Every Monday morning, team members in the Philadelphia and Princeton offices gather together via video-conference to discuss firm news and upcoming events and projects. Since 2003, founding partner Allan Kehrt, FAIA, has delivered his Monday Morning Musings, weekly slices of personal insight into the design profession, to the firm. To comment on any of his posts, send an email to us. We look forward to hearing from you. |
| February 3, 2012 Personnel In examining the effectiveness of any organization the single most important subject is the people who comprise it. Leaders can define clear goals to reinforce their philosophy, develop programs to move them in the right direction, but if they are not careful in how they hire, a great deal of their efforts will be for naught. Finding, hiring, training and retaining the right people are keys to success in any organization. Basically there are eight important traits that are predictors of success for anyone asked to join the firm:
• Intelligence: In this profession, it's not only intelligence, but additionally creativity and talent. • High energy: It's a high work profession. • Self confidence: We are generally leading someone; they need to believe we are going in the right direction. • Love of Learning: It is an ever changing profession with continual demands to learn new things. • Compassion: We try to make the world a better place; we need people who care. • Bias toward action: We need to accomplish a lot; it's best to have people who will grab hold, start and finish something. • Communication: It is a collaborative profession; we need people who can both listen carefully and express themselves clearly. • Character: Only those with integrity will succeed in the profession. When building a team that will be the future of the KSS, there are a lot of things to consider. So far we're doing extremely well, but we need to continuously keep these traits in mind. |
