President of Southern Steel Engineers (Lexington, SC), a firm that provides state of the art engineering and analysis for structural steel projects.
By Liisa Andreassen
Correspondent
Growing and developing as a leader to better support Southern Steel Engineers’ team tops Sease’s to-do list for 2025. Having not managed people prior to starting at SSE, it’s been trial by fire, and he’s had to continuously hone leadership skills and learn from his mistakes.
“I still have plenty of learning left to do,” he says.
Tools for navigating growth. Sease, the company’s president, is a licensed professional engineer, structural engineer, and certified welding inspector. At SSE, he now leads a team of engineers, oversees day-to-day operations, and manages projects. It’s a bit of a balancing act, but Sease is up to the job. While he says it can be difficult to manage at times, it’s become easier as the team has grown. There are now personnel in positions who are set to take on more responsibility. One year ago, there were nine staff members; now there are 12.
“2024 has been a successful year for SSE, as we have seen the results of many years of hard work result in Best Firms To Work For awards and making the Inc. 5000 list,” he says. “We’re preparing to break ground on an addition to our office so that we can continue to grow in the years ahead, and we’re excited to add more talented people to our team.”
In 2024, the firm also won a Zweig Group Best Firm To Work For Award and Sease says their team is at the core of every success they achieve.
“It’s our desire to ensure our team succeeds professionally and financially,” he says. “In turn, that leads to success for SSE.”
He says they are all about making “continuous improvement,” and notes that of course, growth is not without challenges.
“Our greatest challenge right now is maintaining our high-quality expectations and culture as we work through a growth phase,” Sease says. “We’re refining our processes and procedures as we grow to help train new hires or young engineers who may be moving into project manager roles.”
They have more PMs than they used to and are putting more procedures together and creating an intranet for improved in-house communication.
And when it comes to hiring and recruitment, Sease has found that HighMatch’s personalized assessments are helpful for determining personality traits that are well suited for a position at SSE.
“The assessment platform has been very beneficial – everyone has scored in a certain range for ‘structure,’” he says. “Our culture is one that people who require a great amount of flexibility might not be a good fit.”
Benefits people can get behind. Sease is proud of the company’s strong benefits package which includes 100 percent paid insurance (medical, dental, vision, STD/LTD, life); a 401(k) with 5 percent matching; and HSA accounts. And he believes what really sets them apart is their quarterly profit and performance bonus program.
“This has been valuable to our team, and we routinely pay out bonuses well above industry averages,” he says. “We now have a track record of over seven years paying bonuses every quarter.”
Bonuses get good buy-in. They take a percentage of profits: 15 percent salaried; 15 percent tenure; and 70 percent discretionary.
SSE also heavily invests in professional development and takes their full engineering team to state and national conferences such as AISC’s NASCC, and pays for training courses for PE and SE exams, fees, and license renewals.
Finally, working on exciting projects all over the country is a top benefit too. Being licensed in 46 states allows the company to take on a host of challenging projects. For example, they worked on the SpaceX office in Texas which had unique geometry and design challenges.
Since he started with SSE, he and his team have worked on some notable projects which include serving as the EOR for The Refinery, Rex Medical MOB, and managing the delegated design on several Amazon Sortation facilities, large data centers, and Ford EV battery plants. And, he’s gained invaluable experience with steel erection and engineering field fixes by spending considerable time on project sites including the Boeing 787 Fab Plant in North Charleston, South Carolina.
Moving forward, Sease is looking forward to sharpening his leadership skills and plans to lead with transparency, honesty, and empathy.
“When working through difficult situations, the old adage of ‘put yourself in their shoes’ comes to mind and helps me to think about the circumstances with empathy. I want to be that leader,” he says.
