Training for the Hard Stuff
In May, we celebrated our 25th anniversary as a company. It’s been quite a journey from a little red shed on Brian’s property, to 8 offices across the state with 340 employees. None of it would have happened without the loyalty and support of the clients we get to serve. Thank you to all of you who we get to work with.
We pride ourselves on building relationships with clients based on years, not projects. We want to be working together for the long haul, which is why everything we do and how we do it, is based on long-term thinking and not short-term results.
One thing we are intentionally working on to help us get to that 50th anniversary is focusing on training our people on how to get better at being the best teammate and leader they can be. Our leadership team has biannual meetings with all employees, biannual manager meetings with everyone who is in a leadership position, and an annual shareholder meeting. I can’t remember one talk or topic where we’ve ever discussed “how to engineer this” or “how to approach this project”. That type of training happens every day. Instead, all of our discussions and talks during those meetings are about how to be better people, leaders, servants to our clients, and perpetuators of our culture and way of doing things.
The engineering and project management is table stakes in our industry. You better know how to do that well. The difference maker inside your company and to clients is how you treat and serve people. That’s really the hard part. Especially, since all people are a little messy and there is no formula, any engineer can come up with for how to deal with this personality or how to overcome your own ego given a certain set of circumstances. We say it all the time, “this is a people business.” We have to learn how to handle ourselves, lead others, treat each other with care and respect, and provide good service. Do that and we’ll be just fine. Simple, not easy.
There is so much demand for our services right now, we just need the people to help us do good work for our clients. The increasing demand for electricity is creating challenges for the power industry to overcome and our clients need our help. We are always looking for good people. However, we won’t just hire anyone and not everyone gets to stay. You’ve got to be a good fit and you’ve got to buy into our culture because we ask everyone to put the TEAM above ME. That is a lot easier said than done.
Teams that have the right people, who communicate well, living out their values and culture, with the right mindset; can do some amazing things. The opposite of that is true too. There are many examples of sports teams with superstars who can’t win championships. Ego can kill a team. However, when everyone is working in unison following a common goal, dynasties can be built.
Do we do all of this perfectly? Absolutely not. We’re all a work in progress and we try really hard every day to do the next right thing for our people and our clients.
Yes, our people train to be good engineers, project managers, and technicians. We have plenty of that type of training and I’m proud to say, we’re pretty darn good at what we do. If we weren’t, we wouldn’t continue to grow. We can design and manage projects with the best of them.
The things that will continue to separate our people and our firm from others is that we intentionally focus on pushing ourselves to get better at the real hard stuff.
The people stuff.
Like putting others before ourselves. Noticing when someone needs an encouraging word and saying something. Leading by example. Building relationships one day at a time. Taking ownership when you fail and not making excuses. Checking your ego and emotions when dealing with someone you do not get along with. Finding grace for your teammate or a client because you never know what someone else is going through.
These are the everyday hard things in the engineering (people) business we strive to get better at each day and it will be the things that help sustain us and thrive for another 25 more years.
“Change isn’t about trying to be perfect….Human beings are never going to be perfect. The best we can do is to keep asking for help and accepting it when you can. And, if you keep on doing that, you’ll always be moving towards Better.” -Leslie Higgins – Ted Lasso