5 Leadership Lessons for Tradies from AH Fencing’s Adam Hall

Guest: Adam Hall

Episode: Season 1, Episode 17

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Adam Hall has grown AH Fencing from a small startup into a multi-state operation delivering projects for Tier 1 builders and government clients, built on a culture of empowered leadership.

Here’s what he’s learned about building a high-performance team culture in construction:

Lesson 1: Your Business Will Never Outgrow You as a Leader

Adam reached a point in AH Fencing's growth where he genuinely considered bringing in external leaders to help the business handle its increasing complexity. Sitting with the idea, he realised that even the best external hire wouldn't want to follow him if he wasn't continuing to grow himself.

"The business and the leaders within the business will never outgrow where I'm at personally and professionally," he says.

That realisation is what pushed him to get a personal mentor and coach, and to stop treating his own development as separate from the business's.

Lesson 2: How Micromanagement Disempowers Your Team

Adam went through a genuine phase of micromanagement, driven largely by a fear of losing control over what was happening across the business.

Even after consciously stepping back, he kept catching himself throwing in unsolicited opinions, hearing about a decision in the office and offering his take, thinking he was being helpful.

What he eventually realised was that even small, well-meaning input like that quietly removed accountability from the project managers he'd asked to lead their own teams.

"Even just throwing my two cents in, unprompted, was actually taking away accountability from some of my staff," Adam says. Letting the decision genuinely belong to his project managers, even in the small moments, turned out to matter more than staying available to help.

Lesson 3: Building an Honest Team Through Vulnerability

Every week, Adam's construction team meetings open the same way. Each project manager shares one challenge and one win from the week, specifically from a leadership point of view, not just an operational one.

"The first topic of the meeting every week is a challenge and a win that you've had, from a leadership point of view," he says.

He deliberately goes first, sharing something like the challenge of genuinely trusting his team to run projects while he was away on holiday, which he says gives the rest of the group permission to be equally honest.

"By the time you get to the last person, they're sharing their heart and soul," he says, and it makes the team stronger.

Lesson 4: Having Hard Conversations to Protect Team Culture

Adam is candid about having had to let go of staff members he genuinely liked, people he'd happily have a beer with, because their standards, whether showing up late or not wearing uniform, were dragging down expectations for the rest of the team.

"One of the huge practical ways you can show up as a great leader is by protecting your tribe," he says, framing internal culture threats as just as real a risk to a business as external ones like cash flow or lack of work.

Written warnings and genuine conversations come first, but avoiding the hard call because you like someone personally ends up costing the whole team.

Lesson 5: Using Leading Indicators to Reduce Business Stress

Adam became deliberate about building measurable leading indicators tied directly to what's actually caused him stress in the business in the past, rather than just tracking profit and loss after the fact.

Not having enough cash became a debtor-days target; not having enough staff became a monthly interview quota; not having enough work became a target number of quotes to go out the door each week.

"We've created KPIs and leading indicators around everything that's ever caused me stress in the business before," he says. Tracking the right numbers early, rather than reacting once a problem's already landed, is what's kept those old stressors from resurfacing.

Adam’s Advice on Everyday Leadership

"It's about getting to site 10 minutes early, showing up in a nice clean uniform, having a good attitude at work. Ask for help, be vulnerable, and love the industry," habits he says get noticed fast, and tend to be exactly what gets someone picked for the next opportunity.

Catch the full conversation with Adam Hall on Tradies Who Lead for more leadership lessons for tradies, out now wherever you listen to podcasts.