Contractors are incredibly hard workers and keen believers in the saying, “The harder I work, the luckier I get.” Is it true, however, that long hours translate directly to success? Author Morten Hansen, in his book "Great at Work," has the answers.

Early in his career, Hansen worked for a consulting firm where he had a colleague named Natalie. She was quite like Hansen in terms of education, intelligence, career stage and assignments. Yet Natalie was able to go home at 5:00 every day having produced more—with higher client satisfaction—than Hansen. He questioned, “How in the world does she do it?” The question lingered over the years, and Hansen concluded that Natalie worked smart. But what does that mean, and how can we adopt smarter working habits?

Hansen provided seven specific behaviors that can lead to working smarter, which may allow contractors to slow down the treadmill of ceaseless work. He defined working smarter as “maximizing the value of your work by selecting a few activities and applying intense targeted effort.” That intense targeted effort is the key.

Here are Hansen’s seven key behaviors:

1 | Select a small set of priorities and devote huge efforts toward them.
“Do less, then obsess” is how he phrased it. Having observed contractors for over 35 years, I’ve noticed their daily task lists are long and varied. They fail to define which among their behaviors has the highest, most unique impact. Where they should be specialists, they behave very much as generalists. Do less, then obsess.

2| Redesign your work.
Hansen wrote about a school principal who took over a miserably failing academy. Kids didn’t do their homework or come to class prepared. They experimented with videotaping the lessons because kids watch video, right? The children were to watch them at home at night. That also proved to be a flop. Then the principal decided to have them watch the videos during class time—and they began to excel. He flipped the traditional curriculum, and it worked. This redesign effort made a world of difference for these kids and their parents.

3 | Practice with a purpose.
Tennis legend Jimmy Connors had a unique way of practicing. Others would grind through hours of training and practice. Connors, however, only practiced about an hour a day. While his practice was relatively brief, it was highly focused and intense. Contractors can adopt that same strategy if they pare down the number of tasks on which they’re working and focus more intently.

4 | Seek roles where you can be passionate and serve a bigger purpose.
Those of us that love our jobs have passion about them, and our mission or purpose creates a more focused energy. Which among your varied roles gives you the most excitement and energy? Where does your passion lie? Find that space, and spend more time and effort there.

5 | Seek out advocates.
No one is an island, and you need people who will be your allies. That’s the beauty of peer groups. They provide a safe space where contractors who share similarities can be completely vulnerable knowing that their peers will advocate for their best interests.

6 | Fight and unite.
Conflicts are inevitable in construction. Most people prefer to avoid disagreement, but it’s not always a bad thing. I'm not talking about the kind of persistent conflict where you're at constantly at war with another. But when trying to decide on alternate courses, it’s unrealistic to always expect unanimity. When there is healthy disagreement, people must defend their perspectives, and that causes them to think. This is a constructive—not destructive—type of conflict that can lead to better outcomes. Once decisions are made, you rally back together as a team and support the decisions.

7 | Practice disciplined collaboration.
Meetings, while a necessary component of collaboration, are viewed as horrible time-wasters by most. Make your meetings short, disciplined and energetic, and learn to say no to potentially time-wasting events. Guard your time, and only attend meetings that have potential for high pay off.

About the Author

Wayne Rivers
Co-Founder/President, Performance Construction Advisors
Wayne Rivers is the president of Performance Construction Advisors.

PCA's mission is to build better contractors!
Wayne can be reached at 877-326-2493, [email protected], or on the web at performanceconstructionadvisors.com.