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F R O M T H E F O U N D E R
I t’s long been known that to really be successful as an AEC firm, you have to get extra effort out of your people. If you can get everyone in the firm to work just a little bit harder, your firm can be very profitable. If you can’t get that extra effort, consistently, you will probably be – at best – only marginally profitable. Getting everyone to work a little harder is one of the easiest ways to expand your capacity to produce work. Get 110 percent effort out of your people
Mark Zweig
So how do you get that extra effort? If you think this is important, as I do, here are some things you must consider: 1)Do you personally put in an extra effort or at least a very high effort? This is one of the reasons I felt I had to retire from daily duty at Zweig Group nearly three years ago. At that time, as an almost full-time professor and as an owner of my own design/build/development firm at the same time, as well as a father of two younger children, there was no way I could set the example that needed to be set in terms of hours dedicated to Zweig Group. Those people don’t want to see their “leader,” or at least one of their leaders, coming and going all day, or not showing up at all on some days. It doesn’t set the example anyone in a leadership position would want in order to get the most out of their people. Too many firm principals and owners who are in a similar position cannot be honest with themselves
and admit their own work hours are critical to setting the right example for everyone else in the firm. 2)Do you really reward the people who give it their all? If I ask this question of most principals of firms in this business, the majority will immediately assure me that they do. But then when you really get into their numbers and how they reward people, it quickly becomes apparent that high effort is pretty far down the list in terms of who gets promoted and who gets to be an owner in the firm. Instead, what is more important is degrees, registrations, and selling ability. I’m not saying those things are not super important, but the high-productivity, non- complaining grinders cannot be forgotten. Anyone who puts in extra effort has to be recognized. And “recognized” is not a 2 percent to 3 percent annual
See MARK ZWEIG, page 12
THE ZWEIG LETTER JUNE 21, 2021, ISSUE 1397
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