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Most importantly, this series underscores what sets our marketing apart in general: a focus on people and relationships. The scripted narration presents a warm and personal perspective, emphasizing the project manager’s sense of pride in the project using their own voice and words. The series also conveys our emphasis on the importance of storytelling and underscoring the compelling aspects of each project – the challenges, teamwork, innovations, and collaboration with clients that lead to successful solutions. Our marketing and communication efforts are highly focused on relationship-building, and during the challenging stretch of the pandemic, the series enabled us to continue to reach out to clients and stay in touch. Over the past year and a half, we’ve also planned virtual happy hours, games, scavenger hunts, and other technology-friendly means of keeping in close contact with our clients – even through remote connections. TZL: How do you earn the trust of your clients? DC: I believe that building trust begins long before we’re awarded a contract with a new client. Our marketing and communications teams know more than anyone that it begins with an effective, ongoing communications program that promotes our reputation and our brand promise. We invest in our website, publications, blogs, press releases, video stories, and other tools that convey our firm’s expertise and create a comfort level with prospective clients who are considering working with us. Building trust also includes going to conferences and contributing articles and presentations that highlight our knowledge and skills. It includes sharing testimonials from satisfied clients and securing awards and recognition for our projects. All of this helps pave the way with new clients. Of course, the most important factor will always be our performance on the job once we’re selected. The effort to maintain that initial trust must continue throughout the life of the project, guided by our core principles, including integrity, ethics, teamwork, and strong communications. TZL: What steps are you taking to address diversity and inclusion? DC: We’ve focused heavily on our diversity, equity, and inclusion initiative in recent years, with a commitment that starts at the top with oversight and involvement from our board of directors. Our CEO, Don Stone, and our diversity goal leaders have made clear that seeking and listening to diverse perspectives,
experiences and ideas makes us stronger as a firm and helps us create closer connections with clients. Don has challenged firm leaders to help foster a culture of equity and fairness, and to enhance our understanding of the limitations and barriers to minority engagement in the lifecycle of an employee, in terms of recruiting, developing, advancing, and rewarding. We also want to increase minority participation in flagship programs such as our Client Management Advisory Group. We’ve seen an increase in the participation of women in the CMAG, but we’d like to see more minority involvement. We’ve examined every facet of our operations, from recruitment and hiring practices to retention and leadership styles. One productive result has been the establishment of our Employee Resource Groups. These are internal employee groups that are based on common lifestyles, demographics, and experiences, and offer a fully inclusive, safe, and open environment for employees to participate. Examples so far include our Family/Work Life Balance group and Women’s Forum; with a Multicultural, Minority, and Allies group and an LGBTQIA and Allies group in the works. TZL: What are you doing to ensure that your line leadership are great people managers? DC: Leadership development has long been a focus within the firm, but nowwe are placing more of an emphasis on competencies in leadership. Nothing is more frustrating than watching a valued employee leave the firm, and we want to be sure that our leaders have the skills, tools, training, and awareness to be excellent people managers. We developed a leadership competency model to help define the knowledge, skills, and behaviors that leaders must demonstrate consistently. This includes such attributes as creating a vision, critical thinking, delegating, resilience, and team building and motivation. For each competency, we’ve identified demonstrated behaviors. This has become a critical element in our ongoing leadership training. TZL: How are you balancing investment in the next generation with rewards for tenured staff? DC: As a tenured employee, I find mentoring others most rewarding. We’ve recently revamped our leadership training program. In addition to adding the focus on core competencies as well as diversity and inclusion, we are emphasizing engagement with our emerging professionals. Again, this is an initiative that starts at the top. For See ENCOURAGING AND ENGAGING , page 8
HEADQUARTERS: Fairfax, VA NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES: 2,300 YEAR FOUNDED: 1956 NUMBER OF OFFICE LOCATIONS: 54 SERVICES: ■ ■ Architecture ■ ■ Environmental ■ ■ Technology ■ ■ Construction ■ ■ Geospatial, mapping, and survey ■ ■ Engineering ■ ■ Planning, consulting, and advisory MARKETS: ■ ■ Community facilities ■ ■ Federal ■ ■ Justice ■ ■ Telecommunications ■ ■ Education ■ ■ Health and wellness ■ ■ Real estate and commercial development ■ ■ Transportation ■ ■ Energy ■ ■ Industrial ■ ■ Risk, response, and recovery ■ ■ Water
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NUARY 17, 2022, ISSUE 1424
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