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PROFILE
Continuous improvement: Tyler Sease President of Southern Steel Engineers (Lexington, SC), a firm that provides state of the art engineering and analysis for structural steel projects.
By LIISA ANDREASSEN Correspondent
G rowing and developing as a leader to better support Southern Steel Engineers’ team tops Sease’s to-do list for 2025. Having not managed people prior to starting at SSE, it’s been trial by fire, and he’s had to continuously hone leadership skills and learn from his mistakes. “I still have plenty of learning left to do,” he says. TOOLS FOR NAVIGATING GROWTH. Sease, the company’s president, is a licensed professional engineer, structural engineer, and certified welding inspector. At SSE, he now leads a team of engineers, oversees day-to-day operations, and manages projects. It’s a bit of a balancing act, but Sease is up to the job. While he says it can be difficult to manage at times, it’s become easier as the team has grown. There are now personnel in positions who are set to take on more responsibility. One year ago, there were nine staff members; now there are 12. “2024 has been a successful year for SSE, as we have seen the results of many years of hard work result in Best Firms To Work For awards and making the Inc. 5000 list,” he says. “We’re
preparing to break ground on an addition to our office so that we can continue to grow in the years ahead, and we’re excited to add more talented people to our team.” In 2024, the firm also won a Zweig Group Best Firm To Work For Award and Sease says their team is at the core of every success they achieve. “It’s our desire to ensure our team succeeds professionally and financially,” he says. “In turn, that leads to success for SSE.” He says they are all about making “continuous improvement,” and notes that of course, growth is not without challenges. “Our greatest challenge right now is maintaining our high- quality expectations and culture as we work through a growth phase,” Sease says. “We’re refining our processes and procedures as we grow to help train new hires or young engineers who may be moving into project manager roles.” They have more PMs than they used to and are putting more
See CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT , page 10
THE ZWEIG LETTER JANUARY 13, 2025, ISSUE 1568
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