Wayne Schmidt is a results-oriented leader.
You might take that to mean he’s driven by business results — driving profits, new business and so forth. You’d be correct. But Schmidt, the principal and CEO of architectural firm Schmidt Associates, is driven by another type of result:
He wants every hire at his firm to result in an enabled, motivated and professionally fulfilled employee who can help drive growth at the firm, which generates $12 million in annual fees.
“If I serve your needs, you will allow me to lead,” Schmidt says. “We practice that as a core value of the firm, and internally that applies in that if staff sees me bringing in the work they want to work on, they’re being treated right and we’re results-oriented, they will have confidence in my leadership.”
Smart Business spoke with Schmidt about how you can find out what really motivates your employees and how you can use that information to better both the employee and your business.
Get to know your employees. There are ways to make it really complicated, but I’ve found the way to make it really simple: say you’re an employee. One of the things staff has to do before they’re hired, we want to know what their primary aim is. We want to know what their strengths are from a format we use called ‘predictive index.’ And I want to know what will make them successful. The question is, can we offer that here?
Once a person is hired, they go through an orientation program, during which we expect them to write goals. The staff is expected to set their own goals, because if we have people working from their strengths, they’re going to think about work on the way in each day, not just once they get here. So going back to servant leadership, if we hire the right people, motivate them and then stimulate that motivation toward results, they’ll become a leader in the firm, as well. Again, if I meet your needs, you’re going to allow me to lead.
We do career pathing twice a year, because it’s more about where their goals are and what they want to attain and achieve. Every staff person has a mentor, and we have an orientation program. Communication is the key here. As an example, I usually have lunch with a staff person once a year, in groups of eight or nine people, so they have an opportunity to ask me what they want to ask. You get the gist. There is a lot of communication.