have to spend 50% of your time building a great team most of that time will be spent finding talent.
This has to be a full-court press. You need to advertise (everywhere), engage recruiters, and tap into your network, friends, family, and existing team members. Depending on the role, some businesses are even bringing in talent from interstate.
And once you’ve found the right people, you need to look after them. Not just with rewards, but with respect and a culture where they can thrive. The last thing you want is to invest time and energy in finding great people, only to have them leave because the rest of your team doesn’t create the right environment.
When you start out, the best you can attract are C-players. As you grow, you need to develop them into B-players, but ultimately, you’ll need to bring in A-players and swap out the weakest links.
The hard truth? As long as you’ve got a bad one in your business, you won’t be able to attract a great one. High performers don’t want to work with mediocrity. If you want a rock-solid team, you need to continually upgrade it.
Great teams don’t happen by accident. They’re built on clear structure, expectations, and accountability. If your team doesn’t know what success looks like, don’t be surprised when they don’t deliver.
If you want a rock-solid team, make sure:
Understanding what the market is paying is important, but it’s not just about salary. People want to work in a team where they feel valued, where they’re contributing to something meaningful, and where they can develop their skills.
The best way to retain talent? Invest in them. Keep their training up so they can continue levelling up their skills. Give them meaningful work that challenges them. Recognise their contributions. Great people don’t just work for a paycheck; they work for purpose and growth.
One of the biggest mistakes business owners make is treating hiring as a reactive decision—waiting until things get too busy, then scrambling to bring people in. That’s when you end up with desperation hires—people who might fill a gap short-term but don’t really fit into the long-term vision of your business.
Hiring decisions should be financial decisions. If it’s not in the budget, it’s a guess—not a plan. Workforce growth needs to be planned the same way you plan cash flow.
Once you have a good team, you need to think about keeping them long-term. One of the best ways to do this? Give them skin in the game.
This doesn’t mean handing out equity left and right, but having a clear, structured pathway for ownership can be a powerful tool. It encourages ‘owner-level’ thinking and performance while providing a long-term incentive to stay.
If your business feels chaotic, it’s a sign that your team and structure aren’t where they need to be. The good news? You can fix it.
The businesses that scale successfully all have one thing in common: they invest in their people. They don’t just find workers; they build a team. They create an environment where people are challenged, supported, and held to a high standard.
That’s how you go from chaos to control.
If this resonates with you, join me for our upcoming webinar, where I’ll unpack these principles in more detail. We’ll look at practical ways to build leadership in your team, set up the right structures, and take your business from reactive to proactive.
See you there.
