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ON THE MOVE RS&H NAMES AMY DAVIS AS NEW CFO RS&H announced that Amy Davis has joined the national AEC firm as its executive vice president and CFO following the retirement of former CFO Holt Graves. Davis brings more than 25 years of experience in global business and finance leadership across diverse industries, including engineering and consulting, retail, manufacturing and Big 4 public accounting. Davis has extensive experience spanning controllership, strategic planning, operations finance, treasury and capital markets, mergers and acquisitions, and enterprise risk management. Most recently, she served as CFO for Michael Baker International. “It’s an honor to be selected as the next CFO of RS&H,” Davis said. “I’m very excited
about the opportunity to join a company with such a strong mission, reputation, culture and depth of technical talent. RS&H is well respected in the industry, and I look forward to helping the company continue its growth trajectory.” As CFO, Davis will work with senior management and the Board to develop finance and business strategies that further strengthen RS&H’s growth and position as an industry leader. “At RS&H, we work hard every day to deliver exceptional service to our clients and drive positive impact in our communities, all with the overarching goal of elevating quality of life for all,” said RS&H CEO Dave Sweeney. “We chose Amy to join our executive leadership team because she is a proven, performance- driven and inspiring leader who will drive
positive impact within RS&H and for the clients and communities we serve.” Davis’ first objective is to listen and engage with all of RS&H’s internal and external stakeholders. “I look forward to working alongside my RS&H team members to develop and implement strategies that deliver long- term value for our key stakeholders and the communities they live in with the continued exceptional service that RS&H is known for,” she said. Founded in 1941, RS&H is one of the nation’s leading AEC firms. RS&H’s market-based, specialized experience empowers associates to deliver time-tested insights coupled with a comprehensive mastery of industry- specific financing and delivery methods.
any questions with that style of communication. When working with project managers, we encourage asking questions that will invite reflection to evaluate understanding. Instead of those questions above, try, “How will you approach tackling this task?” or, “What is the first thing you will do to execute?” This will allow your counterpart to demonstrate understanding of your message by laying out how they will approach it. Suppose you are talking about designing floor framing. The person says the first thing they will do is open a foundation design program. In that case, you might have an understanding gap. Similar to how Aaron Rodgers makes a call at the line and looks across to his receiver for a nod of affirmation, be the project quarterback that makes sure your calls are understood by your team. This will limit miscommunication on your projects and, hopefully, recapture some of that 7.5 percent of your project revenue that is leaking out. A good decision is only as good as it is communicated. Calling the ideal plays will only work for you if your team understands the role that they each play in executing. As a project leader, ensuring your team understands expectations within the project environment is your responsibility. It all hinges on your ability to make good decisions and make sure everyone on the field has the same understanding of the play you are calling. Be more like Aaron, and let the onlookers scratch their heads and ask, “How do they do it? It looks so easy.” Justin Smith is a principal at Start 2 Rise, LLC, Zweig Group’s strategic training and advisory partner in project management and leadership development. He can be reached at justin@ s2rgroup.com.
JUSTIN SMITH , from page 9
approach makes the underlying false assumption that good communication is about delivering information only and that communication efficacy is limited only by the language skills of the communicator. “As a project leader, ensuring your team understands expectations within the project environment is your responsibility. It all hinges on your ability to make good decisions and make sure everyone on the field has the same understanding of the play you are calling.” Excellent communication is about understanding and being understood, not only declaring your viewpoint on a topic. The first step to being a better communicator is to consider that your communication is only good if it is understood. Good communicators constantly evaluate the uptake of information by inviting the other party into the discussion to confirm understanding. This starts with asking questions and demonstrating an authentic desire to make sure that you understand their viewpoint and that your perspective is understood by them. That is pretty difficult to do with email. This commonly comes into play for project managers when assigning tasks to team members. The project manager gives a long, deliberate explanation of a task, and then asks, “Got it?” or, “Any questions?” Chances are good that you will not get
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THE ZWEIG LETTER MAY 23, 2022, ISSUE 1442
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