Management Styles

One of the most important things you're going to need if you're going to act as your own general contractor is solid management skills. You'll be drawing on the talents and experience of a variety of people. Each person you manage will be different, and they will each perform in their own way. In order to get what you need from them, you need to recognize different personality types and figure out how to treat them to get the most from them.

For example, I've given over all my information to my architect (actually a residential designer). I haven't been comfortable with the amount of communication I've had with him since my first meeting where I gave him my drawings & written room-by-room requirements and we talked everything over. Now he's given me his first draft of the blueprints, and there are some things that were changed from my original drawing. At first, I was concerned I was not going to wind up with everything the way I wanted.

I had been concerned because he hadn't sought me out with any questions or to talk over any of the changes he had made. But then I sat down with him again with all of my comments on his first draft. He was very open and receptive. He expected that I would have a lot of feedback, and he commented that "this kind of discussion is what we need to do". And he explained the reasons he had made the changes he did. He had logical approaches for all his ideas. I decided to keep some of them, but changed most of them back to what I wanted.

The bottom line here is that this guy seems to like working alone without actively seeking guidance along the way, and then he fully expects me to come and provide feedback and critical input. I suppose I expected it to be a constant cooperative effort. When I didn't hear from him for weeks, I thought maybe he was a loner that wanted to do it his own way. But I understand now that I'm going to be able to get it all just like I want. I just need to approach him with comments and guidance.

I'm sure I'll run into people along the way who need to be constantly managed, and others that listen to me the first time and do it all on their own according to plan. Others will fall in between. Some construction workers might be motivated by constant site visits. Others might respond better to the occasional pizza for lunch or just a word of appreciation. Different strokes for different folks!