Building an environment

It’s not often that your boss
tells you to stop working
immediately and go create an
ice cream sundae in the middle
of the afternoon or to enjoy a
margarita at 5 o’clock, but
that’s one way C. Mark Seiley
creates a great work atmosphere at LEO A DALY.

As managing principal of the
architecture, planning, engineering and interior design
firm, he recognizes the impact
that the work atmosphere has
on people, so he focuses on
equipping his 85 employees for
success and happiness.

“Give them the tools that they
need, whether that’s physical
tools or emotional tools, and
then back off and let them do
their job,” Seiley says.

As a leader, he says it’s
important to recognize the differences between physical tools
and emotional ones and how
each affects employees.

Smart Business spoke with
Seiley about how to create the
physical and emotional work
environment that your employees need to thrive.

Provide physical tools. The physical environment is the space
that they work in, the tools that
they have to do their jobs and
the other supporting elements.
Give them the best of technology, the best computers and the
best programs so that they can
do their job as effectively and
efficiently as you want them to.

Give them a physical work
environment that’s comfortable
to them and encourages them to
do their best job.

Do some things to the physical
space that would encourage
people or would give them
some sort of interest. Whether
it’s the break room or the reception area, employees need space
for themselves. If the whole
office is just set up for clients,
they feel that everything is off-limits. Then they’re not going to
be comfortable.

We have areas of the office
that are tack surfaces, and I let
the staff here pick what they
want to put up there and change
it and modify it on a regular
basis to convey what they feel
comfortable with.

We’re in a great location —
we’ve got mass transit that runs
100 feet from our building, great
restaurants downstairs, all the
key elements that one would
want. All of those factors go into
making them feel comfortable.

If you don’t have the location
or the physical environment,
you’ve got to find ways to overcome them by being creative or
inventive. It could be that one or
two days a week, you bring
lunch in for everybody or that
you have one of your employees
take up lunch orders and have a
support staff go pick up lunch
for everybody.

It could be that you do things
after work. I know one firm that
every Friday has a ‘Beer Friday.’
They sit around and drink a
beer or two and build a bond
and a relationship.