Nick Docous, AIA
The tenets of leadership and the principles of mentorship contain related truths. Relationships must be created; bonds of trust and time commitments are also a given; effective and calm communication must occur, and a sense of optimism never hurts. But when one sits down to have a conversation with Lionakis Principal Nick Docous, AIA, about mentoring, a new thread of similarities arise: Vision, Empathy, Rope.
Vision: For a vision to be achieved, it must first exist, but then the path to its creation must be seen in order to be accomplished.
Empathy: No project is ever really accomplished by one person. Architecture is created by a team. And to create this team, one must feel what it’s like to not only be a team member, but what the others are experiencing as well, and how what they are experiencing relates back to the original vision. And as for Docous personally, he always puts himself in the shoes of his team members—because, in his words, “It helps me to be a better leader.”
Rope: The rope is simply a metaphor: delicate yet sturdy as well as paramount to his three-tiered philosophy. When one hears that a leader is leading with a symbolic rope in hand, one might first jump to the incorrect assumption that it will be used to pull people along. But that is not only wrong, it’s just plain negative. No, no. Docous believes in playing out rope to create opportunity and experience. The rope is there for team members to pull the team and its leader. Docous feels strongly in giving emerging professionals the opportunity to take the lead.
“I’d rather have my team pulling me, my job being to guide and direct where we should go,” Docous said. The more Docous mentors, the more he discovers that the mentoring process uses his philosophy in many of the same ways. And when one combines all of this with his inherent ability to listen, well, success for all is inevitable. He loves to listen—to hear how ideas are moving along, and has been known to say to up-and-coming members of his firm, “That’s a wonderful concept. Develop it further.”
“You get to a point in your career where you realize you are teaching and mentoring with each project,” Docous said. He tells many he works with – when they first come on board – that his goal is for them to be better architects and designers at their respective career points than he was. Further, his mentoring within the profession goes beyond the walls of Lionakis. He is also a participating mentor in AIA Central Valley’s Emerging Professional Speed Mentor Match, a yearly event set up in the same format as speed dating, where each mentee receives a few minutes of advice from several wise and accomplished architects.
“Nick truly is a crossover personality; both seasoned as a principle should be, yet approachable as the peer who sits next to you in the office. It’s a gift he has and it imparts a great memory on all the attendees who visit with him,” said Laura Wood, Assoc. AIA. Wood is the Associate Director for AIA Central Valley and Virtual Design Coordinator with Nacht & Lewis. Speed Mentoring is well attended and maintains constant high energy. Docous recommends that every chapter adopt it and has been affected by its contagious verve. “It keeps me connected and never stale,” he said. “I learn as much from them about what’s motivating people to become architects.”
Wood can see the positive effect he has on the attendees. “He packs a great punch of wisdom and wit into each serving of mentorship the attendees are lucky to get,” she said.
Some of his mentoring success is, in part, due to the Athens Leadership Program instituted at Lionakis in 2009. The 8-week immersion module was created to help emerging professionals at Lionakis develop leadership skills. At one particular session, Docous was asked to prepare a presentation on leadership, with only 30 minutes to create it. It was this particular instance where he congealed the things he believes are important to the leadership/mentoring process. He has used his Vision, Empathy, and Rope model extensively over the years and it has not only served him well, but – more importantly, future leaders in the program.
It is an opportunity such as this one—to create a talk within a short period of time—where one learns just how effective they can be as an agent of change. And it is this “agent-of-change” mentality he admires in the current group of emerging professionals.
“There seems to be a genuine sense that it is necessary to engage communities—to improve as well as contribute—and this is truly inspiring and it is exciting.”
There are obvious gaps in time between generations. What one group holds dear as compared to the previous will vary—sometimes wildly so. But within the architectural profession, each group, however distinct, has visions of making the world better. The methods and the processes don’t matter as much if the end goal is met. The constant, Docous reminds us, is the rope that each group must take hold of to shape a better world and create a healthier environment.
