People Matter Most: Six Guiding Principles for our Interactions with People

At JHA, we are collectively on a mission to serve our clients in a way that exceeds their expectations, leads them to success, and honors God. We do this by simply being very clear and intentional about our roles and who we are. I can be caught on any given week saying,

“We are a team of Project Leaders who serve our clients directly, or we are a team member serving a Project Leader, or sometimes both.”

Each of our Project Leaders have the privilege of serving our clients directly. They come alongside them to listen and seek to understand their needs and how we can provide the services they need. The rest of us exist to serve the Projects Leaders. That’s right. Yours truly, the owner and founder of JHA; I exist to serve the Projects Leaders and their supporting teams in their work. For my role, that looks much different than our supporting technicians, but both are equally important.

This clarity of roles at JHA helps us to live out our work in a culture of service, both to our clients and with our teammates. We do not strive to become managers. Instead, we seek to be leaders and followers while realizing our need to grow and learn each and every day.

This culture of service is why our first Core Value at JHA is that People Matter Most.

This culture of service is why our first Core Value at JHA is that People Matter Most. We strive to grow relationships that create unity and loyalty with our clients and each other. Here are those six principles that should guide our interactions with people:

1. People are God’s image bearers. “So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.” (Genesis 1:27) As such, every human being is valued by God and deserving of equal dignity, respect and rights no matter the circumstance.
2. Show Respect. “Show proper respect to everyone…” (1 Peter 2:1) We are to show proper respect to everyone; that is to honor and value each person we meet. We are also show respect to governmental authorities and those people elected or appointed.
3. Show Love in the workplace. This looks much different than what we see in Hollywood and in our culture in general. The type of love we are talking about is an emotion felt and actions performed by someone concerned for the well-being or best interest of the other. Think compassion, care, self-sacrifice, and non-romantic affection. We truly need to care about what we do, and the motivation should be love.
4. Selfless service simply stated is putting others first. “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.” (Philippians 2:3-4) If we are seeking this, we will serve selflessly, not selfishly.
5. Golden Rule refers to Matthew 7:12: “So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.” Treat others the way you want to be treated and helped. This is our minimum expectation! Our goal is to always exceed the minimum expectation!
6. Invest in Others. At JHA career growth starts with being mentored. We must share what we know and teach others. When needs or trouble arise, we flock together, and we seek ways to support one another. We praise publicly and criticize privately. JHA is committed to the professional development of our staff through intentional mentoring, weekly Project Leader training, monthly team training, internal training sessions, and external continuing education opportunities, to include tuition reimbursement.

At JHA we are a team of Project Leaders who serve our clients directly or we are a team member serving a Project Leader, or sometime both. Simply stated, we are people serving people who serve people. Why? Because people matter most!

Joe Hunt, PE, PLS, Founder, enjoys spending time with his wife Lori and their three sons, hunting, and serving at their church. They love to travel as a family in their RV, and are planning on exploring New England this year. He can usually be found with headphones around his neck and a smile on his face.