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You couldn’t be successful at her office without having conviction, reasoning, and the courage to stand up for your thoughts and ideas. She always sought “think on your feet” landscape architects to work alongside her. Those landscape architects embodied all of these traits because they, in any given situation, could act, react, and interact in ways that honored the profession and CRJA. Seventeen years after leaving CRJA, I still, and always will, think of Carol as my most important mentor. TZL: How much time do you spend working “in the business” rather than “on the business?” EL: MKSK places tremendous importance on the CEO being active in practice. Without this requirement, I wouldn’t have been interested in this role. What this means is that I spend about half of my time working with clients and teams on projects. This keeps me close to what it is we do, how we do it, and how we need to adapt. I’m also able to directly hear from clients and can collect feedback on our performance and the perception of MKSK in the marketplace. Those insights are essential for me to strategically guide the firm and maintain a strong connection to our team. TZL: What do you feel is the greatest challenge affecting the AEC industry today? How is your firm setting up to meet it? EL: There’s a shortage in qualified and talented workers. In the planning and landscape architecture realm, this is intensified in that client needs and resulting work is outpacing the number of graduates coming out of our colleges and universities. Competition is fierce. Companies hoping to stay relevant and thrive well into the future need to invest in their people and in their own knowledge base. On the people side, we’re committed to making MKSK sought-after as a top place to work with ample growth opportunity. We’re intentional in how we staff our projects, gather as a company, talk about our work, and recognize our talented professionals. Our office environments are collaborative, creative, and lively, but unique for each location. We strive to create a culture of “One MKSK” where we’re connected to a unified attitude and there’s a sense of belonging to a large company with vast resources. All of this, plus fun events and great benefits, help us to recruit and retain top talent. But we understand there’s more to it. We deliberately and thoughtfully plan for personal growth at each level, ensuring long-term leadership development, succession, relevance, and vitality. Part of that is developing advancement plans for
identified future leaders and improvement plans for those who underperform. We believe in applied learning and give our staff project-based growth and client interface opportunities. We develop more trust in our staff, assign greater responsibility, reinforce successes, and use missteps as teaching moments. TZL: Trust is essential. How do you earn the trust of your clients? EL: Elevating to trusted advisor status with a client is one of the best rewards of a work relationship. To do so, you need to be mission aligned, bring inspiring ideas to the table, practice ethically and honestly, and help clients understand their blind spots on both project and personal levels. You may not know all the answers, but you can help clients see the issues and work with them to find solutions. Doing this with wisdom, friendship, and empathy will position you for long-term relationships. TZL: Who are you admiring right now in the AEC industry? Where do you see thought leadership and excellence? EL: I admire those firms that elevate our practice and tackle society’s biggest problems. As a firm, we strive to do that on each project and we applaud others who are helping to create new conversations about climate, the future of our cities, livability, and our connection to nature. Some of those are firms in the AEC industry, others are in technology, manufacturing, the arts, or business sectors. I’ve taken interest in a broad range of people and industries in order to make my daily practice and management skills deeper and more balanced. TZL: You were a partner for quite some time before becoming CEO. In this new role, was there a learning curve? Any surprises? Please explain in a little detail what that transition was like. EL: As a principal overseeing two highly successful and profitable offices for 10 years prior to becoming CEO, I made daily management decisions and regularly considered ways the firm would evolve into the future. I also led several MKSK leadership transition planning initiatives, was integral to our change to a 100 percent employee-owned company, and was an active member of our strategy committee and our compensation committee, where I developed models for how principals can plan their time around their professional strengths. Purposefully, our transition process See PEOPLE’S LEADER, page 8
HEADQUARTERS: Columbus, OH
NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES: 115
YEAR FOUNDED: 1990
OFFICE LOCATIONS: 12
MARKETS:
City and regional planning
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Institutional
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Healthcare
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Development
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Cultural
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Campus planning and higher education
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Transportation planning
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Waterfronts
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Parks and recreation
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Transit-oriented development
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SERVICES:
Landscape architecture
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Urban planning
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© Copyright 2022. Zweig Group. All rights reserved.
EMBER 28, 2022, ISSUE 1466
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