How One Nebraska Construction Company Grew From $45M To $75M — Without Hiring A Single New Executive
In the last 5 years, our sales have grown from $45M to $75M. Our stock has doubled. It’s a new culture at Stephens and Smith.
What We Did
Implemented an in-house leadership program (ALP)
Coached high performers to develop leadership soft skills
Provided 1-on-1 coaching for job-specific application
Introduced High Payoff Activities and time management skills
Improved leadership communication and delegation
Key Outcomes
Revenue grew from $45M to $75M
Company stock value doubled
Bid win-rate increased by removing internal competition and improving communication
Table of Contents
Background
Many construction companies hit the same ceiling.
They invest heavily in technical training, promote their best people from the field, then those same high performers step into leadership roles without any training on how to lead. What follows is: leaders feel underprepared and overwhelmed. Teams become misaligned, and opportunities are missed. For Stephens & Smith Construction, this became one of the biggest bottlenecks to reaching the next level of growth.
Stephens & Smith is an employee-owned construction company known for quality work and a strong commitment to its people. With their philosophy, “An Owner on Every Project,” the company has built its reputation on their core values of “Quality. Integrity. Professionalism. Excellence.” That mindset goes beyond the job site. Today, it reflects a deeper focus on developing leaders behind every team. President and CEO Ryan Jones started in the field as a foreman and project manager. He worked his way up through the company, which fuels his passion for investing in people at every level.
As Stephens & Smith expanded across Lincoln, Omaha, and eventually Kansas City, leadership recognized that continued growth would require more than developing technical skills, which was their focus for years. Expansion brought the need for new leaders. The problem? The high performers they promoted were untrained in leadership.
They needed a way to transform skilled technical workers into leaders.
Challenges
As Stephens & Smith began consistently promoting top performers in field to step into leadership roles, they quickly realized the growing pains of that transition. New leaders often struggled with:
- Managing their time and priorities
- Delegating work effectively
- Communicating across teams
- Leading people instead of doing the work themselves
“When I first became a Department Head… I just felt buried all the time.” – Heath Svendsen, Vice President
Many felt busy all day but were not making real progress. And at the same time, the company faced a larger issue. Teams across departments, especially between Lincoln and Omaha, were not aligned. Instead of working together, they competed against each other and often operated in silos. This led to:
- Missed bids and opportunities
- Limited communication between teams
- Internal competition instead of collaboration
- Lost chances to capture more of the market
Without strong leadership skill development, these issues created ongoing growing pains and limited the company’s ability to scale.
Results
Stephens & Smith partner with Leadership Resources to implement an internal leadership development program, the Accelerate Leadership Program. This focused on bringing each locations leaders together to collaborate and grow their leadership skills as one team. Leaders were provided structure, coaching, and practical tools that could be applied immediately into their daily work. Key areas of focus included:
- Developing newly promoted leaders
- 1-on-1 coaching and real-time application
- High-payoff activity planning to improve focus and time use
- Communication and delegation skills
- Alignment and teamwork across departments
This finally gave their leaders a clear framework for how to lead, not just how to perform. Stephens & Smith saw significant improvements in both financial performance and culture. As the organization shifted from siloed teams to one aligned company, communication improved across locations and teams were able to pursue more opportunities together. They bid for more work and started winning it at a higher rate. As a result, revenue grew from $45 million to $75 million over five years. Company stock value also doubled.
Leaders became more effective in how they managed their time and responsibilities. As Project Manager Steve Estep shared:
“Something that would take 3 hours to do because of interruptions, I can now get done in an hour.”
Leaders also changed how they worked with their teams. Instead of directing everything themselves, they began involving others and creating shared ownership. As Project Manager Scott Christensen explained:
“It’s not just me dictating… they have some input. I think it adds buy-in and also helps delegating some of the responsibilities.”
The company also built a stronger leadership pipeline for their employee-owned company. Ryan Jones put it clearly:
“The next CEO of Stephens & Smith is sitting in the room… our current employees. And if we invest in leadership now, even with a small group, that mindset is going to go down to the next level and then they’re going to give it to the next level.”
Stephens & Smith overcame the ceiling that most construction companies face by investing in not only technical skill development, but leadership skill development through the Accelerate Leadership Program, positioning the company to capture more of their market. As Vice President Brett Richert put it:
“The return on investment has been incredible. The investment will pay the company back tenfold.”
"Without Leadership Resources, it would be very difficult for me to see where we would be because we wouldn’t have had the focus."
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