How are your Interpersonal Skills?

By Bill Beardslee PLS, PE, PP

All of the licensed surveyors who will be attending the TSPS Conference at the Horseshoe Bay Resort this October are skilled in their craft. From the small firm doing primarily boundary and topographic projects to the national firms dealing with high-tech applications of scanning, Lidar and satellite imagery, all the surveyors are very skilled. They all truly can “Walk the Walk.”

But in each instance, do they have the interpersonal skills to “Talk the Talk?”

Usually the situation is that the talkers aren’t walkers. But with these skilled professionals, it is quite the opposite. Before anyone gets insulted because they feel they can “talk the talk”, understand this item: 80 percent of the complaints to state boards about surveyors are on business practices – people who don’t “talk the talk.”  The three main complaints are:

I can’t get in contact with the surveyor. They won’t call back.

They didn’t get the survey done on time.

They didn’t charge me what they quoted.

So here I come on my white horse to help everyone with the interpersonal skill touch-up they may need. (The horse’s back sags badly)

I have the honor of being asked to present four seminars at the conference. The first, and my favorite, is “Client Communication – The Lifeblood of Business”. We will discuss relationships and interpersonal skills emphasizing listening. One of the lengthy sections will be on the pre-proposal meeting – a surefire way to avoid arguments, misunderstandings and litigation. Knowing which of your many communication tools to use at which time is also a focus item.

Once you are firmly comfortable with your communication skills, we will talk about how to efficiently use them in “Managing Your Projects and Your Company”. The one constant issue for skilled surveyors is that they are put in charge of a project or a department or start a small company with LITTLE or NO management training. Thus they initially flounder until, by trial, error, and osmosis, they find a way to become efficient managers. This course should eliminate some of the initial issues and give the attendee some basic guidance to start their ship on the right course.

But management, and becoming a great manager, should never confused with leadership. Those are two very different skills. I’m sure each of you know people in leadership positions who are not good leaders. (Elected officials come to mind). A manager has a skill – a leader has a vision. “Leadership – From Party Chief to CEO” will differentiate these two paths and will offer some suggestions to increase your leadership skills. Even those folks who are said to be “born leaders” need to refine their talents and adjust to new situations.

Now that you know everything one could ever use to run a successful, profitable firm, one question sits on the horizon – how will you know “When it’s Time To Go?”  This course deals with the inevitable concept that one day you will retire as an owner or department head, or some other influential position. Getting ready for that occurrence is not a short term process.

Preparing to sell a business, or buy one for the younger surveyors, is a well planned path that leads to long term security for your family and the buyer. The key is to start early. I receive too many calls every year from surveyors asking “what is my business worth as I want to sell.” The problem usually is that they are 75-80 years old which, except for a “fire sale”, puts them in a poor position.

So please stop in to any, or all, of these seminars. They are all interactive as the attendees always have interesting input for their peers to hear. 

Let’s all leave Horseshoe Bay being able to proudly “Talk the Talk!”

How Did I Get Started as a Surveyor?  
Article by Lisa Van Horn, NSPS President, TSPS Women Surveyors Summit Speaker

I was twenty-one, divorced, with a 6 month old son and working part time in catering. I knew I needed to make some major changes in my life so I went to the local college and took an aptitude test. It showed my strengths and interests to be in either architecture or surveying. I could not imagine sitting at a drafting table all day, so I choose surveying. It seems to follow the tendency of my family with my dad, grandfather, and brother being bricklayers and uncles in concrete and carpentry industry.

With being only a few years out of high school the first few days of college were trying to say the least, but thankfully I had a wonderful instructor. On the first day of the program he warned all the male students in class to not underestimate the ladies in the class, that we might just outperform them all. It turned out to be true, I even won the outstanding student in the program award upon graduation.

During my education, I knew I would need some experience in the field to give me a chance to get a job once I was through with my schooling. I went through the Green Bay phone book and contacted all the surveying companies listed, and offered my services for free. No one took me up on the offer, so I had to drive 65 miles each way to work where I was compensated only $5.95 an hour. Upon graduation, the experience from this job is what gave me the edge and confidence I needed for my first full time job at the Brown County Surveyor's office in Green Bay.

The Brown County Surveyor's office was very progressive on PLSS maintenance and creating a foundation for all land boundaries through GIS. Because of their progressiveness we purchased Real Time GPS in 1994. I was the new kid on the block and the only one with any type of data collection experience, so I was the one who was tasked with learning the new equipment (yes handwritten field notes was our only form of data collection prior to GPS). I had several different training classes and within a year I was speaking in front of 350 people at our state convention about GPS, what we were using it for, and the accuracy data we were obtaining from it.

 After 5 years at Brown County, I decided to accept the marriage proposal of my boss and we felt it would be best if we were not working in the same office. I went to another county for a short time before he talked me into starting our own business in 2000. Once on my own, I went to Sunnyvale California for 2 weeks to become a Certified Trimble GPS trainer. I taught classes for a few years while also doing boundary surveys. As our business grew, my husband Les retired after 28 years as the County Surveyor to work with me full time.

Les & I have always felt that as a professional you need to give back to your chosen field. Over the years, I served as our chapter Secretary, on Committees, on Foundations, and then served as the Wisconsin Society of Land Surveyors President in 2007. In 2010, I became the then NSPS Governor for Wisconsin for 6 years. I later ran for NSPS office, and here I am. I feel giving back to your profession is a one of the most rewarding things you can do and I have never regretted any of the time I have spent on this endeavor.

I am excited to see the outcome for the first TSPS Women Surveyors Summit and commend Texas land surveyors on being a leader in the promotion of our exciting profession.

Written by: Christopher Freeman, RPLS #5701

I initially was referred to a Troop 1171 Scout Leader by Chapter 5 member Stephanie Beckham. She knew the Leader, and the Troop had utilized her property in Limestone County several times for camping and other Scout activities. I arranged to attend a Troop meeting in January to discuss Surveying, demonstrate the use of survey instruments, discuss career opportunities, and offer to assist in a Survey Merit Badge activity if there was interest. By the end of the meeting, 20 Scouts signed up for the Survey Merit Badge.

The exercise was scheduled for mid February. The Scouts arrived on Friday night and set up camp. Two main exercises were to be completed: 1.) a closed traverse in which the Scouts measure the sides and interior angles of a polygon, and 2.) a closed level loop assuming an elevation of one of the aforementioned traverse points.

The exercise commenced at approximately 10:00 a.m. under relatively calm but cold and cloudy conditions, with intermittent light mist. I met the 20 Scouts and 4 adult leaders on site, a clearing surrounded by timber and thick underbrush. The group was divided into 4 survey teams. Instructions were given on field book note keeping, setting up the instruments, turning and recording angles, performing rodman duties with the prism poles for measuring the backsight and foresight distances or holding the level rod during the bench loop. The team utilized a Topcon GTS-226 electronic Total Station and a Sokkia C3i Differential Level.

For the traverse exercise, the teams each turned an interior angle and measured two legs of the polygon from their observation station. A compass reading was taken at the first setup to provide a Basis of Bearing. After moving up to the next station, the new team checked the distance recorded in the field books (donated by long-time TSPS partner Geomatic Resources) by the previous team to ensure no blunder had been recorded. When a team was not actively involved with the measuring at a particular station, they observed the working team, recorded results, and entered sketches in their notes. 

At one point during the chilly morning, firewood was gathered and a fire started, bringing welcome heat to the survey teams. The closed traverse was completed with a Linear Error of Closure of 0.03 feet. The perimeter distance measured was 611.92 feet. The precision for the survey was 1/20,000, a decent survey for first-time surveyors. The area measured was 22,293 square feet.

Upon completion of the traverse exercise, the teams switched gears to run a closed bench loop. After a quick lesson on how to set up the instrument, focusing, reading the rod, and keeping level notes, the teams were ready to go.  Assuming an elevation of 100.00 at Point #1, the teams took turns reading the level rod backsight and foresight readings, and recorded the observations in their field books. Some teams had other team members check the rod reading before finalizing their reading. The teams turned on each of the points, returning to the starting station at Point #1. After a quick tally with the calculator, the results showed that the loop closed flat with the original starting elevation. How about that?! Looks like we may have some future survey talent out here! The Scouts were smart and inquisitive, as well as quick learners.