Anyone who is a design professional and who wants to get ahead is probably going to have to learn to be a manager.
If there’s one thing we can probably all agree on, it’s this: Anyone who is a design professional and who wants to get ahead is probably going to have to learn to be a manager. It’s just the way it is.
Otherwise, you are limited to only what you yourself can personally do, and that’s going to be a big limitation, as most projects design professionals get hired for require a team of people to accomplish. You are going to have to be a manager.
While it may seem obvious to some, as my friend, Matt Lewis, the fourth generation family member to run Lewis Automotive Group says, “Don’t forget the term ‘manager’ has the word ‘manage’ in it.” That means you manage things to get the desired results.
So what kinds of things does a manager in an AEC firm have to do if they want to be effective? There is a lot that goes into the classic definition of management that is “planning, organizing, and controlling resources.” Many subtleties impact how successful one is at doing that. And they aren’t all taught in school, especially colleges of architecture or engineering, although in all fairness, engineering schools usually make some minor attempt at teaching basic management principles.
Here are my thoughts:
- Effective managers achieve results through the work of others. This is paramount. While it doesn’t prohibit the manager from also being a good producer themselves (some people in our business DO actually think that), the first priority is making OTHER people productive. The team is more important than the individual!
- Effective managers understand people. Everyone who wants to be a manager could benefit from studying psychology and sociology, but unfortunately, most don’t get much of that in school. Management is about people. And design professionals don’t usually go into the design or technical disciplines that they do because they are interested in people. In order to know people, you have to be interested enough in them to want to learn all about them as individuals. And that understanding is critical to your ability to motivate (or avoid demotivating) them.
- Effective managers are good at predicting how people will behave in any given situation. This is a crucial skill because the manager decides who will fill each specific role that needs to be filled. The ability to predict individual behavior in a specific situation is a critical management skill. It takes empathy and a real understanding of the individuals involved to be able to do that. A big part of management is understanding probabilities of success or failure. And those probabilities are tied to the individuals involved.
- Effective managers build their team. They make the decisions on who goes on the team and who stays on the team. Those can be difficult decisions to make for many reasons. People could get their feelings hurt. Not everyone will agree with those decisions. But that doesn’t mean those decisions don’t have to be made! There have to be performance and behavior standards that are met to remain on the team. Weak managers are not good at this. They want everyone to have a place on the team, so they keep trying to make people “work out” who aren’t going to. That drags down performance and hurts morale for everyone if the manager can’t make the tough calls.
- Effective managers resolve conflicts. Not everyone will get along even when they are good people and on the same team. So the manager has to confront these situations. You cannot ignore them and hope things work out on their own. That probably won’t happen and the damage these conflicts cause can spread like a cancer. So just like cancer, it’s best to treat it sooner rather than later.
- Effective managers learn to work within the constraints of the system. There will always be constraints in our business. Time constraints. Monetary restraints. Resource constraints. These constraints cannot be an excuse for not accomplishing the goals of the organization. And the larger the organization – be that the client organization, or the AEC firm itself – the greater the likelihood of bureaucratic obstacles that need to be negotiated. Effective managers know what they can change and what they cannot change, and work accordingly.
- Effective managers believe they can be effective and get results. Accomplishing anything first requires the belief that you can do it. There is no place for doubt or cynicism on the team. Belief that success IS possible has to start with the manager.
My last point is this. There is a body of knowledge on management just like the body of knowledge that exists on your design or technical discipline. Get into it, and you might be surprised that you can actually learn how to be a better manager!
Mark Zweig is Zweig Group’s chairman and founder. Contact him at mzweig@zweiggroup.com.
