Q. How do you determine what information
to provide?
For instance, if we are negotiating for something … and it
may be a difficult situation or
it may be potentially a really
exciting situation, we don’t get
all that out there in the firm.
We wait until we’ve accomplished our objective, and then
we share it.
The other thing we have to
be careful about, of course, in
this day and age, is confidentiality of business information.
Every document we put out
there to our staff says, ‘This is confidential SHP Leading
Design information. Please do
not share without permission
of an officer of the corporation
with anyone else.’
So, we do have things that
we only share internally.
Q. How do you find people
you trust to work at your firm?
I think your greatest test is
when you work with somebody for a year or more, you
begin to understand where
they fit in the life of the firm and whether they fit. You have
to be willing to face both situations. Reward those who fit,
even sometimes at your own expense. That is providing
them the incentives needed.
You also may have to face
those who you may like and in
some ways admire, but they
just don’t cut it in the firm and
the goals of your firm. You
have to be willing to face that.
Try to be humane about it, and
to find a way to help them find
their career elsewhere. But,
you have to be willing to face
that. If you don’t, your firm is
going to go down the tubes
ultimately.
There have been a number
of people that have come
through here who I like, I
would trust, but they don’t
have the skills that we need.
They don’t have the ability to
apply the skills we need and
make positive things happen
for the firm.
Q. Can a company with
integrity still fail?
Absolutely. The long-term
benefits of honesty and integrity are much greater than the
long-term benefits of anything
else you can do. That doesn’t
mean you don’t have to be
smart, you don’t have to be
opportunistic. You do. You
have to be on top of your
game at all times.
A leader can’t appear to be
behind the times or they can’t
lead. So, I keep in touch with
my young people a lot because
they’re the ones just filled
with new ideas. They’re much
more into what’s going on,
and I try to stay right with
them because they’re not
going to respect me if I talk
about the good ole boy network — this is the way we’ve
always done things. We don’t
do that here.
HOW TO REACH: SHP Leading Design, (513) 381-2112 or www.shp.com
