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O P I N I O N
I had multiple discussions in the last week that really drove home a point I think everyone who runs an AEC firm should be considering. That is, we need to do a much better job getting people doing what they already do well versus trying to bolster their weaknesses and turn them into something or someone they aren’t. “Square peg for a round hole? No thanks! My first preference is square pegs in square holes!” Focusing on strengths vs. weaknesses
unhappy and the firm didn’t do as well as it should because certain business aspects weren’t dealt with. I have also seen engineers who would rather be business developers but who were instead stuck in the office doing calculations all day. I don’t think these kinds of situations are unusual at all. I think they are pretty typical. “Don’t forget most of your people have probably already told you what they like to do and what they don’t like to do. These two usually match up with what they are good at and what they are not so good at.”
Mark Zweig
You see example after example of this. It’s part of our culture today. If our child shows a limited interest in or aptitude for math, our first instinct is to get them a tutor and make them work a lot harder at it. Makes sense on the surface. But maybe instead we should just say, “Fine, you like English so focus on your reading and writing instead.” Or how about the notion that everyone needs a college education? Some people would be better served to become plumbers or auto mechanics, so they don’t end up working at Starbucks with a five-year architectural degree when that was never their passion, interest, or strength. It’s crazy. In the firms we work with, this problem of people in the wrong roles sometimes goes all the way up to the executive suite. I have seen CEOs who really wanted to be designers. As a result they were
See MARK ZWEIG, page 4
THE ZWEIG LETTER September 9, 2019, ISSUE 1311
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