Cover Story
Building blocks
How Mike Dilts leads Shiel Sexton to steady growth one employee at a time
By Mark Scott
Smart Business Indianapolis | April 2009
Page 1 of 4
Mike Dilts wants employees to know what’s happening at Shiel Sexton Co. Inc. He wants them to see themselves as an important part of the company’s future.
But it has to be about more than just tossing your people a bone once in awhile to make them happy.
“Where you get into trouble is when people think they are collaborative, but it is actually more of a dictatorship,” says Dilts, the company’s president and chief operating officer. “They allow some delegation, but they pull the rug out from under those people when they think it’s going in a direction they don’t like. You have to truly be collaborating at every level all the time.”
When Dilts interviewed with CEO Andy Shiel 23 years ago, the first thing Shiel talked about was the healthy workplace culture he wanted to develop at the contractor firm.
“It’s a place where you feel like, ‘I’m a part of this, and it’s important for me to be here,’” Dilts says.
Dilts and Shiel have worked hard to develop an environment at Shiel Sexton where employees are constantly reminded that they do matter, whether they are an applicant being brought in for an interview or a respected veteran being asked to put their knowledge and experience to use.
“Allow people to make decisions and stand behind those,” Dilts says. “When we delegate, we don’t mean delegate up to a certain level. We mean delegate, and, ‘It’s your responsibility to take that thing from soup to nuts.’ We have to support that.”
Shiel Sexton has grown from $182 million in 2006 revenue to $254 million for 2008. Here’s how the 400-employee company has succeeded by always making personnel development a top priority.
