A day in the life at Temple…. Senior Director

A Day in the life at Temple… Senior Director Major Programmes

Name: Simon Butler

Date joined Temple: September 2021

A day as a Director at Temple is both rewarding and exciting.

As I turn on my computer, with my to-do list and plan for the day in front of me, there is always a level of anticipation and expectation as anything could happen during the day ahead, and that really makes my role so enjoyable as you never quite know what challenges you are going to face.

Day-to-day

Where we do have a ‘typical day’ the main bulk of my time will be split between meetings, preparing tender submissions for new work, talking to team members and cross-discipline experts, and undertaking technical work.

Throughout the day, I am responsible for several major infrastructure projects, ensuring the delivery of outputs is compliant and meets the high demands of the client’s requirements. I spend a good amount of time liaising with our team of Project Managers providing support and guidance on technical reports and other outputs – and acting as approver before documents are issued to the client.

It’s a pleasure working with our project managers and topic specialists.  They are focused on high quality delivery, ensuring deadlines are met and clients are kept abreast of our performance on key milestones throughout the project programme. Working with these individuals I have a real sense of pride for our company, as each member of staff I have come into contact with in my time with Temple, seems to share the same ethos and is an integral part of everything we do.

I have always been passionate about the Natural and Built Environment and, through my work as an Environmental Planner. I have always challenged the status quo through collaboration with many environmental topic specialists. My 20+ years of experience and knowledge, this has allowed me to introduce elements of innovation and creativity into infrastructure projects and major programmes, which is often an added value element to our work and a reason why our clients enjoy working with us and return time and time again.

I’ll often be required to attend client meetings and internal progress reviews to provide a sounding board on project performance and answer questions in relation to the contract and commercial performance. I work alongside many different technical disciplines and thrive on a variety of project types and stages of development. I love talking to our clients and partners about the work we do and being sociable helps to make those approaches at events and conferences.

This morning, I attended a Strategic Business Plan Review session at the London office. Part of my role is to help facilitate views and ideas to reach a common goal – it has really helped to be part of the decision-making process which allows me to visualise our direction of travel and drive the ideas forward as part of the 2023 business plan (which is soon to be launched).

Working with the teams 

Being passionate about my work, I find it very rewarding to mentor and train other staff. During the afternoon, I feel it is important to spend time with junior staff looking at both tried and tested methods while having a keen eye on applying a spot of lateral thinking, especially when projects are bespoke or novel. Sometimes these are the most favoured scenarios you find yourself, testing your professional technical and scientific knowledge and experience in overcoming and resolving issues

I sit within two divisions of Temple – Major Programmes which include Infrastructure planning & Environmental Management and Consenting. I attend team meetings and hold individual 1-2-1s which are a great opportunity and touchpoint with staff to identify issues of the day and take time to listen to others’ concerns. Temple has always placed a high degree of emphasis on staff wellbeing, which you always see being featured in our monthly internal newsletter and has become a more prominent and a respected topic of discussion with industry peers and our key clients. Featuring wellbeing moments and health and safety reviews in our team meetings also help to foster a healthier working environment and lifestyle, which is respectful. Personally, I feel this encourages optimal levels of sustained performance in staff which builds trust and respect with your colleagues.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my brief canter through my day in the life, and if you want to learn more about my role or any other aspects of Temple please get in touch on LinkedIn or by Email.