How to Build a Contractor Team That Actually Stays Loyal, A Houston GC's Honest Breakdown

I hear about bad contractors constantly. People who got screwed by a trade or a GC, projects that fell apart, money that disappeared. When I dig into the details I almost always find the same thing at the root of it. Bad communication and misguided expectations on both sides.

I was a GC for over 20 years. Thousands of projects. Dozens of trades on every one of them. I have never sued a trade or been sued by one. Not once. We always worked it out, sometimes after elevated tones and some choice words, but we worked it out. The reason I was always able to do that is simple. I stayed in the position of being the arbiter of integrity even when it cost me.

Owning my own mistakes was never easy and it happened a lot. If I told a client everything was included and forgot a room needed paint, that room got painted and I didn't charge them for it. And I didn't ask the painter to eat the cost of my mistake either. That's not how you build a team that stays loyal.

Greed is the number one thing that destroys construction projects. By property owners and by trades and GCs alike. Everyone agrees that people are fallible and imperfect in theory. But the moment a trade makes a mistake most people immediately think about what they can take rather than how to keep a relationship that's worth far more than the mistake costs. I would rather lose a thousand dollars on a project than lose a trade who makes me tens of thousands over the years. That math isn't complicated.

People always ask how my team is so loyal. The answer is that we don't give up on each other over failures and mistakes and we own our own behavior when something goes wrong. That combined with the fact that I genuinely enjoy the company of people who are passionate about their craft.

Learning personalities in construction takes time but it doesn't take forever. It's like figuring out who is full of it on social media or in an infomercial. You learn to read the phrasing, the terms used, the tone it's delivered in. Trust the people you hire and verify what they tell you until the track record speaks for itself.

Put in the work to build a real team. Honestly invest in building up the businesses of the people you work with. The GCs and trades you hire are just people who want success, a good life, and a satisfied client. Very few tradespeople are frauds or scam artists. Most of the ones labeled that way are just bad at communication and have decided it's pointless to try.

I walked onto one of my sites recently and found a 23 year old clean cut carpenter and a 70 year old heavily tattooed electrician crying laughing about something together. Their work was immaculate. That's what building the right environment looks like. It's not just the pay or the volume of work you can offer. It's about how working for you makes people feel.

People always say this is just business.

It's a business of people and personalities. Never forget that.

If you want to talk about building the right team for your next Houston project, let's talk.

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