By: Michael Frech
October 27, 2020
At Sullivan Engineering, we utilize our core values in everything we do, especially when interviewing candidates, making business decisions, and acknowledging positive actions by our team members. Another great example of our use in our core values is the guidance it has provided us throughout the COVID-19 Pandemic.
We trusted in our core values and let them lead the way through a time in which there was no precedent or road map to follow. Trusting our morals and values yielded great returns for us during a time when fear and uncertainty seemed to get all the attention. I have highlighted 2 of our 6 core values that have provided the most guidance and direction during the past 6 months.
We asked ourselves in late March, “How are we going to win, during the next two weeks? Or even during the next month?” That question allowed us to look at what we could and could not control. Once we identified what was within our control, we empowered our team to set goals and a plan on how to achieve them; this gave our team clear objectives and the path to achieve them.
By focusing on the things we could control, we empowered many of our clients to focus their efforts elsewhere. We put our efforts into design, permitting, and navigation of the constantly changing COVID-19 rules, mandates, and regulations. We wanted to make sure our clients were comfortable and trusted that their building envelope responsibilities were being addressed and advanced, so they could utilize their time on other COVID related issues within their professional portfolio and personal lives. It was one less burden for them to worry about.
Forward Thinking
The concern and panic around COVID-19 accelerated quickly. On a Tuesday, we sat in a quarterly meeting and discussed the possible impact, but we never adjusted our quarterly forecast. Two days later, we were having an emergency meeting with our entire team to discuss office cleaning, working from home, and new field protocols for our active projects.
During this time, we set goals (as discussed above), we planned for how we could maintain our revenue goals, looked at potential new opportunities that would arise, and set up weekly meetings of our Leadership Team. These meetings assisted to keep our hand on the pulse of the rapidly changing landscape.
Our weekly meetings allowed us to identify, address, and resolve COVID-19 related issues on a weekly basis. The content from our meetings facilitated us in planning what the first 100 days would look like once construction projects could resume. We identified candidates that suddenly became available, that would otherwise not be accessible, as well as helped our clients identify projects that were easier to execute during the lockdown due to logistics, such as the lack of students, customers, and/or employees on site.
We stayed true to our core values and morals and never doubted their importance. They allowed us to create a game plan that accelerated some of our 2020 goals and reprioritized others. We expanded our team, grew our client base, and maintained our culture all with the guidance of our core values.
