Real Estate and Construction
Jackie Jennings
Co-owner and president, Johnson & Jennings General Contracting
By Mark Scott
Smart Business San Diego | May 2007
"I’m not here to be an employee. I’m here to run a business and grow a business." - President, Johnson & Jennings
Jackie Jennings sees a lot of similarities between growing a business and raising a family. Both institutions rely on a leader to handle
much of the workload at first, then gradually relinquish those duties as the years go by, and the children — or employees in the case of
a business — can handle additional responsibilities. The ability of the leader to delegate tasks and focus on the bigger picture goes a long
way toward achieving positive growth in either case. Jennings’ success in this area has helped lead general contracting firm Johnson &
Jennings to 2005 revenue of $48 million, up from $28 million in 2004, with 48 employees.
Smart Business spoke with Jenning, co-owner
and president of the firm, about building a winning culture and the value of taking time out to mourn mistakes.
Don’t be an employee. In the beginning of the
business, before I even had a CFO, I wrote
every check. As a small business owner,
there comes a time you have to make a
decision. Do you want to work as an
employee in your business, or do you want
to work on your business?
I’m not here to be an employee. I’m here
to run a business and grow a business.
That’s a difficult step. But once you get
into that mindset, you can start letting go of
things. It’s like having a child. It’s very hard
to let go. It’s hard to let them take that first
step, go to that first day of kindergarten or
get that driver’s license.
But each one of those is a progressive
step. All that is a process of letting go, and
a business is the same way.
Once you get that, it can change your
whole focus on everything you do. Your
focus then is to work on it as a business.
Stay connected, but don’t hover. I like to stay
connected with people and with my
employees without hovering. Concentrate
on not getting caught up in the minutiae of
things but in giving general guidance to people and being available without hovering.
Help employees build their own strengths
and what is unique to them.
I’m available. I’m around. Sometimes it’s
easy to get caught up in some details and
want to hover. I really just consciously try
not to hover.
Be a good listener. Enroll people in your
vision and get people on the same page.
Everybody has a different way of looking
at something. Sometimes you are all on the
same page and you don’t even realize it.
Make people realize that we’re all after
the same thing; we’re just looking at it from
a different point of view. Be receptive and
flexible.
Listen to people’s ideas about change. Try
not to be formulating your answer to somebody when they’re talking. Actively listen.
Ask them questions back. ‘Do you mean
this?’ or ‘Am I hearing you right?’ Pull it out
of them. The main thing is trying not to formulate the answer in my head while somebody is talking.
Accept failure and move on. We deal with let-downs all the time. We may not be awarded a job. How you deal with that and
respond to that is important.
A failure is a loss. Learn from it, get over
it and move on. But I think it’s OK to allow
yourself a little bit of sorrow about that and
to feel bad about it.
A lot of times, people think, ‘Just get over it.’
But let’s lament that we lost. You feel bad
about it and deny it. You go through all those
steps of loss. The idea is to go through them
pretty quickly and say, ‘OK, we’re over that
now, let’s move on. What did we learn?’
If they have made a mistake or had a
small failure, how is it going to serve you in
the future? I really emphasize that because
you learned that lesson, you will now be a
greater value to our business from learning
that lesson.
It could potentially save a lot of bigger
mistakes. They kind of breathe a sigh of
relief. You truly do learn from your failures.
Be open to change. Change is the most difficult thing for anybody. If you’re not always
recognizing new markets or the way businesses are getting things done because of technology, you will die as a business. It
just won’t happen.
When we started the business 26 years
ago, I had a typewriter, an adding machine
and a telephone. That was it, not even a
copier. It was tough for me when the fax
came, because I thought I cannot fax a bid
to somebody. I have to hand deliver this, or
I may not get this job.
You become invested in the way you do
business. It is really difficult for people to
change. As a leader, you have to be able to
cheerlead that through. You look at what’s
working and what’s still appropriate which,
obviously, you don’t change. What is changing in the industry or for your clients, you
need to embrace that and bring people
along with it.
Talk to your peers. Other people are going
through the same things you are. It can be
an environment to bounce things back and
forth, a common ground.
People that are in any profession, they get
together and brainstorm. You can’t be an
island. You don’t dream these things up on
your own. It’s usually a process.
Those are things that as a business
owner, you will not notice if you are working in your business and not on your business. If you have a job in your business and
you’re an employee of your business, you
will never notice those things. You are very
caught up in the day to day and you can’t
see beyond that.
Get yourself to a situation where you can
see the big picture. For me, what helps is to
physically be gone. The people that you
have trained and mentored, they step up to
the plate and go beyond.
One thing that really helps is there are
certain times during the year that I may be
gone. It has really propelled the people in
the company that have been in those
appropriate positions to go ahead. It’s stepping back when appropriate, just a consciousness of stepping back.
HOW TO REACH: Johnson & Jennings General Contracting,
(858) 623-1100 or www.johnsonandjennings.com
