Real Estate and Construction
Building relationships
How to motivate your work force
By Matt McClellan
Smart Business Cleveland | June 2008
Page 1 of 2
Mike Crislip
President, Herschman Architects Inc.
As president of
Herschman Architects
Inc., Mike Crislip says some of the most important
work he does is designing
and building a strong staff.
Many companies hire for
need, then lay off employees
when the work dries up. But
Crislip says that treating
your employees like short-term commodities isn’t the
best way to build a strong
team.
“If we’re real busy with
something and we think it’s a
little hill in the road, we’ll
just all band together, work a
little overtime and get over
the hill,” says Crislip, who
also serves as one of three
principals at the 90-employee
architecture and design firm.
But if the hill starts to look
like a mountain, it’s time to
make some hires.
Smart Business spoke
with Crislip about how to get
to know your employees and
how to build excitement
among new hires.
Q. How do you build strong
relationships with your staff?
It comes down to being able
to see things through your
individual staff members’ eyes.
You have to get to know them
and find out what motivates
them. Sometimes, issues at
home can affect work performance or attitude.
I personally try to interact
as much as possible with all
of our employees, which is
difficult because we have 90,
but I still sit in on every
interview. That’s usually the
first time you have the
opportunity to learn a lot
about a person.
Q. How do you get to know
your employees?
Try to find out what people’s
personal situations are so you
have some empathy to what
they’re going through. Try to
find out how they solve problems or what motivates them.
The first job I got out of
school, I was there a year, and
the president of the company
never spoke to me once. I
think he squeezed my elbow
once at the drafting board.
So I try to go around and say
hi to everybody and
remember things about
people.
