(A thought piece for leaders who know coaching isn’t just for sport)

Every month I chat with business leaders across construction and property who tell me the same thing, often with a sigh and a coffee that’s gone cold. “There just aren’t enough good people out there.”

And sure, the industry is short on bodies. But short on capability? I’m not convinced.

When you look at how many people actually work in construction, it’s not that the whole workforce is flatlining. It’s that the environments they’re in vary wildly in how well they develop people. Some teams bring out the best in their staff, and others… not so much. Outside of a handful of businesses, very few consistently create high performers. Some get lucky and pick up someone who becomes a gun through their own mindset and hard work, only to lose them when they get fed up working alongside less capable co-workers. But not many companies can genuinely say they take “okay” performers and regularly turn them into high performers.

That got me thinking, and yes, the sport science background comes in handy here. Maybe we’ve fallen into the trap of trying to buy finished products rather than building them.

As the new(ish) Manchester United owner Jim Ratcliffe said recently: “I would rather sign the next Mbappé than spend a fortune buying success… it’s not that clever buying Mbappé. Anyone could figure that one out. More challenging is to find the next Mbappé or next Bellingham or next Roy Keane.”

(For the non-football crowd: Mbappé and Bellingham are two of the best on the planet right now. Roy Keane was one of the best midfielders of his generation.)

Anyone who’s watched football for longer than five minutes has seen this. A gun player goes to Manchester United, looks like they’ve forgotten how to play, then moves to Barcelona (or basically any other team lately) and starts gliding around like a magician.

Same player, different:

And the same thing happens in business.

It’s rarely that a person suddenly becomes brilliant overnight. It’s that their environment changes. Most people never reach their ceiling unless someone helps them get there. Some leaders naturally draw out performance; many don’t. And that gap, more than anything, separates average teams from great ones.

I’ve also seen plenty of managers who can’t develop people properly spend the rest of their careers giving negative references to staff who later go on to achieve great things elsewhere. Funny how that works.

Construction and property companies often go hunting for the “perfect fit”:

It’s the plug-and-play fantasy, the unicorn candidate who walks in and fixes everything. And don’t get me wrong, I make a living hunting for these people, so I’m not complaining. Long may that continue

But here’s the quiet question worth asking:

How many of us actually have the coaching systems to turn someone capable into someone exceptional?

Not talking about the elite freaks, every industry has a Messi or Ronaldo or two. I’m talking about the massive middle band of the workforce who could be high performers with proper coaching. The bulk of the people the industry relies on.

Hosting The Building Talks Podcast shows me there’s light at the end of the tunnel. There are operators genuinely investing in developing people.

Richard Austin at Omni talked about using psychometrics to understand what motivates each person. Not to pigeonhole them, but to coach them properly.

Alana “Lu” Lupi, who mentors dozens across the industry, has basically created a side-career helping people access the support they aren’t getting internally. Impressive for her, quietly concerning for the industry. It tells us many businesses still lack internal coaching structures.

Then there’s Kapitol, where David Caputo and Andrew Deveson recorded around 13,000 hours of training last year (roughly 30 hours per head). And even then, Andrew said: “I fucking hate our training. It makes me wanna puke. We’ve got it started and it’s great and we’re seeing the benefit… but it’s not where it should be.”

That’s the mindset.

Not perfect, just intentional. Improving. Acknowledging that if you want the best people, you have to create them, you can’t just buy them pre-assembled.

(Though, for the record, I do know a recruiter who’ll help you find the unicorns when required.)

If you're leading a team, maybe ask yourself:

Not as judgement, just honest reflection.

After nearly 20 years in recruitment, I can tell you this: very few people perform at the same level in every environment. Most people become high performers only when conditions allow it.

I know I’ve performed better in some recruitment environments than others, some due to my own mindset, absolutely, but also because the culture and support let me improve without being hammered for mistakes.

One of the sharpest lines in business still stands:

“Train people well enough so they can leave, treat them well enough so they don’t want to.”

Development isn’t a cost.

It’s protection.

It’s retention.

It’s your competitive edge.

Is the industry short on people?

Yes.

Is it as short on talent as we all say?

Probably not.

What we might really be short on is:

Plenty of organisations are still trying to buy high performers instead of creating them. But the ones who win long term? They build such strong development cultures that competitors try to poach their people, but no one actually wants to leave.

That’s culture.

That’s coaching.

And that, more than any unicorn CV, is what builds a high-performing team.

But like I said, feel free to disagree, I’m more than happy to help you headhunt your industry’s Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo. After all, someone has to hire them… may as well be you.