You hired adults, but some days it feels like you are babysitting them.
You repeat instructions. You follow up. You correct mistakes. You answer the same questions. And even though you hate micromanaging, you keep getting pulled back into the work because the team does not seem to take enough ownership.
The problem may not be your employees.
If roles, expectations, recurring activities, and standards are unclear, the only management system left is micromanagement.
In this episode of The Construction Leading Edge Podcast, Todd Dawalt explains the Big 5 Accountability System—a five-step framework for creating clarity, defining what winning looks like, identifying leading indicators, documenting expectations, and reinforcing performance so your team can operate with less owner intervention.
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Who This Episode Is For
This episode is for construction business owners and leaders who want stronger accountability without becoming micromanagers.
It is especially relevant if you:
- Feel like you constantly have to babysit employees
- Keep repeating the same instructions
- Have employees who are unsure what they own
- Get frustrated because people are not taking enough initiative
- Have vague or overlapping roles and responsibilities
- Depend on job descriptions instead of measurable outcomes
- Want project managers or superintendents to operate more independently
- Struggle to get consistent daily logs, schedules, client updates, or other recurring work
- Have important processes living primarily in your head
- Want your leaders to hold their own teams accountable
- Need the company to operate with less owner dependency
Problems This Episode Helps Solve
This episode helps answer questions such as:
- How do I hold construction employees accountable?
- How do I hold people accountable without micromanaging?
- Why does my team keep asking me what to do?
- How do I define what winning looks like for an employee?
- What are leading indicators in a construction business?
- What should employees be accountable for every week?
- How do I create useful checklists without becoming too corporate?
- How should I train employees on recurring processes?
- How often should I inspect the work I delegate?
- What should I do when an employee still underperforms after expectations are clear?
- How do I get accountability off my shoulders and into the system?
Episode Summary
Construction owners often describe accountability as a people problem.
An employee does not take enough ownership. A superintendent misses important details. An office employee waits to be told what to do. The owner concludes that the person needs to become more accountable.
Todd argues that accountability should begin somewhere else: clarity.
He shares the example of a construction business owner who hired an office employee and quickly became exhausted from managing her. The employee had entered a company with few documented processes and unclear responsibilities. From her perspective, she could be working on permitting one day, marketing the next, and picking up material samples after that.
The owner wanted accountability, but the employee did not have a clear definition of what she was accountable for.
That is where the Big 5 Accountability System begins.
First, fix the structure of the business by defining roles and creating clear, single-source accountability.
Second, define the three to five outcomes that show what winning looks like for each role.
Third, work backward from those lagging outcomes to identify the three to five recurring activities that act as leading indicators of success.
For a project leader, those activities might include updating the project schedule, producing a two-week look-ahead, completing useful daily logs, communicating with clients, or reviewing financial information.
Fourth, document what “done right” looks like for the most important activities. A checklist and a short training video can remove ambiguity and prevent the owner from answering the same question repeatedly.
Finally, inspect and reinforce the process. Todd recommends using a simple Start, Stop, Continue framework to provide factual feedback and reinforce good performance.
Only after the company has provided structure, outcomes, activities, instructions, training, timing, and feedback—and performance still remains poor—does it become reasonable to conclude that the primary problem is the person.
Key Takeaways With Timestamps
00:57 – Why does managing employees feel like babysitting?
Todd describes the frustration of constantly repeating instructions, following up, correcting mistakes, and wondering why employees will not take ownership.
01:27 – Accountability does not require micromanagement
The episode introduces a system for holding employees accountable without hovering over them throughout the day.
01:53 – An employee entered a “dumpster fire”
Todd shares the example of a client who hired administrative help without having clear processes or responsibilities in place.
02:21 – Employees can be busy without knowing what they own
An employee may move between permitting, marketing, samples, and other tasks without understanding what success in the role actually means.
03:01 – Systems can feel too corporate to some owners
Construction owners who dislike bureaucracy sometimes resist checklists and documented processes because they associate them with micromanagement.
03:30 – Without systems, micromanagement becomes the management system
When everything lives in the owner’s head, the owner must continually assign, remind, inspect, and correct.
03:59 – Have you judged someone without defining winning?
Todd asks owners to consider how many employees they have mentally fired without first documenting what successful performance looks like.
04:27 – Poor accountability affects the entire organization
Unclear expectations create frustration, turnover, project problems, customer confusion, and stress that follows the owner home.
04:53 – Many people problems are actually system deficiencies
The recurring issue may not be motivation. It may be the absence of a repeatable process and clear expectations.
05:19 – The Big 5 Accountability System
Todd introduces a five-step system designed to move accountability from the owner’s memory into the operating structure.
05:49 – Accountability starts with clarity
Before assuming an employee is intentionally underperforming, determine whether the person truly understands the role and expectations.
06:48 – Step one: Fix the structure
Start with the business design rather than immediately trying to fix the employee.
07:17 – Define the major functions of the business
Sales, preconstruction, operations, finance, administration, and other responsibilities need clear ownership.
07:45 – Create single-source accountability
One person should be accountable for each important outcome so responsibility does not disappear through finger-pointing.
08:10 – Do not design the company entirely around current people
Building roles around everyone’s individual preferences can create a patchwork organization that is difficult to scale.
08:40 – Use the clean-sheet approach
Design how the company should operate first, then determine which roles and people are required.
09:09 – Step two: Define what winning looks like
Identify three to five clear outcomes that each role must produce.
09:38 – Outcomes should describe results, not busyness
Examples include projects completed on schedule, projects completed on budget, completed handoffs, and satisfied clients.
10:05 – Outcomes are usually lagging indicators
By the time a project finishes late or over budget, the result has already happened.
10:35 – Step three: Identify the Big 5 activities
Work backward from the desired outcomes and identify recurring behaviors that increase the likelihood of achieving them.
11:05 – Leading indicators can predict project success
Updating schedules and preparing two-week look-aheads are examples of activities that support on-time completion.
11:31 – Daily logs and client updates are useful leading indicators
Consistent recurring activities can provide visibility before the final project outcome is known.
12:01 – Preconstruction needs leading indicators too
Treat preconstruction like production by creating schedules and two-week look-aheads for selections, decisions, and project preparation.
12:31 – Episode 410 goes deeper on behavior-based accountability
Todd recommends the Moneyball episode for understanding how leading indicators can help average performers produce stronger results.
14:54 – Return to step three: Build the Big 5
The goal is to identify the small group of recurring behaviors that most strongly influence each role’s results.
15:23 – Step four: Document what “done right” looks like
Choose an important recurring activity and create a simple written checklist that defines acceptable performance.
15:51 – “Complete a daily log” is not specific enough
Two-word entries such as “rain” or “framing” may technically satisfy the task while providing little useful information.
16:21 – Define the specifications for a good daily log
Clarify whether it should include weather, deliveries, inspections, client conversations, subcontractors, photographs, and other important information.
16:51 – Train with a real example
Record the screen or phone while completing the activity and narrate what should happen.
17:17 – Make the timing clear
Specify when recurring deliverables are due and create reminders to help employees develop the habit.
17:46 – Documentation is not corporate bureaucracy
The objective is to think through the problem once rather than answering the same questions every day.
18:14 – Build a place where employees can find answers
Todd references Cole West’s question: when employees ask something, can they find the answer in the company playbook?
18:43 – Systems allow you to answer a question one final time
Documented specifications and training reduce repeated dependence on the owner.
19:12 – Step five: Inspect and reinforce
Training once does not guarantee the process will continue. Leaders still need to verify and provide feedback.
19:42 – Trust, but verify
The owner can trust employees while still checking whether defined expectations are being met.
20:10 – Use Start, Stop, Continue feedback
Explain what the employee should begin doing, what should stop, and what they are already doing well.
20:38 – What gets celebrated gets repeated
Positive reinforcement helps employees understand which behaviors the company wants them to continue.
21:06 – Inspect the process at the expected deadline
If a daily log is due at 5 p.m., create a rhythm for checking that it was completed and providing feedback.
21:34 – Accountability can be proactive instead of emotional
A defined system allows feedback to be based on facts and standards rather than frustration.
22:03 – The owner does not have to inspect everything personally
An executive assistant, virtual assistant, or office employee can perform much of the review work when clear specifications exist.
22:33 – Use a scorecard to simplify oversight
Someone else can track completion and quality while the owner reviews a simple summary.
23:02 – Front-load a small amount of work to save hours later
Creating the checklist and training once can reduce repeated tracking, correcting, and explaining.
23:31 – Twenty-five minutes can create a reusable system
Todd estimates that a checklist and short Loom training video can often be created in less than half an hour.
24:02 – “I don’t have time” is a warning sign
If everything already runs through the owner, the lack of available time may be evidence of the systems deficiency itself.
24:30 – The business may be designed around the owner
Working harder will not permanently fix a company whose operating structure depends on one person.
24:59 – Evaluate the frustrated employee through the Big 5
Before blaming someone for weak ownership, examine whether the company gave them a clear role, outcomes, activities, and expectations.
25:30 – Ask whether the leading indicators are clear
Employees need to know the recurring behaviors that drive successful results.
25:56 – Check the training, timing, and feedback
Written standards, real examples, deadlines, calendar rhythms, and feedback all contribute to accountability.
26:26 – Only then should you diagnose a people problem
If the company has supplied clarity, training, systems, and feedback and performance still remains poor, the employee may truly be the issue.
26:56 – Leadership requires looking in the mirror first
Owners should examine whether they set the employee up for success before labeling the person lazy or unaccountable.
27:26 – Most accountability problems begin with clarity and systems
The absence of structure often creates the behavior the owner later becomes frustrated with.
27:52 – A Business Evaluation Call can identify missing structure
Todd invites owners to examine fuzzy accountability, owner dependency, weak systems, and preconstruction gaps.
29:17 – Bring the framework to the leadership team
Todd explains that leaders need the same ability to define roles, delegate results, and hold their teams accountable.
29:46 – The Construction Leadership Advance applies the system in person
The event is designed to help owners and key leaders clarify accountability and create practical Big 5 systems.
30:13 – Turn vague job descriptions into measurable accountability
The workshop focuses on roles, Big 5 activities, checklists, rhythms, and transferring responsibility away from the owner.
Key Concepts From This Episode
Accountability Starts With Clarity
Employees cannot reliably take ownership of results they do not understand.
Clear accountability requires defined roles, outcomes, recurring expectations, deadlines, and feedback.
Single-Source Accountability
Single-source accountability means one person owns each important outcome.
This prevents responsibility from becoming shared so broadly that no one knows who is actually accountable.
Big 5 Activities
The Big 5 are the three to five recurring behaviors that serve as leading indicators of success for a role.
They connect daily and weekly activity to the outcomes the company ultimately wants.
Leading vs. Lagging Indicators
Lagging indicators show what already happened, such as finishing a project late or over budget.
Leading indicators are activities that can be measured earlier and influence those final results.
Definition of Done
A definition of done explains the minimum standard for completing an activity correctly.
It removes ambiguity by specifying what information, documentation, timing, and quality are required.
Inspect and Reinforce
Inspect and reinforce means verifying that expectations are being met and providing consistent feedback.
The purpose is not micromanagement. It is helping the process become repeatable and dependable.
Resources Mentioned
Construction Leading Edge Resources
Tools Mentioned
- Loom
People Mentioned
Methods Mentioned
- Big 5 Accountability System
- Strategic blueprint
- Clean-sheet approach
- Daily logs
- Two-week look-ahead schedules
- WIP reports
- Start, Stop, Continue
- Scorecards
Recommended Next Step
Choose one role that currently creates the most frustration.
Then answer these five questions:
- What is this role actually accountable for?
- What three to five outcomes define winning?
- What three to five recurring activities predict those outcomes?
- Is there a written definition of what “done right” looks like?
- How will the work be inspected and reinforced?
If you cannot answer those questions clearly, begin there before assuming the employee is the problem.
If accountability is fuzzy across the company and too many decisions still run through you, apply for a Business Evaluation Call.
If you want to work through accountability, delegation, and leadership with your key people in person, learn more about the Construction Leadership Advance in Nashville on October 22–23, 2026.
Client Success Stories
Want to see how other construction business owners are applying these ideas?
Watch client success stories from builders, remodelers, and general contractors who have worked with Construction Leading Edge to reduce chaos, improve their systems, and build companies that run with less owner dependency.
Related Episodes
Episode 410: How to Use the Moneyball Strategy to Run Your Construction Business Like a Machine
Todd Dawalt explains how contractors can define success through measurable behaviors and leading indicators instead of relying on vague expectations, gut feelings, or superstar employees.
Episode 455: How Builder CEOs Get Sh*t Done (Without More Willpower or Fixing Your ADHD Brain)
Todd Dawalt explains how owners can protect high-value work, solve recurring problems systematically, and create accountability structures instead of relying on discipline and willpower.
Episode 450: AI Is Lying, Customers Aren’t: Radical Transparency and Culture-Building with Eric Fortenberry
Eric Fortenberry and Todd Dawalt discuss clearer delegation, SOPs, team ownership, process design, and why construction companies need systems that allow people to succeed consistently.
FAQ
How do you hold construction employees accountable without micromanaging?
Start by clarifying the role, defining measurable outcomes, identifying recurring leading activities, documenting what good work looks like, and creating a consistent feedback rhythm.
Why does my team keep asking me what to do?
The role, process, or decision rules may not be clear enough. If important information lives only in your head, employees have little choice but to come back to you.
What are the Big 5 activities?
The Big 5 are three to five recurring activities that strongly influence whether a person achieves the desired outcomes of the role.
What is the difference between leading and lagging indicators?
Lagging indicators measure a completed result, such as whether the project finished on schedule. Leading indicators track behaviors that influence that result before the project is finished.
Are checklists a form of micromanagement?
Not when they define the standard and then allow the employee to execute independently. A useful checklist can reduce micromanagement because the owner no longer needs to repeatedly explain expectations.
How often should I inspect an employee’s work?
Inspect according to the rhythm of the activity. Daily work may need frequent checks initially, while weekly or monthly activities can be reviewed on their normal schedule. Reduce oversight as consistency improves.
When is an accountability problem really a people problem?
When the role, outcomes, activities, standards, timing, training, and feedback are all clear—and the employee still consistently fails to perform—the issue may be the person rather than the system.
Todd Dawalt
Founder of Construction Leading Edge and host of The Construction Leading Edge Podcast
Todd Dawalt is the founder of Construction Leading Edge and host of The Construction Leading Edge Podcast. Since 2014, Todd and the Construction Leading Edge team have helped construction business owners systematize their companies, reduce chaos, improve profitability, and build businesses that run with less owner dependency.
Full Transcript
00:00
Before we jump in, I’ve got a quick invitation for you. If you are tired of being the bottleneck for every decision in your business, you need to be at our Construction Leadership Advance in Nashville, Tennessee on October 22nd and 23rd, 2026. It is a live in-person hands-on event where you and your leaders will get clear on who owns what, on how to delegate results so you don’t have to take work back, and how to make decisions without everything running.
00:28
through you. only got a few seats left. Prices go up soon and registration closes on September 22nd. Again, the construction leadership advance October 22nd and 23rd, 2026. Go get the details at the link in the show notes, or you can go straight to constructionleadingedge.com forward slash live, L-I-V-E. Grab your seat and a seat for your key leaders. Now let’s jump into the episode. Do you…
00:57
ever feel like you hired adults but you’re still babysitting them in your construction business? Are you constantly repeating yourself wondering why can’t they just take ownership? Why do I have to tell them everything to do? Why do I have to constantly follow up and then I have to correct their mistakes? And deep down you hate micromanaging but you wonder if that’s exactly what you’re doing. In this episode I’m going to show you a simple system to actually hold people accountable without
01:27
hovering over them all day and without being a micromanager. You’re listening to the Construction Leading Edge podcast from constructionleadingedge.com where we are all about systematizing your construction business to maximize freedom, impact, and wealth. My name is Todd DeWalt and my team and I’ve helped hundreds of construction business owners do just that. Put systems in their business over the past 10 years now.
01:53
And be able to eliminate chaos, grow their profits and build stronger teams. So they get their lives back. So let’s jump into it. A while back, I was on a call, which sounded very familiar with a construction business owner, one of our clients. We’ll call him JR. All right. This was a while back. And JR had hired an employee to help out in his office, do some administrative stuff, some project stuff and
02:21
Shortly after bringing this new employee on, he is exhausted. He feels like he’s babysitting. And he said, I don’t have processes. I introduced her to a dubster fire. He used those exact words. And I have had conversations with employees who’ve told me, Hey, I’ve been here for two months and I have no idea what I’m supposed to be doing. One day it’s permitting, one day it’s marketing. One day I’m running to pick up material samples. I have no idea what to do.
02:50
The issue is how do I hold my people accountable? This was the question that JR asked me. How do I actually hold this person accountable?
03:01
And he said something that was interesting. He said, I, this has come up a lot. He said, if I put in a bunch of systems and checklists, it feels like I’m being too corporate. feels like I’m micromanaging and I don’t want to micromanage my people. A lot of people I work with have left companies where they were micromanaged and they hate micromanaging, but here’s the uncomfortable truth. You say you don’t want to micromanage, but when you have no systems.
03:30
Micromanagement is your only management system. Let me say that again. You say you don’t want to micromanage, you hate micromanagers, you hate being micromanaged, but when you have no systems, micromanagement is your only management system. If everything lives in your head, the only way to keep things on track is for you to hover, give people tasks, remind and correct all day, which is exactly what
03:59
a micromanager does. So let me ask you a couple of questions. How many people have you mentally fired or dreamed about firing when you’ve never shown them in writing what winning looks like? Right? Think about this when there’s somebody on your team and you’re frustrated because it feels like they’re not being accountable or they’re not pulling their weight. The ripple effects of that touch
04:27
almost everything in the organization. It causes a lot of frustration for you, the owner. Eventually you could just say, forget about hiring people. It’s just easier for me to do it myself. People quit, projects slip, customers feel the chaos. And then your family gets the frustrated version of you at night when you are sitting at the dinner table with a thousand yard stare while your kids are asking you questions.
04:53
and talking about their day and you’re trying to solve this problem in your head. Right? So most of what we call people problems in construction are just, I never built a repeatable system problem. Another way to say that is instead of people problems, you probably have most of these people problems are actually systems deficiencies problems, which force you
05:19
into being a micromanager. Again, if you don’t have systems in place, if you don’t have documented processes, if you don’t have these things we’re about to talk to talk about in place, you have no option but to be a micromanager, which sucks. So I’m going to give you a five step system. call it the big five accountability system. So I want you to think about instead of the accountability resting on your shoulders and you having to remember everything to do and
05:49
saturate your people with tasks, then remind them and then follow up. You want to build a machine that provides the accountability. So you want a big five accountability system. And here’s the thing I want you to understand. Accountability starts with clarity. Accountability starts with clarity. If you have, if your people are not being accountable, you need to start with clarity. It’s…
06:19
Unlikely that it is a sinister event. It’s unlikely that they’re intentionally not doing their job, not taking ownership. It’s very likely that there’s a lack of clarity. So if you were to call me and say, Todd, I want you to fly into my office. I’ve got this employee who’s not being accountable and I want you to fix them. I want you to sit them down and I want you to fix them and make them accountable.
06:48
What I would do is I would sit down with you, first of all, I turn to you and go through these five steps, okay? So step one is to fix the structure. We don’t start with fixing the person, we need to fix the structure. You need a strategic blueprint for your business that clearly defines roles and responsibilities. Right now, it’s very likely that if there is some sort of an organizational chart,
07:17
It looks like a bowl of spaghetti with your name in the middle and everything connects to you. So we have to fix that. If you’ve ever seen a tangle of wires in a communications closet or an electrical panel, you’ve got to straighten these things out. This is what we need to start with. So we have to fix the structure. You need a strategic blueprint that clearly defines the major functions of the business. How do we divide up responsibilities or accountability for sales and pre-construction?
07:45
operations, finance, admin, things like that. And then you have, you need single source accountability. That’s the more corporate way to say it. So if there’s an issue with an outcome or part of the business, it’s clear who is accountable for that result. Another way to say it is you have one neck to choke. You don’t want finger pointing. It’s you want one neck to choke if there’s an issue. So clearly
08:10
design the strategic blueprint for your business on how you want this business to run. This is a big mistake a lot of people make is they just wrap their business model around their current people. And maybe that works, but that leaves you vulnerable to their eccentricities and what they like and what they don’t like. And you end up with this patchwork approach. What works a lot better is what I would call the clean sheet approach.
08:40
It’s called the clean sheet approach because you start with a clean sheet of paper and you design the business the way you want it to run. So clearly defined strategic blueprint, clearly defined roles and responsibilities for this specific role. Now for this, once you have the strategic blueprint for the entire business, you can start focusing on this role. And step two is to define what winning looks like for this role.
09:09
What are the handful of clear outcomes? What are the results? This role, not just not, we’re not designing around a person, we’re designing around a role. What are the three to five outcomes, the results that this role is accountable for? In a construction business, they’ll sound something like projects completed on schedule, projects completed on budget, all selections made before handoff.
09:38
You even say 100 % handoff from pre-construction to construction, satisfied customer who gives a testimonial, things like that. These are outcomes at the end of the project. These are the outcomes that define what does winning look like for the role. Step three is we take these outcomes and we solve one of the problems with these outcomes. The problem with outcomes like
10:05
projects completed on schedule, on budget, think of a testimonial at the end of the project. These are lagging indicators. By the time you get a testimonial, by the time you see if the project was completed on schedule, it’s a lagging indicator. The event has already happened and you’re looking in the rear view mirror. What we want are leading indicators of success. We want to set things up. We want to set up a system where we can create leading indicators of success that will lead to
10:35
those outcomes that we want. this is step three. This is where we define the big five activities. So we want to turn those outcomes into three to five recurring behaviors that are leading indicators of success. So working backwards, we have the outcomes like on schedule, on budget, customer satisfaction, and we’re going to work backwards. We’re going to reverse engineer and ask, what are some activities?
11:05
that can be done every day, every week, every month that will dramatically improve the likelihood of achieving those results. So project on schedule, for example, if you want the project to be on schedule, if you work backwards, what are some activities? Well, somebody should be updating the schedule once a week. Somebody should be creating a two week look ahead schedule every week. Someone should be
11:31
doing certain activities that will lead to customer satisfaction. Somebody, when it comes to projects being finished on budget, there are activities. Somebody should be preparing a WIP report once a month and looking at this. So these are the activities that are leading indicators of success. Daily logs are great ones to start with. Weekly updates to the client are great ones to start with. Two-week look aheads during construction and a great one.
12:01
If you’re tired of your pre-construction process taking too long and projects getting bogged down, you need to start treating your pre-construction phase, which is the secret profit phase of every construction company. Create schedules for your pre-construction phase. Create a two week look ahead schedule so that your, is accountable for pre-construction on a project is looking ahead what selections and decisions need to be made over the next two weeks.
12:31
and start thinking about driving projects through pre-con just like you do with operations. So if you want to learn more about how to define success in terms of behaviors, if you want to learn more about this concept of leading indicators and how a specifically how a culture of accountability, having a system like this can transform average players into championship A players, go listen to the Moneyball episode.
13:01
of the podcast. This is one of the most popular episodes I’ve done in the last few years. It’s episode 410, how to use the moneyball strategy. Yes, this is the Brad Pitt movie about the Oakland A’s. How to use the moneyball strategy to run your construction business like a machine. Hey, Todd here in a quick break to tell you about something. If you’re a construction business owner and you’re still the answer key for every important decision,
13:28
in your business and you want your team to own more, maybe all of the day-to-day, this is for you. We’re hosting the Construction Leadership Advance in Nashville, Tennessee, October 22nd and 23rd, 2026. It’s a two-day live in-person curated experience designed to do one thing for you. Turn you and your key people into a real leadership team that owns the day-to-day so you can focus on strategy, key relationships,
13:56
high leverage decisions and actually being the CEO of your business. Over two days together, you’re gonna get clear on who’s accountable for what, how decisions can get made without you, and how to delegate results so work actually gets done without micromanaging. And, maybe the best part, is you’ll be doing that work in a small room full of like-minded construction business owners and leaders just like you from all over the US and Canada who are dealing with the exact same.
14:24
stuff, you are not a local Home Builders Association breakfast full of competitors who keep all their best ideas to themselves. Frankly, the relationships you’ll walk away from this event with could be worth the price of admission. Here’s the deal. Registration closes September 22nd. We only have a few seats left. By the time you listen to this, we may not have any seats. So if you want your leadership team to carry more of the weight and take over the day to day,
14:54
Go get your seat for the construction leadership advance at constructionleadingedge.com forward slash live L-I-V-E or go click the link in the show notes to get the details and grab your seat and a seat for your key leaders. We’ll see you in Nashville. Step three is to create your big five activities that are leading indicators of success. And you don’t want to stop there. Step four is for each of the big five activities actually
15:23
I would recommend you just pick one for one of those big five activities, create a simple written checklist that describes what done looks like. A daily log, for example, if you have superintendents, project managers, crew leaders, lead carpenters, they should be doing daily logs. So it’s one thing to say you need to do daily logs. Well, if you’re like me.
15:51
You’ve received daily logs that say something like rain, no work, and that’s it. Or framing or these two word answers, which are completely useless. So what you need to do is decide the specifications for your activity. If you want them to submit a daily log, what constitutes a good daily log? These are the specifications for the daily log. Should they include?
16:21
Deliveries, conversations with clients, inspections, how many subcontractors were on site? Should they document the weather? Probably a good idea. Should they take pictures? If so, how many pictures should they take? What should they take pictures of? Right, so you’ve got a checklist for what done right looks like for this big five activity, in this case, a daily log. Then put together a quick training session using a live example. If you’re using software, record your screen.
16:51
Record your phone, record it on your laptop as you complete this step and even narrate it as you’re doing it. Then train your people on train your superintendent, your lead carpenter on how to do it. And then the next step is to send them reminders, set them up for success.
17:17
Have them put reminders on their phone if they need to do daily logs by a certain time. And this is also an important specification is when are they due? Are they due at five o’clock every day? Is it okay for them to do two weeks of daily logs at a time? I would say that’s not a good idea. And then set them up for success. Have them put reminders in their phones. Maybe you can send some automated text reminders for the first couple of weeks, but create the recurring
17:46
Calendar events send reminders. So when these things need to be done. So this isn’t corporate bureaucracy All right. This is you doing the hard thinking once so you’re not rethinking the same problems every day, right? one of our clients His name is Cole West. He right ran operations for a concrete company in South Carolina He was on the podcast a while back and he had a great question when somebody asked him a question
18:14
His response was, that’s a great question. Is there somewhere you can look to find that answer? So imagine somebody said, hey man, how do you want these daily logs to look? Wouldn’t it be great to be able to point them to a playbook that has a link to this, the specifications for a daily log and a training video on how to do it. So you do the work once and you can point people back to that. So you can answer questions one last.
18:43
So you can be able to say that’s a great question. Is there somewhere you can look to find that answer? That is not corporate bureaucracy. That is not micromanaging. This is putting systems of accountability in place so you can do the work once so you’re not rethinking the same problems every day like Groundhog Day. Alright, step five. A lot of people are like man, step four, that’s great. We’re going to train our people. Then we’re going to tell them to do it once and then it’s just going to work.
19:12
Great, right? Maybe. Step five is really important. This is the inspect and reinforce phase. Very important. You may think it’s your job just to launch this initiative, train them, set the expectation, and then you can go do what you really want to do, but that’s where things often fall apart. So step five is to inspect and reinforce. So you need to have some sort of inspect, right?
19:42
There’s an old phrase, trust, but verify, trust that your people are going to do it, but verify that they actually did it. So there needs to be some sort of a, an inspection and reinforcement phase. Here’s a really simple framework you can use. It’s the start, stop, continue framework. So when you get a daily log, for example, or whatever the case may be, two week look ahead schedule, whatever the big five deliverable is.
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You will use the start, stop, continue. You can say, Hey, I’d like you to start doing this. Maybe there’s something they’re missing. Start providing more details on the weather. Start providing more pictures of this. The things you want them to stop doing. Here’s what’s hurting results. Here’s what’s making this less effective. Here’s some things we don’t need you to do. There’s just no value in doing these things. And then continue.
20:38
There’s start, stop, continue. Continue is here’s what you’re doing well, keep up the great work. I like the way you’re doing this. Give some meaningful feedback on what they’re doing because what gets celebrated gets repeated. Okay, this is positive reinforcement, which is the only kind of reinforcement that really works. So inspect and reinforce when it comes to timing. If you have something that’s due,
21:06
every day at 5 p.m. set yourself a reminder that at 5.01 p.m. check for the daily logs. And if they haven’t sent them yet, send the text reminder, hey, looking forward to your daily log, remember to send the daily log and then give them some feedback using that start stop continue. It’s probably in person is gonna be best. So this is proactive systematic accountability.
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It’s not reactive. It’s not emotional. is strictly based on facts. So here’s the, the next thing you’re probably thinking, that’s great, but I still have to do all of this stuff. It’s better if I just do it myself instead of having to, I got to train. got to come up with this big five bullshit. Then I’ve got to train my people on it. And then I’ve got to check in on it. Well, here’s the thing you can delegate.
22:03
a lot of this, you don’t have to do all of the inspection and reinforcing part. In fact, you don’t even have to do a lot of the training. If you document these things, you can actually use an assistant. If you have a virtual assistant and executive assistant, you have somebody on your team in the office. They can review daily logs. If you have a list of specifications, they can review daily logs to see one, were they done? Two.
22:33
Did they meet the criteria, what was missing and they can do a lot of the legwork for you. They can track who hit it, who missed it. They can fill in a simple scorecard that the owner skims once a week, once a day. So if you’re thinking you’re already spending all of this time reacting and redoing, we’re talking about, this is not creating, this is not creating more work. This is actually freeing you up. Talking about.
23:02
Think about all of the time you spend tracking, following up, being frustrated. And what we’re talking about is front loading 20 to 30 minutes. So the machine runs without you pushing every part. So I had this conversation with JR and I asked, how long do you think it would take you to put together a checklist of one of these big five activities? And he said, I could probably knock that out in 10 minutes. Great. How long do you think it would take you to record a quick?
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Loom video showing how to do this step, probably 10 to 15 minutes. So 20, 25 minutes once to be able to get all of that time back. That’s a good return on time invested. So if you’re thinking, I don’t have time for that, I’m going to be honest with you. If you don’t have time, that’s a flashing red light on the dashboard saying you have a systems deficiency.
24:02
It’s also a flashing red light. If you’re working 60, 70 hours a week and everything is running through you and every question comes to you, that’s a flashing red light that your business is designed around you. And another way to say that is your business is designed to fail without you. So if you’re thinking, I don’t have time, I don’t have time, when is that ever going to change? It’s not going to change until you actually solve the root cause.
24:30
of the problem, which is a lack of systems, which is the root cause is your business is designed to run around you. If you don’t like the results of your business, it’s because your business has a faulty design. And if you have, if that’s the case, if your business is designed to run around you, or if the business design has been outgrown, you can either work harder or you can redesign the system. And that’s what we’re talking about here.
24:59
This is how you redesign the system for accountability. So I want you to think about this. Think about somebody on your team, an employee that you’re maybe you’ve been frustrated with, maybe you fired that person. Maybe there’s somebody that you’re frustrated with right now and you’re thinking, I wish they would just take more accountability, more ownership. I wish they would just get shit done. Maybe it’s a subcontractor as well. Think about a few questions. Have you clearly articulated the three to five outcomes?
25:30
for this role? Have you clearly articulated the expectations? Have you defined the leading indicators of success? What are the things that will drive those outcomes? Again, go check out the Moneyball episode, episode 410 for more about that. Is there a written checklist for these activities? Have you trained them on this stuff? Have you trained them using real examples?
25:56
Is it clear when these things are due? Is there a calendar rhythm? Right. And have you been giving them any feedback? Have you been using something like the start, stop, continue? Have you been giving them any feedback on what they’re doing? Even when they do it. Right. So if the answer is no to most of those questions, you don’t have an accountability problem. You have a clarity and a system problem.
26:26
Right. If you answered no to most of those questions, you don’t have an accountability problem. This is not a people problem. This is a you problem. This is a business design problem. This is a systems deficiency problem. Right. Only when you answer yes to all of those questions and performance still sucks. Do you have the right to say you have a people issue? All right. So this is the leadership. You got to look in the mirror and say,
26:56
I’ve been thinking that this person didn’t want to work. They didn’t want to take ownership. They were lazy. They were whatever, but you got to take a good, hard look in the mirror and realize I did not set this person up for success. I’ve hired them into a bit of a dumpster fire. I haven’t made the outcomes clear. haven’t told them what the leading indicators of success are. I haven’t given them a checklist for these activities. I haven’t trained them. Maybe on anything.
27:26
And I haven’t set their calendar up and I haven’t given them any feedback. Maybe they’ve people have actually done things well and they have no idea that they’ve done things, but they have no idea if they’re doing them right because you haven’t given them any feedback. So you probably don’t have an accountability problem. You probably don’t have a people problem. You have a clarity and a systems problem. So we’ve got two things for you. If you’re listening to this and you’re realizing, yep.
27:52
I don’t have any clear outcomes for my people. I don’t have a big five. Hell, I don’t even have, I don’t have any kind of design for my business. My business is designed to run through my noggin, through my central nervous system. Everything depends on me. Then you need to systematize your business. And the first step is to schedule a business evaluation call with me. Here’s what we’ll do on that call. We’ll zoom out. We’ll look at your current structure.
28:20
roles, where the accountability is fuzzy, will identify the one or two big missing pieces in your system that are forcing you to babysit adults. And then you’ll walk away with a simple plan to tighten up your accountability and get your time back. We’ll also look at your pre-construction process. We’ll look at some metrics, some hidden metrics in your business. And we’ll even talk about the hidden profit that you could be missing out on. could be hidden profit in your business.
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And then if it makes sense to work together beyond that, we’ll talk about that. If not, you’ll still walk away with clarity. I’ll leave you better than I found you. So you want proactive systematic accountability instead of just playing whack-a-mole and reacting to fires and blaming people. Go book a business evaluation call, hit the link in the show notes, or you can go to construction that leading edge.com forward slash apply a PPL Y.
29:17
These are not for everybody. There are some qualifications that you have to meet. If you meet those qualifications, you can pick a time that works. And then we’ll dig into this in your business with your team and not just in theory. Second, very important, big news. We have an event coming up. And if you’re thinking, man, my whole leadership team needs to hear this. have leaders who they need to hold their people more accountable and they need to become better a delegation. If you’re thinking,
29:46
You have leaders that need to put this in practice. That’s why we have created the construction leadership advance. It’s a live event in Nashville in October. It is a two day hands-on in-person workshop for a limited number of construction business owners and their key leaders. You’ll spend two days in a room with other construction business owners like-minded and we’ll work together to help you get crystal clear on who’s accountable for what.
30:13
able to turn these vague job descriptions into a real big five and create simple checklists and rhythms. So accountability is more proactive and systematic. And then you’ll leave with a 30 day plan to start transferring real responsibility off your plate. It’s all about helping you create leaders who get you out of the day today. It is in October 22nd and 23rd.
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of 2026 in Nashville. We have a handful of seats left right now. Registration closes September 22nd, so if you want to stop being the answer key for every decision, go check it out. The advanced construction leadership. Event construction leading edge.com forward slash live L I V E or the links going to be in the show notes. You’ll see all the details there. Grab your seat, bring a leader or two and will spend two days turning.
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this accountability framework into how your company actually runs. Hey, my name is Todd DeWalt from Construction Leading Edge. Be sure to subscribe to this podcast. Leave a comment if you have a question about that. And if you’ve got some value out of this, me a favor, leave a rating, a review on whatever podcast player you are listening and that helps spread the word. So if there’s anything we can do to help you.
31:36
Head on over to constructionleadingeds.com and I’ll see you next time. Hey, before you hit stop and skip on to the next episode, let me ask you something. If you’re building custom homes or big renovations and you’re starting jobs before scope, subs and selections are completely dialed in, how long can you keep scaling like that before something cracks? That’s exactly what we’ll unpack on your free business evaluation call. In about 45 minutes, my team will help you do a few things.
32:06
Grade your current handoff from office to field. Put some real numbers to the hidden profit bleeds that could be in your business. There could be hidden profits in your business. Sketch out what a repeatable operating system would look like in your business from sales to pre-construction through completion. And if it looks like we can help, we’ll book a follow-up call to talk about the right implementation program for you. If it’s not, you’ll still leave with clarity.
32:32
and next steps. We will leave you better than we found you. So to book your call and be sure that you qualify for that call, go to constructionleadingedge.com forward slash apply, A-P-P-L-Y, or click the show notes. There’s a link in the show notes and book your business evaluation call.
