Contractor Cuts
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Contractor Cuts
Delivering Tough News: Mastering Client Communication and Navigating Financial Challenges
Ever found yourself in the tough spot of having to break bad news to a client and wished you had a better strategy? Our latest episode on Contractor Cuts promises to equip you with the skills needed to have these difficult conversations with confidence and tact. We walk you through the contrasting approaches of delivering unpleasant news—whether it's with a sense of advocacy that keeps clients at ease or as a bombshell that leaves them feeling blindsided. Join us as we explore real-world scenarios and share insights on how to maintain control and advocate for your client's best interests in the face of financial hiccups.
Communication is the lifeline of any construction project, but what happens when it goes awry? We dive into the challenges of effective communication and how minor issues, if left unchecked, can spiral into major roadblocks. From taking responsibility for project delays to managing unexpected cost increases, we emphasize the importance of transparency and collaboration. Through engaging stories and examples, we illustrate the power of open dialogue in preserving client trust and turning potential conflicts into collaborative solutions.
Navigating the financial minefield of a construction project isn't for the faint-hearted. We address the complex issue of financial miscalculations and the necessary steps to take when budgets overrun. With a focus on honesty, ethical standards, and partnership, we share strategies to engage clients as allies in resolving financial gaps. By fostering empathy and regular communication, you can not only rebuild trust but also strengthen your professional reputation. Additionally, we touch on the art of handling disputes with empathy and building long-term consulting relationships, proving that even the most challenging situations can lead to growth and success with the right approach.
Struggling to grow your contracting business? The Foundations Program is designed to help contractors break free from the chaos and build a business that runs smoothly. You’ll get a customized training program, 1-on-1 coaching, and access to a full paperwork database—including contracts and the Client Engagement Agreement. Join the Foundations Program today! 🚀
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Welcome to Contractor Cuts, where we cover the good, the bad and the ugly of growing a successful contracting company.
Speaker 2:Welcome to Contractor Cuts. My name is Clark Turner, I'm Jared Flo. Thank you for joining us again this week. So last week we covered what you need to do to prep to start growing, what needs to happen to kind of get to zero before you can start the growth. One thing that happens whenever we start doing that with companies is we get to a spot with their current clients where it's like, oh no, we uncovered financially things are going bad on this job. That happens almost every single time. It's rare that it doesn't. But we get to a spot where it's like I've got to have some hard conversations with these customers I'm currently servicing.
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, last week we talked about getting to the ground zero of your company. Like, where are we at? Where's where's, where's my point of origin right now, so that I can start. I know where I am, so I know where I'm going, right. And so this is about having the conversations with your client for the point of getting to ground zero with your clients, right, whether it's a small issue or major issues, we've got to get to a place, and most of the time, if it's a small issue, it's not as vital as, like I've got to get to ground zero. But, escalating as things are more and more impactful, we got to get to a ground zero because if we don't, it's going to get worse moving forward and a lot of times you kind of get the gut feeling that something's not right or I think I'm a little behind on this job.
Speaker 2:But once we organize, take a look and understand exactly where finances are, a lot, that's where it's like oh crap, this isn't good, this is, this is going to be a problem. I'm going to have to do seven more jobs to just break even on this one right and I knew I was a little bit behind.
Speaker 2:I just didn't know. I didn't realize that, I didn't realize this, and this is something that jared and I help out with a ton in the front end of like, let's look at the current scopes. What's going on with that? What's happening, what's missing on why you know you're building a house and there's no roof line on here. Tell me more about that. Why, oh shoot, I forgot to put that on here. Right, that sort of stuff starts popping up as we're starting to organize the finances and everything else. So how do we deal with that stuff? That's what today's podcast is. It's kind of a part two. If you haven't listened to last week's podcast, please go back one podcast and listen to it, cause this is this is still a great freestanding podcast about how to break bad news, but last week is kind of what you have to do to prep, to kind of understand what bad news is going to be broken.
Speaker 2:Don't go have bad news information or bad news conversations with your clients without the data without the data and without it, without the setup to where you can deliver what you're promising, right, because a lot of times it's like I don't. I can tell them we're going to face that, but I can't, right, and so we're going to talk through all that today. But, yeah, if you don't have the data and the understanding and where things are, what numbers are and how much more it's going to cost and what I actually forgot on this quote if you don't have all that information, that conversation is going to be very frustrating for your customer, right right.
Speaker 2:So it's super important. So the first thing we want to talk about before we break down kind of the minor, major and catastrophic news and how to have those conversations is tact versus feeling like a bomb went off. There is a big difference of how I approach the customer, how I prep for that conversation and how I have that conversation, and a lot of guys do it wrong. It's the same information, just two different results. Yes, it's the exact same information. It is coming from two different ways. It's, it's. This is what it is Tough luck and a defensive mode verse. What I wrote down is advocacy and full control and confidence, while still the hat in hand approach. Right, I'm an advocate. I want the best for you as my client. I want to get this project done. I don't want you to have to bleed to get us there, but we got some stuff to talk about.
Speaker 1:A lot of times in those conversations talking about the tech versus a bomb going off. The reason why it can be a bomb going off is if it's not done well. With the, I've got full control, I've got confidence, but I've also, like I'm advocating here, this is us dealing with this. It can really feel like a bait and switch Yep, right, where it's like sorry, but it is what it is, and if you don't like it, it's too bad, because if you want your kitchen done, it's what you have to do, yeah, and it's like wait, you've painted me in a corner here that I guess I just have to come out with another 20 grand. Yeah, right. And it feels unfair, it feels attacked, it feels lied to, it feels you know all of those things and all you have to do with the same information is come to the table with a different attitude and a different way of going about it and it's going to diffuse that situation I think, a great.
Speaker 2:There's two ends of the spectrum. There is the end of like tough luck, man, that's what it is, is what it is. You go with more money, or I'm going to put a lien on your house and sue you if you don't pay me for for that, you know, whatever it is, or the other side is falling on. You know, I going to do everything. I got to pay all this for free. I'm going to do everything. And it's this wrong side as well. What we want is in the middle, where it is bad news for both of us, and I'm here with confidence that we can get through this and get this figured out. I've got some game plans with us, but, yeah, this is not a good situation and it's claiming up to what you've done wrong without taking ownership of what you shouldn't have to take ownership of Right. So it's like, hey, I got some bad news and we're going to talk about this. I've got some plans around it how we're going to fix it. But, jared, there's some stuff missing off this and we'll go into all of this, but I'm going at it with a.
Speaker 2:I did miss that and I did. I didn't put that on the quote, but if I did put it on the quote, you still have to pay for it, right? Someone has to pay for that. I can't just create a roof out of thin air. It has to get paid for. I'll work with you and try to do it at all, all of those types of conversations, but it's bad news for us, right? Not like tough. It's not on the quote, didn't you sign the quote? Didn't you look at it? Well, that's on you, man. You signed that quote.
Speaker 2:That defensiveness the not my problem, but yours is really going to set the customer off. So the tact side of it is I'm as upset as a customer about this situation, and so we're in this together. I'm your advocate, I'm your partner in getting this job done. But that type of an approach is where we're going to start with every single one of these conversations, right? Also, this is something that people are born with but is honed over time. That's right. And if you don't have this, you can learn the skill. But, as a business owner, I don't care if you're running a restaurant, a construction company, if you're running a hospital, if you own a business. You're going to have to break bad news to people employees, customers, vendors, whatever it is that you have to hone this skill. So if you're, you also use a skill at home.
Speaker 2:You'll use a skill with your spouse, with your kids, with your best friend there's a lot of spots on how to break bad news in your life that you can utilize this with. So we're going to run through kind of minor, major and catastrophic news and how to break it and kind of our game planning. We can't plan for every situation in this podcast, but we'll try to run through them. If you have any specifics that you want help and advice on, give us a call. Go to ProSt three 60.com. Go to the contact us, give us a call on the 800 number that's on the website and someone will call you back. Or just go contact us and shoot us an email. Jared or I will call you back. One of us will, we promise you on that. So if you want advice on any of this that's beyond this podcast, please reach out.
Speaker 2:All right, so let's start with minor, right? Yeah, we've kind of listed a couple minor issues that you might need to talk about Timeline changing. I told them it'd be a six-month project. We're in month five and we're still about halfway through. So we got another three months to go and they think we're going to be done in a month. That's kind of a minor conversation, but still is going to be a conflict. And the other one we listed under minor is a small revision needing more info that I should already know, right, like, oh, I got to go remeasure that doorframe one more time and I've already been there three times to measure it and I forgot to write it down. And now I'm going to look like an idiot and need to ask them one more time what their selections were, because I missed it and lost something.
Speaker 2:Those type of minor conversations, all of those is I am falling on my sword. I am. Hey, I just realized we are running. I haven't communicated to you that we are running behind time, our schedule. You know we talked about six months. I'm going to build my case, I'm going to bring the evidence, but I'm not going to be defensive. Hey, you know we had all these change orders and, as those were happening, I should have informed you that it was going to take about two extra months on this job.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I realized I couldn't find any emails where I said it to you, so I'm guessing I didn't and so on. That I am 100 percent sorry I have now. I've done my prep work. I've laid out a Gantt chart, from here to the end of the job, of exactly when I think things are going to get done. Yeah, and so I've. I'm bringing the issue, the problem and the solution that I'm come up with, right, and so it's hey, we're running behind. I'm owning up to that, that's a hundred percent on me. I should have communicated A lot of times. Guys on this, this conversation too, are saying are trying to be a deflective on it. Right, it's, listen, we're running behind, but that's, you know, that's your fault, or you know, you know that, well, you made this choice.
Speaker 1:You made that choice and you did this.
Speaker 2:It doesn't matter who did what. You are in charge of managing the project and you're in charge of communicating when that timeline changes or where something changes in the scope. You're in charge of that, and so, because they moved it, that's okay. I should have said day one okay, we can change that for you, but that's going to add on three weeks to this project. If we move where that wall is currently located, a lot of times we miss that, we forget to say that and so, bringing that information on a minor issue like this, I'm falling on my sword. I'm taking complete ownership, even if it was your fault, because the ownership I'm taking is I didn't communicate the problem that you were causing when you changed the scope.
Speaker 1:Right, right, well, and what I will say is moving it from a minor to a major is delaying that conversation. Yep, as soon as you know crap, I'm not going to be able to deliver or do the thing that I said I was going to do. The sooner you have that conversation, the more opportunity you have to keep it as a minor problem. Yeah, if you wait and you know that you told them we're going to be done on Friday and you don't tell them till Friday afternoon, hey, it's going to be another week, they're going to be furious. Yep, right.
Speaker 1:I literally watched a contractor at my next door neighbor's house told him we'll be done next Friday. Sure enough, it came around to Friday. He had had no conversations and literally didn't have any conversations on Friday either. It wasn't close to being done. It was going to be at least another two weeks and he just let it roll until the client was like hey, when, when do you think we're going to be done with this? Oh man, it's probably going to be a couple more weeks. Well, what? What happened? You know, like you said, it was going to be done Friday last week and I didn't hear anything. He said well, I mean, obviously you saw it wasn't going to be done, just like.
Speaker 2:Lord, help me. I'm not going to use you again. I'm not going to suggest you. I'm going to push back and fight on any changes that you want to do, because now you've bothered me versus simple. Hey, I know it's Monday and I told you it was going to be this Friday. I am running behind. There's some issues with it. I'm sure you know already by looking at the status of this project.
Speaker 1:We're not going to be done by Friday.
Speaker 2:I know you know that, but I'm sorry about that. Like I told you, we would and we're not going to hit that. I'm looking at it. I think it's going to be one additional week, but let's say two more weeks because nothing's gone right yet. Yeah, that one, that one 32nd paragraph of saying that to the customer that's it.
Speaker 2:I trust you. Now I'm going to suggest you. I don't care that things went wrong, I cared how you reacted when things went wrong. That's all the customer's caring about. Right, right, that's right. So that is what moves a minor to a major. So let's talk about major conflict, major issues that happen. What we have under that is unexpected changes to the scope that are going to lead to a cost increase. That's kind of a major, big money changes. Yeah, hey, something happened. You got to pull out your checkbook. I need five grand more or can execute the scope as it stands and needs a new game plan, right, like.
Speaker 2:One of the things that comes to my head on this is hey, we are building your deck and we just found out from the city that we have a larger amount of space. We have to be off the property line. The setback is more than we thought and as a contractor, I should have known that, but I didn't research it in this city, that sort of thing. And so the deck that you were planning, that you've been dreaming of, I can't deliver for you and we're halfway through the project. Those type of major, I can't do what we agreed on. We need to change the scope. We need to reshuffle things.
Speaker 2:This type of conversation is going to be a game planning advocate conversation. This is a hey, I got some bad news we need to talk about. It's kind of what I was referring to earlier in the conversation, which is, we've got some bad news, we've got to figure this out. I've got some game plans right, I've got some answers that I'm bringing to the table. You're going to help me decide which answer is best for us, right. Right, it's not a I don't know. What do you want to do, man?
Speaker 1:Like I don't know what to tell you. It's going to cost you three, five, eight $10,000 more. It is what it is. If you want your deck, you're situation is, but telling them that gives them no options and no buy into decision making, right?
Speaker 2:So what I want to do is say I know they're going to spend the extra five grand on this. I'm going to give them a couple options, though. Hey, mr Customer, if this is what came back from the city, we're going to have to change this around. It's going to be about $5,000 extra to do exactly what we want. Now I've found some spots where we can save five grand. We can not do the railing that you wanted. We can do a cheaper version. We can not do the fireplace quite yet. You can do that later.
Speaker 2:If you want to stick within this budget, I know full well there could I just go ahead and do it. Right, I'm giving them the option. So they're having the buy-in of the decision of what we're doing and they also get to choose. They get to choose to spend the money as opposed to. Well, I'm forced, this company forced me and bait and switch right and all of that conversation. So major unexpected changes to the scope, cost increases, stuff that you have no control over, stuff that happened to you, to the job. It's a major issue, but it's a different conversation when it's not my fault, right, you know I might've missed something, but at the same time, like this was unexpected. We had a rainstorm and blew some stuff aside. You know, whatever it was, that's a major issue, but we need to sit down hear my game plan. Which one do you want?
Speaker 1:Well, and I think you know, as a moving on to the next one as well, but a distinguisher. I feel like when, when we're talking about a major, a major is a major change, but it doesn't necessarily dictate a loss of trust. Right, it's a major inconvenience, it's frustrating. It's not necessarily a loss of trust when it moves from a major to a catastrophic issue. It is because there is a major issue that's frustrating. It's not necessarily a loss of trust when it moves from a major to a catastrophic issue. It is because there is a major issue that's happened and there's a loss of trust because it was my fault, I did something wrong, I didn't do something, I didn't Right, or this is the second time, the third time that something like this has happened and it moves into a catastrophic problem. That is not only. We have to come up with a solution for the logistical issue, yeah, but now we've got to figure out how to bridge a gap.
Speaker 2:yep right, and I think part of that too, is not giving the basic information but giving the whole picture. So what I've seen a lot of guys do when they, when they're scared of that confrontation is hey, unfortunately we've got, we've got to do X, y and Z to the house. And the homeowner's like OK, that's fine. I mean, I know that's a change, but that's fine, we can do it that way. What I didn't tell them is it's going to be $8,000 more. But what I did tell them is that there's a change needed and they agreed to it. So at the end of the job, here's your final invoice. And they're like whoa, that's not what we agreed on. Yeah, remember, I told you we were going to have to do X, y and Z and you said that's okay. I didn't know it was going to cost me extra money. That sole thing is not your fault. They agreed to do it, but at the same time, they're never going to trust you as a company to come to their house again because you're a bait and switch in their mind. So the simple, full information We've got to do X, y and Z and unfortunately, doing it that way is going to be eight grand extra. Or we've got to do X, y and Z. I don't have a number, but I'm going to hunt it down and figure out a number before we get started on it, to make sure that you're okay with the scope change that has to happen Right.
Speaker 2:Full information, full control of the situation to the customer, giving them all those different options, all right. So that's the major issues. Now we're going into the catastrophic, and this is where it gets interesting. This is where it gets real tough and these are the conversations that we've seen. Some of our clients that have had to have these conversations lose hair and sleep over and these are the catastrophic ones that are large portions missed on the estimate, resulting in a major increase in cost. I mentioned that earlier in the beginning of the podcast. I quoted a new build and I forgot to put a roof on there and I forgot to put a driveway on there. And they saw the price, they saw the plans, they saw everything. They thought they were getting it all for that price and all of a sudden.
Speaker 2:It's a $75,000 swing in money. All of a sudden there's a big issue. Now, a lot of times that's that's an extreme one, because banks are going to catch that stuff. But again there's plenty with a renovation. Hey, I didn't do flooring on this. I'm doing your new basement. I didn't put flooring anywhere here. Um, that's one that that's happened before, that I've seen. So stuff like that where I messed up on the estimate, you told me what you wanted. I gave you a price that didn't include everything you wanted and now I need to increase the price to get you what you originally asked of what you wanted Right.
Speaker 2:That's one of the catastrophic ones in my book. The other one is not enough money left in the company to complete the job. This is one that is very difficult. We've also seen it a lot. We've seen it. We've coached guys through it. We've had counseling sessions. We've had you got to do it. Call me when you're done with this conversation and it could be a company closer. It could really go south.
Speaker 2:So these two ones are what I consider catastrophic of a major price change. We're going from $40,000 to $60,000 because I forgot to do the quote right or I misquoted something, and we need to have that conversation. But the harder one is hey, mr Client, we have a $100,000 basement renovation. You've given me $50,000 so far. I have crunched my numbers, I've looked at everything, I've gotten all of my finances in place. I'm going to need $65,000 to finish this job and there's only $50,000 of invoicing left. Yep, and I don't have $15,000 to spend or the next three months to get this finished for free. Right Now, you don't say this last part, but that's the situation that we see guys in, and so this is a very difficult conversation and really we can't say one way, to say this or the other, because there are so many factors that come into this. It could be hey, I've got this other job closing out, I've got some funds coming from that where I can get this finished out. What I want you to do is I want you to act like you're their lawyer. What I want you to do is I want you to act like you're their lawyer. Yeah, I'm going to put myself in their lawyer's position and I'm going to find all the reasons that I'm wrong and start there. And so I'm going to come to them and say Mr Client, this is a bad situation that we need to work together on getting this solved.
Speaker 2:I misquoted this stuff. I'm going to do all my homework. What did I misquote? What did I miss on? Where did I spend extra money on? And then also, what have I done here that I should have charged them for? But I was just trying to be nice and do it for free. So I'm going to get a laundry list as much as I can.
Speaker 2:I know I'm going to need 15 grand more to get this done and I'm not changing the scope at all. I just need more money, right. But if you look, I've done $18,000 of free work. I did that extra. Remember, we upgraded from this tile to that other tile and I just covered it. I didn't charge you for that. I did this, all of that stuff. Can we find dollars there that they owe that? We did extra for them.
Speaker 2:If you can't get there, if it's like, hey, 65 to finish, I got 50K left of invoicing and I've done not really anything extra for free.
Speaker 2:There's a couple ways to go with it.
Speaker 2:Ideally, what I'd like to say is listen, I've got some other jobs that I'm starting and once those get going, I'm going to use a profit of those to finish this out, but I'm out of cash on this project and so I need you to buy X, y and Z for us to get this complete.
Speaker 2:I am going to stand by to get this job done for you. I'm going to need a partnership with you to get this done. Well, right, and I'm not happy about this. I'm honestly embarrassed by this and I'm not happy about this. I'm honestly embarrassed by this, but I'm going to do what it takes to get this done, and I can't guarantee you that it's going to be quick right now, and I don't have 65K to my name to get this done, but you owe 50 of it, so there's a $15,000 gap, and so if by the end of this job, I think I can get that worked out, but I might need you to go ahead and purchase the flooring for me and I'll do the labor on it and we'll take that off the quote and we start talking about and bringing them into that conversation.
Speaker 1:They know.
Speaker 2:Those customers know, they know what's going on, they're getting a sense and sniffing it that he's been dragging his feet and he's been asking for some money up front a couple times.
Speaker 1:What's going on with this? Well, the interesting thing about this is that this is literally the line in between, um, the bad reputation of general contractors and a good contractor. Yeah, right, because this is the place where, um, the guys get to and they go to done in trouble. Yeah, I'm, I'm just going to disappear and I hope I'm going to put my head in the sand and hope that just goes away. Right, and they ghost on somebody and they, because they there's no way, they saw no way to get bridging that gap of the extra 15,000. And they were like well then, then I'm not going to waste my time running down here, I'm going to take, I'm going to call that other client and get them started. Right, and this is where your, your morals and your ethics of who you are as a business shine. Yeah, you choose to have that hard conversation. Um, be brutally honest with them. I, like you were saying, like I'm, I'm, I'm sick and embarrassed from the situation I caused this. Here's the solution that I've come up with of how we can get your project done, like I told you I was going to. You got to have that solution, yes, but, but you, you have to have that solution. And Mr Client, I'm I don't. I know I don't deserve this, but I need you to trust and partner with me to help me get this done. Yeah, I will stand by this, but I can't do it if you're going to back away and not come alongside me with this. And that's kind of where we go into.
Speaker 1:This next spot of like, what is that? We used to call them down south right. We used to call them come to Jesus meetings where, like I said earlier, in my opinion, the difference between a major issue and a catastrophic is the catastrophic loss of trust. Yeah, right, there's no trust left. I've over leveraged, like we're in big trouble. That come to Jesus is.
Speaker 1:I know from my experience of doing these jobs, if we don't come to an agreement and find that ground zero. I know what's happened in the past, it is what it is. Here's the plan moving forward, but we need to be partnered together moving forward on this thing, because if we're not, it's going to be a constant battle and a constant fight and it's going to be horrible experience for you and it's going to be a horrible experience for me, right? And so it's that come to Jesus meeting, or whatever you want to call that meeting that we're going to align in. We're going to draw the line in the sand and here are the steps that we are going to do, moving forward, and what you have to do is you have to put into play. Every Friday, I'm going to blah. Yeah, every Monday, you can expect this from me and you got to hit those marks.
Speaker 2:Well, and some of the honesty conversation hat in hand. You know in these difficult times that you're having this. It's if you're, if you can't complete the job because you're 15 grand over. You don't have a lot of money in your account. So I think it's even okay to say to the customer like listen, here are your options. You can fire me and hire a lawyer. I don't got the money for you right now so that to fire me and to replace me, I can get this done for 65 to replace me. It's going to be a hundred Right, and I don't want, don't want you to have to go through that.
Speaker 2:If you want to go that route, it is your prerogative. If you want to fire me and try to sue me for it, I get it. I understand that I'd be livid too. Or we can work together and I can get this done for you. There's 15 grand gap. I'm going to try to make it up, but I need you to help me get over this little hump to be able to buy some of the materials. I'm not asking for cash because they don't trust you anymore. Buy some of this. Do this X, y and Z. Be patient for me. I'm going to pull off for a week to get this other job going so I can get some cash to fund this. But I'm going to stand by this if you're willing to have me. But I need you to know I'm going to trust you and you're going to trust me in this. But if you want to move on from me, I get it. I understand that, but it does cost more than $65 for another contractor to come in here, have some bids, have some guys come in and bid it and see how much it's going to cost them to get it done. I can get it done for 65. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
Speaker 2:So having that conversation, but what we say about that conversation? I'm going to pause work. I'm going to pause work and have the conversation immediately, though. So I'm going to say I pull my guys off and say we need to have a meeting out there tomorrow and I'm going to have all my data, I'm going to have all my information and I'm not going to keep spending money that I don't have until we come to an agreement. And so I'm when he's like well, just get your guys out here and we'll figure it out. I can't.
Speaker 2:We need to have a game plan, or it's good, we're going to get deeper into this hole and it's going to get worse. So we need to have a game plan moving forward as a how we're going to solve this issue. Whether it's a change of scope, whether it's something I missed on the estimate, whether it's I'm just out of money, whatever it is like. We got to have a game plan for us to both move forward, to be comfortable and have a rebuild that trust together. So we're going to pause on the work. We're going to have the come to Jesus meeting, the game planning meeting, going to have your two to three options of how we can move forward that I've already thought through, and then we're going to come to an agreement and sign it and have an agreement on paper that says this is how we're going to move forward.
Speaker 2:You're going to fund the materials. I'm going to get the labor done. We're going to have X, y and Z done and at the end of the job, I'm going to cut you a $5,000 check within 90 days of finishing. Whatever it is, put it in agreement, put it in writing and sign it and move forward.
Speaker 2:What we want you to do is be your client's lawyer, look at it from their side and how they're going to pin you down. Because if I know how you're going to attack me, I can preemptively cut your legs out from underneath you in a kind way. If I know you're going to come at me for pulling off for a month and you're going to say well, you've already cost me time, bah, bah, bah, and I'm in a hotel, whatever it is, I can easily be like, before you even say anything, I'm like I know we had to pull off and I was trying to make money on the side to be able to fund this, because I really don't want. I wasn't ignoring you. I was just trying to get these other jobs done so I can pay and get this job and get caught up on this. Yeah, cut them out on any argument that they have by apologizing and explaining it away before they bring it up.
Speaker 1:Well, inevitably there's also going to be a tremendous amount of assumptions. Yeah Right, they're going to assume a lot of things about you, about how you operated, what you were doing, why you did what you did, all the different stuff, and so the more that you can defuse that with just the facts like, yes, you're right, I did. I did pull off for a month and it wasn't because I was not trying to work, it was because I knew where I was. I didn't want to have this conversation. I thought I could, I could knock this other job out and get back in and be back on track, and it just didn't work out, you know, but it's it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, clarity and one of the other words that I don't think we've used yet, but I think it's always really important when you go back to, like the importance of developing the skill as a business owner. I think a big piece of this is the word empathy, like, if you have the ability to be empathetic whether it's an employee, a subcontractor, a vendor, a client, whatever it is if you have the ability to have empathy, it doesn't mean becoming a wet blanket, right, but it means being able to put yourself in somebody else's shoes and see things from their perspective. If I can, I'm still going to maintain my perspective, but it helps me to see from their perspective. That will allow me to be able to listen better, engage better. That will allow me to be able to listen better, engage better, diffuse and deescalate them, because I'm able to understand what they're experiencing and what they're going what they've been through.
Speaker 2:Yeah, communication and empathy are two of the biggest tools that you have to solve this problem. I pulled this from a study and I wanted read it. Talking about what you're saying, a medical study showed that doctors with good communication skills experience about one-third fewer lawsuits compared to those with poor communication skills. The study suggests that simple communication improvements, like active listening and showing empathy, could significantly decrease the likelihood of being sued. Now, I know we're not doctors, but it's the same thing One third lawsuits for the people that communicate, show empathy and explain what's going on.
Speaker 2:It is the oh, I get you. It's the humanization of the person across the table versus the vilification of them. It's, you know, if they're not hearing from you, they don't know what's going on and you're just kind of hiding it, burying your head in the sand. This guy is screwing me. If you bring this communication and I understand what you're going through and I hate that. I've contributed to this situation. But this is where we're at and let's, I've got a game plan for us to move forward. They can at least humanize you and be like I've been there. I get it, I'm not mad, I'm not happy about this. I'm pretty upset, but I just want to get my basement done.
Speaker 1:Well, and at the end of the day I mean over the years, we've had to have a lot of those conversations because we've majorly screwed up jobs, just like everybody else, Right, and I would say, for the most part, nobody likes it, right, nobody likes being in that situation, but for the most part, almost every one of them have been able to at least move forward. We're not happy about it, but it is what it is, I understand, and we've been able to create forward movement and at least get to the end of the job. There have been a few that just the person just wasn't willing to listen, they were not willing to back down, they were not willing to help see how they contributed to the problem, um, and so from that point forward, it just continued to be an issue, right, and it just there's. There's no good way to get through that.
Speaker 2:Uh, own up to what you're doing, what you're doing and try everything we've said, but the one thing, one spot where I do draw the line is if they do hire a lawyer, if you get served with paperwork, if anything that happens, stop communicating with them. Yep, give that information to your lawyer. And that is the only time that I'm giving my client permission to stop communicating with the client, right, because anything you say can and will be held against you in a court of law, and so, if they're lawyering up about this situation, don't give them any more ammo. At this point. We're not going to put stuff in writing. We're not going to try to meet with them. We're not going to try to Smooth it over or whatever Mediate ourselves with this. We're going to take a lawyer. We're going to try to take it to arbitration. We're going to try to make a game plan and pass it through the lawyer.
Speaker 2:But yeah, this is, this is one of those situations that's very sensitive and it's a a lot of thought has to go into how you're going to handle this and, honestly, if you can just be honest, communicate and give empathy, you're doing 80% of the work. The last 20% is hoping that they've got a good attitude and are willing and can see the kind of the bigger picture of how to get out of this and they can see working with you to get out of this as their best path forward. But you can't force that to people. They got to find that on their own and if they want to lawyer up on one of these situations, then at that point you have to as well. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, you know. So we have a fair amount of experience ourselves with that and we've walked through this with a lot of our current coaching clients that they've been in situations we've coached them through. If you're interested, if you're going through a situation like that, go to ProStruct360.com, hit us up, send us a message, set up a time for a one-on-one meeting. We would be glad to process through with you, give you our thoughts, experience, advice on that. We really enjoy the opportunity to be able to do that with people.
Speaker 2:We're not lawyers, but we've talked with enough of them and we've dealt with enough situations and walked through. We can help you game plan that sort of thing, absolutely, and if you're in that situation, we'll have that conversation for free. We're not trying to charge people. We are consultants and we do have engaged with companies and help them solve some of these growth issues, but stuff like that. We're at the long-term relationship with you guys. So if you need help, reach out to us. If you have questions about even the minor stuff and how do I do this and what about this reach out. We love to have those conversations and we love to talk to you about it. So thank you so much for listening today and we'll talk to you next week, see you.
