The "Level Up" with Duayne Pearce Podcast
I take on the role of an authoritative voice that fearlessly communicates truths drawn directly from my lived experiences. With a genuine sense of ownership, my insights are free from any hidden agendas – they truly belong to the audience. My stories and journey add remarkable value, the key now lies in harnessing its power effectively to help others.
My purpose is to create a new residential building industry. My mission is to inspire unshakable self-confidence in my colleagues in the industry, empowering them to orchestrate prosperous, enduring, and lucrative businesses that bring exceptional projects to fruition for our clients.
My goal is to foster a deeper comprehension among clients about the identity and functions of builders, redefining their perceptions.
The "Level Up" with Duayne Pearce Podcast
You Can't Change People So Don't Get Frustrated By Them
#155 In this episode, we dive deep into the realities of leadership, frustration, and personal growth as a business owner. Discover why you can’t change people—and why that’s okay. Drawing from real-life experiences in the construction industry, we explore how to manage expectations, communicate effectively, and build a stronger, more adaptable team.
Check out the Duayne Pearce website here...
https://duaynepearce.com/
It used to make me so angry.
Speaker 1:Why am I paying all these people a lot of money? Why do I have to hold everybody's hand all the time? It used to really get to me as a business owner. No one's ever going to be as passionate about the business as you are. No one's going to understand the pressure that you're putting yourself under. You've got to be able to lead by example and you've got to be able to adapt. That's probably the biggest thing I've learned when it comes to leadership. G'day guys, welcome back to another podcast in the shed. This afternoon we are up for another cracking episode, another solo one, today, and this one is all about you can't change people, so don't get frustrated by them. Look, this is a hot topic that's been coming up quite a bit lately. A few people have reached out to me on socials about it and my wife and I have actually had a few conversations about it with, I guess, just with all the wet weather and what's been happening across a couple of our businesses over the last six months. So I just want to talk you through. Everything I talk about on this podcast is my. I live and breathe it, I love it and I like sharing my stories, because if my stories can help other people change their life, be successful, realize that they're not the only one dealing with something, then I'll continue to put this podcast out. So the reason I wanted to talk about you can't change people, so don't get frustrated by it is one of the things that for a long time, used to put my stress levels through the roof and I would literally just be fuming all day. Every day was because I'd turn up to my job sites and like, just I can turn up to a job site and within five I was gonna say five minutes, but like, honestly, it'd probably be five seconds I can look around and I can see things not getting done the way I would like them done, people being very inefficient, rubbish, something not being done the way I've told someone to do it, like all these things. And it used to make me so angry and a lot of the time I'd be like, well, why am I paying all these people a lot of money? Like, why am I paying lead carpenters? Why am I paying a supervisor to be here and oversee all this? Why am I paying a contractor? Like, why do I have to hold everybody's hand all the time and it used to really get to me and it would make me very frustrated. There'd be a lot of yelling on my job sites and then all that that would just make everything worse because then the people that I was yelling at would get frustrated and then shit would just it wouldn't get done any better. If anything, it'd get done slower and worse and it was just a horrible cycle. That would happen quite regularly and it's only really been in the last few months. Well, actually I've started really getting a lot better at this for a couple of years, but in the last couple of months I've just sort of had this.
Speaker 1:I don't know if epiphany is a word, I don't know if I've ever used that word in my life, but anyway. But we're all different and over the last four or five years since I've been doing a lot of personal development um, doing like understanding my persona, my personality, um doing disc profiles multiple times for myself, my team, other people in my business even Camille and I have done dis profiles but just getting a better understanding of other people and how other people operate has really made me just step back and and calm down and not get as frustrated when I turn up to sites and stuff's not being done. And I think the reality is that, as a business owner like there's, it's few and far between like no, no one's ever going to be as passionate about the business as you are. No one's going to understand the pressure that you're putting yourself under, and I can give you a few examples of this. Like I've got a real example going on with this at the moment. Um, like I put my, I'm putting extra pressure on myself and because of everything that I'm working on and then that flows through, to just making sure, or trying to make sure, that everything is flowing like clockwork. And reality is it's never, ever going to all flow like clockwork. And so at the moment I've got in one of my businesses. I've got quite a big situation going on that we're working through one of our other businesses. We're going through quite a few changes. We're bringing in new staff, we're changing things up a little bit. My personal brand level up. We got a lot of stuff going on with. We're still sort of wrapping up from the big event that we did. We're tossing up whether we do another one next year.
Speaker 1:My building business has, like right at the moment, over just over 13 million dollars worth of work on. They're all quite big projects and there's just a lot going on on top that. My wife and I have got multiple contracts on different developments and properties and like we're trying to sell properties, we're trying to buy properties. We've got properties that we've got DAs in getting done for. We've got properties we're waiting on building approval for.
Speaker 1:Like there's a lot of stuff going on and one job in particular at the moment it's one of the most complicated slabs we've done in a very long time and it's it's got suspended concrete rooftop gardens, it's got exposed detailed block work. There's not a straight, there's not a right angle in the whole job. It's quite a complicated slab. It's got a huge amount of steel in it and then, because we've got so much work on, our guys are spread pretty thin and with how busy the industry is, we've already rebooked and rescheduled this slab once and if you're a builder or concrete out there, you'd know what I'm talking about. Like you've literally got to book concrete four to six weeks in advance. You got to book pumps, you got to book concreters, like there's so many things that go on and for an outsider that's sitting back um well, not even an outsider. But like for the guys on site, the ones that, like the guys that just turn up, do their job every day, they're just there to do their task. They have no idea or understanding of everything else that's happening behind the scenes. Um, and like that's become pretty evident from a few of our team members by some of the questions that they ask, but they just like a lot of and this is across the industry Like there's a lot of people that just turn up.
Speaker 1:It doesn't matter what trade they are, but they turn up every day and they're only thinking about their task. And something I've come to realize is that's fine, but that's completely fine. Like they don't have to know everything that happens behind the scenes, they don't have to know what happens if that doesn't happen. Like it's not their job and they're just quite happy to come to work every day, do their task and and leave it at that.
Speaker 1:And I quite often was getting caught up and just thinking like why don't you care? Like where, where's the urgency? Why are you not getting stuck into this? Like do you understand how much? Like what the possible cost implications are and what the delays are and how the client's going to feel if this doesn't happen and that's why I've come to realize, like it, it doesn't you can't get frustrated about other people on job sites or other contractors, because we're all different and even though I might have my everything on my radar, everything that's going on in all my businesses and all these moving parts, and even if it's not that, even if it's just the I'm talking like the one job, it's not up to the plumber and the electrician or even my own team on site to understand everything else that's happening next week, the week after one month down the track on that job. And so I've learned just to take a deep breath and step back and just give the people the information they need to complete their job, to do it well and to help you achieve the task that you're trying to complete.
Speaker 1:So, on this one particular big job we've got, at the moment I talk to my supervisor about a lot of things, like he has to have his head over everything, he has to know worst case scenario, what happens if we don't make deadlines, and he has to be talking to all the other trades, thinking ahead and all that sort of thing. But the carpenters and the apprentices on site we just need to make sure that we're giving them very clear instructions day to day on what they need to be done so that we all meet the end goal and same with the form workers, that we've got the form workers on that job, so they don't need to know what my team are doing, what the plumber's doing, um, and when a crane's coming and all that sort of thing. We just need to make sure that we're very clear and precise. We have a conversation with them and we talk to them about how long do they think they're going to take, when do they think they're going to have this ready, and then talk to them all right, well, if, are you confident in that? Because if you're confident that we're going to book the steel fixer for the day after that to come in and he's going to start doing his first layer of steel um, that'll. That means you can go away to another job for a two or three days. We'll get him to get all his first layer in um and then that's it, leave it at that and then, so he just knows he's got to come back in three days time we don't have to tell him that once the steel fixer's got the first layer down, we've got the plumber coming in to do all of his pipe work and then, once he's been, we got the electrician coming in to do all these conduits. And then, once they've done all their conduits, my team's going to come through and they're going to frame up all the rebates in the slab and then, once that's done, we're going to get the steel fixer to put the second layer of steel in and then, once that's done, we're going to pull some lines and make sure everything's sweet and then, once that's done, the steel fixer is going to do all these upturned beams. And then, once that's done, you can come back, and I for a long time I think that's I was trying to give everybody too much detail, which was leading to a lot of frustration because I thought they didn't care, but I was giving them information that they didn't need.
Speaker 1:And so one thing I can't stress enough is if you, if you want to be efficient on your job sites, if you want to achieve goals, then you've got to make sure each individual has the right information. You're very clear on expectations and if you have to, you draw things like I. I was taught you always I called them storybooks, whereas now we've every one of our jobs has got detailed whiteboards and ask people if they're unsure, if they're not clear, or even if you're hesitant for a minute, if you think that they're not quite getting what you're telling them, go to the whiteboard. If you haven't got a whiteboard on site, grab a bit of cardboard, grab an off-cutter ply or something, but write it down. Just by writing things down has allowed us in my building business to eliminate or probably mitigate is a better word.
Speaker 1:I think, as builders, a lot of what we do is we're always mitigating. We're mitigating delays, we're mitigating problems and always trying to come up with solutions. So give the right people the right information. Don't overload them with too much information. And I think as builders, if you're a builder listening to this podcast, you've got to make the time to show up when you're needed so you might not have to be there every single day. But a lot of builders, I personally believe these days, feel that they can just rely on their trades too much and think that they can run a building business from the office or from driving around their truck. And that's possibly that's fine if you're doing very simple, straightforward work, but if you want to do quality work, you want to produce quality results, then you need to make sure you're on your sites at crucial times to make sure that every contractor understands exactly like you set expectations and you give everybody the opportunity to give you feedback and work together to make sure you achieve the outcome that you're wanting to achieve. And on my projects, I've just even today, I've just been out on this big slab that we're doing. It's a crucial point. We're pouring that slab in three days' time.
Speaker 1:Today was a crucial point. We're sort of two-thirds through the prep and I knew that I had to get that job today to just get an overview of it, to talk to everybody on site, talk to the supervisor, get clarity around the schedule, make sure everybody's on track completing their task and look it was. It was like, luckily, I went out to that site like everyone was so head down, bum up, getting shit done. Having a set of fresh eyes, just walk around the job and pick some things up was very valuable, because there was a lot of spots where the steel was too close to the ground. The chairs had sunk down. We've had a lot of rain. There was some steel touching some brick and block work that shouldn't have been. So I was able, like I was on site for two hours, but I was able to go around, talk to each individual, I guess, set new expectations around what I wanted, show them what I was unhappy with and how I wanted it resolved, and then I, for an hour, I actually worked with them and and helped some of the younger guys understand why I was picking on the things I was picking on and why I wanted it done a certain way. Um, so yeah, there's, I think it's.
Speaker 1:It's really important to realize like you can't get frustrated by other people just thinking that they don't care or they're not interested, because we're all very, very different and I think, as a business owner, it's our responsibility, like we, to be a good leader. You've got to show up all the time. You've got to be able to be very clear with people. You've got to be able to lead by example and you've got to be able to adapt. Like. That's probably the biggest thing I've learned when it comes to leadership in the last couple of years is a leader has to be able to adapt to every single different type of personality persona. You need to listen to people. You've got to be able to communicate very well, but even the way you communicate with people changes depending on the type of person they are, and I feel like it's a reason why our industry has so many problems, because everyone, like I know I did this for a long time Like I see the older guys in my team I have to pull them up on it now They've definitely got a lot better but I see so many contractors doing this as well, and that is treating everybody in your team the way you were treated and I've learned now that that's not going to get you anywhere the way that, whether you were taught five years ago, 10 years ago, 15 years ago, the world's changing.
Speaker 1:And it's funny like we recorded a podcast a couple of weeks ago with an old bricklayer, absolute cracker of a guy's real character, and he pointed out really well, like he's been a brickie for 43 years or 42 years, and he was saying like he's literally a brickie for 43 years or 42 years, and he was saying, like he's literally like every 10 years, things change. So he's seen four, lots of changes. And it really highlighted to me like he's 100 correct, like I've seen, I've been in the industry nearly 29 years now, so, yeah, I've experienced three, lots of generations, I guess, um, and we're all very, very different. We can't be teaching like we can't get frustrated at our apprentices because of how they're doing things, what they're doing, how they're learning, because they're very, very different people to what we were when we were taught, doesn? It doesn't matter whether it's 10 years ago, 20 years ago, 30 years ago. It's a different world now. It's faster paced. Everybody's onto technology, everybody's on love it or hate it, everybody's on their phones and so we need to learn to adapt to that and we need to teach things very differently.
Speaker 1:And something I've seen happening in my team is the more that I encourage people to be themselves and to step up and make us aware if something's not right or they're not comfortable or they didn't quite understand things. That's flowing through the whole team. And even the older guys like myself that were taught like man, like run around the site, like literally get shit thrown at you, get kicked up the ass if you fuck something up or did something wrong. We cannot do that anymore and we shouldn't do that. So we're seeing a lot of growth in our team by just being vulnerable, having open conversations, getting the team involved, like I, I make sure every time I turn up to my job sites before I leave. We have a quick team discussions or sometimes it's quick, sometimes it might be five, ten minutes, other times it could be half an hour. But just having those conversations, checking in on everybody, asking everybody if they've got any questions, got any problems, asking everybody are they happy with what's going on, asking if they've got any feedback on what's happening on site, on the schedule, the work they've been doing, doing that on a regular basis is huge and I feel by doing that the more often you do that and make that a standard part of your site visits, the more your team will see that you're a good leader but the less chance there is of you getting constantly frustrated all the time that shit on site's not what you expect it to be.
Speaker 1:And one thing I get told from a lot of members in my Live Life Build business is the biggest struggle for a lot of builders or business owners it doesn't matter whether you're a builder or a tradie is when your business gets to that point where it's big enough that you need to step away. You need to spend time doing administration work and taking that step back from site and look, I, I'm, I feel you, I hear I I still, uh, get that sort of situation myself. I'm having that on that big slab I'm doing at the moment where I'm like, fuck, I've got so much shit to do, I've got meetings to have, I've got shit to organize like I can't be here all the time, but it's a big slab, it's a complicated slab, like I want to be there, I want to be checking everything, like, and all I'm thinking all the time is like is this going to be right? Are they going to pull it off? Is it going to be ready on time?
Speaker 1:And in my head I'm thinking like, fuck, if this isn't ready and we don't get this clean and we've got to, like, we can't delay it, we won't get frustrated by how other people are, because we're all different and I can't I can't force people to learn like me. I don't want people to learn like me. The reason we're a team and the reason we get so much done and the reason we work well together is because everybody's different. We all have different strengths and weaknesses and really, as a leader of the team, it's up to me to work with the team to gel all those strengths and weaknesses together and figure out who's good at what, who gets anxious about something, who doesn't like doing a particular task, why they don't like doing that task, all those things like. The more you can figure that out with your team, um, the the better your work environment is going to be, the more work you're going to get done. Productivity, efficiency, all that stuff will improve, because you won't just be turning up to side of the time going off and complaining about why shit's not getting done and why it's not happening the way you want it to happen.
Speaker 1:So, guys, look, I think this is a topic that needs to be discussed more like like there's so much frustration out there because we all expect a lot from everybody but we have no idea and we don't understand who they are, how they operate, what type of persona, personality, they are, and people aren't putting the effort into it. I personally believe that every single person should be made to a dis-profile, and dis-profiling is something that has helped me out incredibly with understanding myself, with my relationship with my kids, with Camille and I, and with my team. So stop getting frustrated in the people around you, because you can't change them, but what you can do is learn about yourself and learn about them. Go and check it out. Check out what a dis-profile is and look, guys, if you've got questions, reach out to us. If there's something in particular you want us to talk about on this podcast, let me know.
Speaker 1:But look, as usual. I hope you got a lot of value out of this podcast. You might be sitting there thinking you're the only one out there in the industry that gets frustrated about people that work for you or contractors or whatever, but believe me, you're not. Anybody that employs people or has a business deals with this every single day. So, guys like, comment, share, subscribe all the things that you have to do to make this podcast successful. We really appreciate everybody listening and look, we'll see you on the next one. Cheers, guys.