by Charles Hendricks | Apr 30, 2011 | architecture, Charles Hendricks, Harrisonburg Architect
One of the most common comments when I meet someone new and they ask me what I do for a living is “I wanted to be an architect when I was a kid.” I find it very interesting that so many people wanted to be architects and so many took another route for various reasons. One of the big ones I am sure of is that most architectural schools are designed specifically to weed out those that don’t LOVE architecture. It is a tough major and limits your ability to do other things – party, hang out, sleep… Anyway, I also wonder how many people who wanted to be an architect understand what we do. So here is a description of a typical day in the life of an architect – at least as typical as a day can be with so many varied projects.
6:00 am wake up, get ready for work
7:00 am Fix breakfast
7:30 am let the dog out, eat breakfast with dad
8:00 am arrive at the office
8:00 am – 9:00 am catch up on emails from the last two days. Focus on emails from existing clients, then on to potential new clients, take care of bookkeeping.
9:00 am Morning meeting to make sure we have questions answered and clear direction for the day
10:00 am review drawings for staff to make sure all changes were made
11:30 am leave for a client meeting 30 minutes away from the office
1:00 pm Walk through the existing house to review the scope of work, discuss with the contractor and talk about the process with a new client.
2:00 pm leave project site to head to another
3:00 pm walk job site for high-performance home under construction. Answer questions for contractors. Review execution for compliance with the design intent.
3:30 pm leave the job site and head to another
4:00 pm arrive at a job site, look at the progress made over the last few days. Hoping for some dry weather so this job can get going.
4:15 pm leave the job site
4:45 pm get to the office, return phone calls and answer questions
5:00 pm arrive at home after a long day
5:15 pm make dinner for the family, eat dinner, and talk about favorite parts of our day.
6:30 pm open computer and start answering emails that were not responded to all day
7:30 pm review marketing to make sure comments get responses, the scheduled posts are ready, and maybe generate new content
8:00 pm Review drawings done through the day by others, check status of progress
10:00 pm go to bed, tomorrow is a long day!
by Charles Hendricks | Mar 30, 2011 | Charles Hendricks, community, Empathy, family, Harrisonburg Architect, Local Leaders, Office Culture, team
My six-year-old was asking me about Earth Day. I explained that it is a day to remind us of the power of mother nature, a day to remember that we have to take care of our natural resources, and a day to think about our actions as they impact others and future generations. She then told me that she knows the solution to the problem. “You just have to stop being lazy and fix things.”
It does seem that simple on paper to me as well. If we just quit fighting over who caused it, or who should pay for it, or how to fix it, and we all just try to be better, a little better, then we will all be a lot better off. If we all reduced our energy use by 30% annually, what would happen to the amount of foreign oil we have to import each year. What would that do to the mercury levels in the air from burning coal? What would that do to the increasing rate of illness we find in certain sectors of society? What would that do for mountain tops in West Virginia? What would that do to the quality of drinking water available to all of us?
I know, I have already heard the argument that you cannot afford all those expensive upgrades. BUT, What if we all cut our water usage by installing a $3 aerator on our sinks? Would that reduce our water bills, water consumption, our environmental impact across the country. If ALL of us make a small change, wouldn’t it make a huge impact?
If we look past the expensive solutions and every household changed one light bulb, or even just turned off the lights in rooms that they are not using all the time. Or if car lots turned off their lights after 2 am each night. Or if you cut one car trip out of your weekly schedule each week. What if we each just did one thing, would you see the difference?
I am ready for Change. Real Change. Change that makes the world a better place for my children and your children. I am ready to make a difference. Will you just stop being lazy with me and fix things?
by Charles Hendricks | Mar 26, 2011 | Charles Hendricks, citizen architect, Empathy, family, Harrisonburg Architect, Local Leaders, Office Culture, team
Balancing life: being Dad
I have been accused many times of not sleeping in order to do the amount of work that I accomplish each week. I promise you that while I am involved in many activities, events, and efforts, I do get plenty of sleep. I do worry though that I am sacrificing things in my life that I will regret later. I worry about the little things that I don’t spend time doing, like attending social events to better get to know people in the community. Anyone that has seen me knows that I have not given proper attention to being healthy. While I don’t have many of the vices that one may suffer with in modern society, I do have a lack of desire for exercise and eating healthy and I worry what this will result in over the coming years. However, My biggest fear is that I am not spending enough time with my family. I struggle with balancing life: being Dad.
Over the past several weeks there has been a change in the normal pattern that I hope to continue. I have worked hard to get the garden set up. The girls have helped me with the process, sometimes actively, sometimes taking breaks, sometimes forgetting completely about the garden and just running around the yard. We have also enjoyed several family outings these last several weeks that were focused on my daughters. Last Saturday, the girls dressed up like Thing 1 and Thing 2 and we drove 1 1/2 hours to Hooville (Charlottesville) to meet the Cat in the Hat and watch a 30 minute cartoon on the big screen at the Paramount Theater. A couple of weeks ago we attended Annie at Four County Players, staying up very late for the girls and also me, but I will never forget the way they both had their eyes glued to the stage the entire time. Even better, thanks to our friend, Tracie Skipper, the girls got to meet the amazing actress that played Annie after the play. (by the way, I highly recommend making a trip to Barboursville to see a play at Four County Players, they do an incredible job). It is hard to find balance in life to be the best dad, best architect, best husband, best committee member, but that is my goal. While I know something always has to give, I can assure you that I will never give up trying to be the best.
by Charles Hendricks | Jul 18, 2010 | Charles Hendricks, citizen architect, Construction Specifications Institute, Local Leaders, Office Culture, team
Clay Nelson gave a presentation on Leaders Growing Leaders at Construct 2009 CSI Show in Indianapolis. His position is you have to train your employees to do what you do. This give you the ability to stay on the cutting edge and continue to be the visionary.
So this concept, of growing leaders to advance your vision, grows the diversity and depth of your business. If you constantly answer questions and tell people what to do, you will have no time to do visioning. Clay says as a leader your job is to know what you don’t know. So if you set your goal to be right all the time then you have stopped learning.
Hence you should look for things you don’t know and focus on learning those things. Let your employees do all the things you already know. If they can’t, then you have not done your job of giving them the power. This is the only way to be one of the leaders growing leaders. Your staff will do what you let them do through your actions. If you always give them the answer, or if you tell them they are wrong when they bring you an answer, then you have given them no power to learn and grow themselves. Therefore, as a leader you have to stop telling and start asking questions.
Write down all the things you do for two weeks. As a result this will give you a job description of what you do now. What on the list can you have someone else do? Figure this out and you can start doing things you don’t already know how to do and you can grow.
A leader is only as great as the weakest part of his team. Don’t worry about making mistakes, mistakes = growth. Set an example, be what you want other to be. This will give you the leaders that you need in your firm.
This was a great seminar with a tremendous speaker.
