Why I Stopped Chasing Top Performers in Construction

Throughout my construction career, I remember giving some of my bosses a hard time about the people they wanted me to work with.

They thought they were doing me a favor.

They'd assign me managers who had great reputations within the company. People with years of experience, strong technical abilities, and a reputation for getting things done.

But I didn't always see them the same way.

Some of these individuals were incredibly difficult to work with. They complained constantly, challenged just about everything, disrespected their colleagues, and made situations far more complicated than they needed to be.

And yet, in the eyes of leadership, they were top performers.

I couldn't understand how we were seeing the same people so differently.

I Was Looking for Something Else

I remember telling my bosses that I'd rather work with someone who wasn't necessarily the most talented person in the room but was hardworking, dependable, consistent, and respectful.

Someone who understood that their responsibilities went beyond their own individual performance.

And don't mistake that for wanting people who simply agreed with me.

Some of the best managers I've worked with challenged my thinking regularly. I welcomed it. They saw things differently, questioned my decisions, and sometimes had much better ideas than I did.

That's how good teams operate.

But there's a difference between challenging someone because you want a better outcome and making everyone's job difficult because you think you know better than everyone else.

I wanted people who could get results without making the people around them miserable.

And I never understood why that was considered asking too much.

At one particular company, this difference in thinking became difficult to overlook.

Leadership had tremendous confidence in certain individuals. I saw firsthand how those same individuals behaved when leadership wasn't around.

Eventually, I realized I wasn't going to change those expectations on my own.

So I left relatively quickly.

There was no dramatic confrontation. I simply recognized that we had different views of what good management performance looked like.

But that experience stayed with me.

The People You See Aren't Always the People We See

Here's something I wish more construction owners and executives understood.

You can spend 10, 20, even 30 years building and running a successful construction company and gradually lose touch with how your managers actually work together.

It's not because you stopped caring, it's becuase YOUR responsibilities changed.

You're managing executives, reviewing financials, meeting clients, and making decisions about the company's future.

But something else changes as you move further up the organization.

People start behaving differently when you're in the room.

I've experienced this more times than I can count.

An owner or executive sits in a project meeting. Everyone discusses schedules, budgets, manpower, production, and the challenges ahead.

The conversation sounds productive. People agree on priorities. Everyone appears to understand their responsibilities.

The executive leaves feeling confident that the management team is aligned.

But I can promise you that in many organizations, those same conversations go very differently when leadership isn't around.

The disagreements become more personal. The finger-pointing starts. People dismiss one another's concerns, question decisions they previously supported, or refuse to take responsibility.

Not every manager. Not every company. But it happens often enough that it deserves far more attention.

And the people experiencing those behaviors every day aren't always comfortable bringing them to leadership's attention.

That's what makes this particularly difficult.

The owner may genuinely believe the management team is operating according to the company's values.

Meanwhile, the people working alongside those managers are experiencing something entirely different.

And over time, that disconnect can affect morale, communication, accountability, and ultimately how effectively the company operates.

Experience Gives You a Different Perspective

I've never owned or operated a construction company, and I have tremendous respect for those who carry that responsibility.

But I've spent 25 years in construction, leading crews, estimating major projects, and working across different levels of organizations.

I've been close enough to the work to experience how management decisions actually play out, how departments interact, and how people behave when the executives aren't sitting beside them.

That's a perspective I've developed over decades, and it's an area of construction management I understand exceptionally well!!!

I've also learned that many of these problems aren't simply the result of having the wrong people.

Sometimes capable managers have spent years working in environments where certain behaviors were accepted, overlooked, or even rewarded.

And when nobody challenges those behaviors, they become part of how the company operates.

That's why I believe developing management performance requires more than improving someone's technical abilities.

It requires understanding how people communicate, make decisions, handle disagreements, take responsibility, and influence the performance of others.

The manager who produces the most isn't necessarily the manager contributing the most.

Maybe We're Measuring the Wrong Things

Looking back, I don't regret challenging my bosses about those assignments.

I respected their experience and understood why they valued certain individuals. But I also knew what I was experiencing firsthand.

And those two perspectives didn't always match.

Today, I still believe some of the most valuable managers are the ones who do their jobs well, treat people with respect, take responsibility, and make everyone around them more effective.

They may not demand the most attention or have the biggest reputations.

But their contribution extends far beyond their individual results.

And I wonder how many construction companies overlook those people while continuing to celebrate individuals who make everyone else's job harder. Yeah, you know, the VERY loud ones!!

If you weren't sitting in the room, would your management team still demonstrate the same values, respect, and accountability you believe your company stands for?

All the best,

Gerard Aliberti
Pro-Accel, Owner

EXCITING NEWS

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Ways We Can Work Together

Employee Performance Training. Role-specific training for PMs, Estimators, Superintendents, Field Engineers, and emerging leaders. The focus is practical. Better decision-making, stronger ownership, greater accountability, and employees who understand how their role impacts project and company performance.

Operational Performance Advising. For contractors who know things could run better but need an experienced outside perspective to identify where performance is breaking down. We work through leadership, accountability, communication, project controls, team structure, and the operational issues affecting profit and growth.

Fractional Operations Leadership. Senior-level operational support without adding another full time executive. I work alongside ownership and leadership to strengthen how the company operates, develop the people already in place, clarify responsibilities, and reduce how much has to find its way back to the owner.

Leadership and Organizational Development. As contractors grow, the people and structure that got them here may not be enough to get them where they want to go. I help develop stronger leaders, clarify who owns what, and build a team capable of taking on more responsibility as the company grows.

The goal across all of it is pretty simple. Better people. Better decisions. Better operations. Better results.

If any of this sounds like something your company is working through, reply to this email and let’s talk.