StreamHome Construction Podcast

From Core Values to Concrete Results: Transforming Construction Culture

• Alex Kosley • Episode 13

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 What Are The Core Values That Are Critical To Your Company's Success?

What truly sets a construction company apart in an industry plagued by missed deadlines and budget overruns? Licensed General Contractor Alex Kosley reveals how StreamHome Construction is redefining client expectations through four carefully crafted core values that drive everything they do.

After working with a business coach to refine their company identity, StreamHome Construction has moved beyond generic principles to embrace specific values that guide their 13-member team. These values – Legacy Mindset, Owning Excellence, Radical Follow-Through, and Foundational Stewardship – transform how they approach every project and client interaction in the Colorado Springs area.

Alex explains how these principles combat common industry problems, particularly the practice of contractors underbidding projects only to hit clients with massive change orders later. "We want to tell the client it's going to be $160,000 from the beginning," he shares, highlighting their commitment to transparent communication and realistic expectations. This approach prevents the nightmare scenario of half-finished remodels when homeowners run out of funds mid-project.

Beyond merely posting these values on office walls, StreamHome Construction is implementing them throughout their organization with dedicated team meetings, integration into employee documentation, and regular accountability through personalized scorecards. This systematic approach ensures these principles remain central even as the company grows, creating a framework for evaluating both employees and decisions across all aspects of the business.

Whether you're planning an accessory dwelling unit, office upgrade, or major renovation in the Colorado Springs area, discover how StreamHome Construction's values-driven approach can deliver a distinctly different building experience. Ready to experience the difference? Visit www.Yourstreamhome.com or call 719-644-6777 for your free on-site consultation.

To learn more about StreamHome Construction visit:
https://www.YourStreamHome.com
StreamHome Construction
719-644-6777

Speaker 1:

Welcome to the Stream Home Construction Podcast, where we take your project from conception to completion. Hosted by Licensed General Contractor Alex Kozley, we cover everything from accessory dwelling units to commercial construction in the greater Colorado Springs area. Whether you're dreaming of a new ADU, planning an office upgrade or tackling a major renovation project, we've got the expertise to guide you through it. Let's get building.

Speaker 2:

Collaboration, craftsmanship and community. These values aren't just ideals. They're the foundation of every build at Stream Home Construction. Aren't just ideals they're the foundation of every build at Stream Home Construction. Welcome back everyone. Skip Monty, co-host, slash producer, back in the studio with Licensed General Contractor, Alex Cozley. Alex, how's it going?

Speaker 3:

Skip, I'm doing great. It's good to see you again. How are you doing?

Speaker 2:

Doing great man. Good to see you too. Still a great spring day, my favorite time of the year but it's great to see you again and glad you're back in the studio, because one of the things that you've talked about in several podcasts are the values that your company has and the basis for everything that you do. So, if you don't mind, why don't you tell us what are the core values that are critical to your company's success?

Speaker 3:

Yes, skip. No, I appreciate the topic and diving in on it, we're definitely excited about our core values and we don't just think of them as words to write on our business cards. I do want to. Before I jump into the values, I just want to set the tone and say you know, we're not perfect, but we are relentlessly pursuing excellence in our company and you'll see that these values set some high standards. So I just want to let everybody know like we're not a hundred% perfect in these things and I don't think anybody is but we're constantly pursuing them as a team. So I just want to put that groundwork out there before we dive in. So, yeah, kind of exciting is. We just recently updated our core values. Actually was part of getting connected with a business coach who is an entrepreneur and has gone through this process himself successfully and really just reevaluating like who are we, you know what are we doing, you know what's the vision for our company and you know, in conjunction with that, our core values. And we had core values in place before, but they were pretty generic and while they were good things like gratitude, humility, trustworthiness they weren't quite what we wanted. So we dug a little bit deeper with this coach and came up with some really specific core values that we're excited about and that we'll be rolling out to our team here. Actually, next Friday we have a meeting set up with the whole team, with a couple of coaches, and we're going to build some excitement around these and roll these out and really make sure the whole team's bought in and understands what we're talking about. So, with that said, yeah, let me go over our core values.

Speaker 3:

So, number one, legacy mindset. And when we say legacy mindset, what we really mean is we don't just build for today, we build for tomorrow. Every decision that we make shapes the future of our company, the lives we're building personally and the impact we leave on our clients and community for years to come. So we don't want to just show up, make some money, go home, go to rinse and repeat. You know, we want to change the community, we want to change lives. We want everyone on our team to accept responsibility for every decision they make and know that making the right decision is going to change their future for the better. It's going to impact our clients, the whole team and our community altogether. So that's what we're calling legacy mindset.

Speaker 3:

Our second new core value we call owning excellence. The idea there is. You know, excellence doesn't just happen by accident. Even just making a good plan for a project and a good schedule and then starting it, you know you have to constantly stay on it and work and drive to make things excellent happen. We're kind of swimming upstream in construction management. So excellence doesn't happen by accident. It's something we take full responsibility for, from our communication to our craftsmanship. We take pride in the quality of work and we hold ourselves to the highest standard, even when nobody's watching.

Speaker 3:

Our third new core value we call radical follow-through. So this isn't just follow-through, this is radical follow-through. This means that we finish what we start and then some Radical follow-through means we don't wait to be reminded, we don't cut corners and we don't let details slide. We keep our word all the way to the finish line. And lastly, foundational stewardship means that we treat every opportunity, which is every project, every consultation, every conversation, including this podcast, is something that we've been entrusted with, and stewardship in those situations means bringing care, integrity and long-term responsibility to everything we touch. So those are our four new core values. You can see definitely some overlap between them, some connections to the things we've been talking about. But again, yeah, we're really excited to be rolling those out and have updated from some more generic ones and really getting specific and digging in on that front.

Speaker 2:

Love them all, man, especially owning excellence. That's strong, you know, and lacking with a lot of, unfortunately, construction companies. It's you know that. And the radical follow through, because a lot of times you know, when you've got a contractor at your house doing something and they were supposed to do, they didn't do it and they disappear. So that's fantastic and differentiates you from the rest of the crews.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, we really have. It's not been in our official dogma or anything like that or doctrine, but we've tried to. We really want to be the antithesis of the stereotypical contractor and so that kind of wraps up what you were just saying and these core values are really like laying that groundwork out Absolutely Well.

Speaker 2:

How do you incorporate integrity into your contracts and client communication? You mentioned communication.

Speaker 3:

Yeah. So you know, in terms of integrity, we definitely aren't trying to take advantage of any of our clients. You know we try to be as forthright as we can. One of the ways that we, you know, I believe, stand out in that regard we do, you know, free consultation at the beginning of our design build process. And then we'll, after we meet with the client on their property and figure out what it is that they're looking to do, we want to give them a heads up as to what we think the realistic project costs are going to be. And you know we definitely try to be, you know, conservative in our estimates and we don't want to under promise and over promise and under deliver on timelines and on our budgets as well. So we try to give people a picture that's realistic.

Speaker 3:

I do think it's not uncommon to see, in contracting, contractors giving low prices that maybe aren't even well thought out or they're intentionally low, to try to lure a client into signing a contract. And then come the change orders and now they said it was 80,000 and they've left and it's 160,000. So we want to try to tell the client it's going to be 160,000 from the beginning for one, because we don't want to be in a situation where someone's $80,000 short for paying for their project or you put them in. You know it can. There's just a lot of complications. Sometimes you can really get into deep water with a situation and someone might not be able to pay for the rest of their improvements and have a half finished remodel or something like that. Might not be able to pay for the rest of their improvements and have a half-finished remodel or something like that.

Speaker 3:

It can be just a major inconvenience and something you know, just something we completely want to avoid. And so we want to just be as forthright about what the implications are of the process, how that could affect their day-to-day life, having construction going on on their site, what that looks like to their pocketbook and all those things. To just be upfront and clearly communicate to the client. And then you know, keep that same communication running through the project as well. To just be upfront, if a delay comes up or if there's a potential change order has been identified, to just bring those to the client's attention as quickly as possible so that you know, if any deviations from the plan arise, that they're aware of them as soon as possible.

Speaker 2:

Very good, well moving forward. Eyes that they're aware of them as soon as possible. Very good, well moving forward. How do you ensure that these values remain consistent as your company grows?

Speaker 3:

Because it sounds like you guys are really taking off. So, yeah, I mean it's a great question and something that we're working through right now. It starts out by really rolling these values out to the team. As I mentioned, we'll have a meeting company-wide, a couple-hour meeting, with some coaches. We'll build some excitement, get everybody bought in, really do some exercises to understand them.

Speaker 3:

Then, of course, we'll integrate them into our, you know, employee documentation. We'll have them posted, you know, around the office and in our job site binders. And then also, you know, as part of our accountability system for all our team members, we have scorecards and, you know, part of their scorecard integrates these core values. Essentially, you know, we, like I said, we're just updating these and we'll probably update the way that that looks like, but we at least want them to be thinking about them and taking them seriously and not just thinking of as a word and just to do at least a reflection.

Speaker 3:

Every month Did I exhibit this characteristic? You know, what can I do to be improving in this, just to keep it at the forefront of their mind. So, you know, those are really things and, of course, when we meet as a team, we'll be coming back to those values and team as a team and one on one meetings to revisit those and say is what is how we dealt with this situation in alignment with these core values or not? And gives us a better framework to evaluate employees and decisions across the board as a company.

Speaker 2:

Wow. Well, I tell you, that says a lot about a company when you can adhere to core values while rising out of the waves of success which it sounds like you're doing, alex. So congratulations, man. That's outstanding, especially rolling it out to your employees. I think that's something that's probably. How many associates do you have that are employees?

Speaker 3:

There's 13 total team members right now at Stream Home Construction.

Speaker 2:

Wow, I think it's incredible that you're getting buy-in from your employees first. That means everything. I really believe that.

Speaker 3:

Absolutely.

Speaker 2:

Congratulations, alex. Thanks so much, and we look forward to hearing more from you in the next episode.

Speaker 3:

Sounds great. Look forward to it.

Speaker 2:

Thanks, have a great rest of your day All right, you too, man See ya.

Speaker 1:

That's a wrap for this episode of the Stream Home Construction Podcast. Ready to bring your vision to life? Snag a free on-site consultation by visiting our website at wwwyourstreamhomecom, or call or text us at 719-644-6777. Until next time, let's keep building your residential and commercial dream in the greater Colorado Springs area.