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ON THE MOVE DESIGN WORKSHOP PROMOTES PAUL SQUADRITO TO TECHNICAL PRINCIPAL Design Workshop , an international landscape architecture, planning, and urban design firm, announced the promotion of Paul Squadrito to technical principal, a new position with the firm. In this role, he will provide firmwide leadership and professional development in the areas of quality control, project management, and technical execution. “Paul is well deserving of this promotion. His technical proficiency is exceptional, and he always takes time to mentor others,” said Mike Albert, Design Workshop principal and board member. “He places a strong emphasis on personal accountability, which is critical to becoming a great designer and planner.”
With more than 25 years of professional experience in landscape architecture and master planning, Squadrito has an unwavering drive for technical excellence. Since joining Design Workshop in 2006, he has worked with public and private clients in a range of sectors, scales, and geographies. He and his teams have received notable peer recognition, including four American Society of Landscape Architects awards in the last eight years: South Grand Boulevard Great Streets Initiative, Lafitte Greenway and Revitalization Corridor Plan, Landscape Architecture Documentation Standards: Principles, Guidelines and Best Practices and The Restoring of a Montane Landscape. “Paul will work with our teams to leverage resources and build a more rigorous design process, while at the same time cultivating
inspiration and innovation,” added Robb Berg, principal and member of the Design Workshop board of directors. Squadrito is active with the U.S. Green Building Council Colorado Chapter and supports the Special Olympics in the Roaring Forks area, serving as a mentor and coach to athletes with developmental disabilities. Founded in 1969, Design Workshop is an internationally renowned design firm specializing in landscape architecture, urban planning, and strategic services with seven offices in the U.S. and projects spanning the globe. The firm has been recognized with more than 360 prestigious awards. From fragile ecosystems to urban sites in rapidly changing cities, Design Workshop works in challenging environments around the world.
GREG KANZ, from page 3
photography and social media. Find out your client’s business objectives and creatively help them get the word out. ❚ ❚ Employee appreciation. Recognition fuels employee engagement. Beyond benefits and compensation, there are many ways to show appreciation for high-performing people in your organization. For example, on Shive-Hattery’s intranet the hashtag #Recognition highlights people going above and beyond to help clients, partners, and their communities. Why not create an Employee Appreciation Week? Shive- Hattery’s five-day celebration is something employees look forward to each year. Creating a social, celebratory culture builds relationships and supports retention in a competitive job market. Most importantly, invest in your employees. Help them create a career plan and fund their learning activities inside and outside the firm. Communities of practice, leadership, and business development programs can be fostered internally. Your non-chargeable time investment builds relationships and future value for your firm. ❚ ❚ Partner appreciation. Take time to find strategic partners who are a cultural fit. As the relationship grows, look for ways to add value. Referrals are the best gift to give; sell your partner’s services to spur reciprocity. ❚ ❚ Community appreciation. To create stronger communities, companies need to invest where their talent and customers reside. Shive-Hattery invests time, talent, and treasure in more than 200 non-profits across seven locations. The return on investment is tenfold with community goodwill, with engaged employees who are proud to be associated with our firm and, in the end, stronger communities to live, work, and play. ❚ ❚ What about shareholders? Ken Blanchard, Don Hutson, and Ethan Willis say it best in The One Minute Entrepreneur : “Profit is the applause you get from taking care of your customers and creating a motivational environment for your people.” GREG KANZ is marketing director for Shive-Hattery Architecture- Engineering. Contact him at gregkanz@shive-hattery.com.
gratitude is the state of being grateful, or thankfulness. Are you showing enough appreciation and thanks to clients, employees, partners, and communities? You might be surprised how acts of gratitude will help you grow your business over the long-term. “AEC companies have traditionally focused on adding value to clients, investing in employees, serving as ethical partners and supporting local communities with sustainable practices and donating time, talent and treasure. But is there more we can do?” Leighton Smith, director of client service at BerganKDV, said, “You can’t fake gratitude, and you can’t systematize it if it’s not real. We say, ‘first be a human.’ And that implies that we should see the other person as one as well. This all sounds simple, but we find that stepping outside of a process and just being present can be a true differentiator (and be a good way to live!).” ❚ ❚ Client appreciation. BerganKDV, a professional services company, encourages staff to thank clients. “With encouragement our accountants, financial advisors, and technologists get out of their comfort zone and check in with clients and, most importantly, thank them,” Smith said. “Saying why they appreciate them as a client is a healthy thought process that generates a very positive conversation.” At Shive-Hattery, a 425-person design firm in the Midwest, new clients receive a thank you letter from the local office leader. Later in the client experience, that leader visits the client to learn what they value most about what’s happening. How to be more helpful? What else should be known? Another simple way to show appreciation is sharing your client’s story in an unbiased way. This can be through presentations at conferences, news stories, project
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THE ZWEIG LETTER December 16, 2019, ISSUE 1324
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