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By Mark Zweig | Strong onboarding helps new AEC hires feel valued, useful, and confident they made the right decision.

By Mark Zweig | Employees see the rewards of ownership, but rarely the personal risk that makes those rewards possible.

AI can help people work faster, but real innovation still depends on curiosity, judgment, and human perspective.

By Mark Zweig | Market cycles are inevitable, and firms that act before revenue drops will outperform those that wait and react.

By Julia Moroney | AEC firms must protect flexibility without sacrificing mentorship and visibility for young leaders.

By Srividhya Viswanathan | By prioritizing leadership, trust, and accountability, organizations can build teams that not only achieve their goals but thrive together.

By Mark Zweig | A cautionary AEC story about control, delayed succession, and how avoiding transition can undo decades of good work.

By Mark Zweig | If you are serious about wanting to improve your project management performance, here are some things to focus on.

By Janki DePalma | A manager’s guide to building a culture where recovery is respected, contribution is sustainable, and being seen doesn’t require shattering.

By Liisa Andreassen | President and CEO of Cedarville Engineering Group (Pottstown, PA), a civil and environmental design-build firm that delivers value through innovation.

By Ezequiel Tovar | These common leadership mistakes hinder the growth and success of your business.

By Katherine Wilczek & Ceclia Martin-Smith | While it can be helpful to use generational trends to inform your management practices, it is most important to get to know your employees as individuals. 

By Matt Verderamo | When your clients treat you like a partner, you run better projects, win negotiated work, and have happier people.

By Morgan Stinson | Failure at some level is inevitable – but how we respond to and manage that failure is what can set us apart.

By Janki DePalma | Late bloomers gain wisdom, resilience, and unique insights, proving there’s no fixed timeline for achievement.

By Mark Zweig | Those who read your emails, letters, reports, social media posts, and resumes are all deciding how intelligent you are in large part from your writing.

By Janki DePalma | Having the ability to admit your own mistakes can be refreshingly liberating and lead to real growth and connection.

By Matt Verderamo | The way you handle yourself as an employee directly correlates to the level of success you can reach in your organization.

By Mark Zweig | Parenting is a lot like leadership in a business in that your behavior affects everyone and your actions determine how harshly you will be judged.

By Mark Zweig | If you don’t want your people or yourself to be judged unfairly, there are a few common problems that must always be avoided.

By Matt Hoying | When mistakes happen, it can be difficult to look for the silver lining, but doing so and making the most of it will help your business now and in the future.

By Janki DePalma | We need to examine the connection between confidence, competence, and our sense of self in the corporate world.

By Sara Parkman | Human resources director at CORE Consultants, Inc., a professional services firm that empowers its people to thrive at home, at work, and in their community.

By Liisa Andreassen | President of Raba Kistner, Inc., a firm that is committed to empowering employees to continually improve and deliver services right the first time, on time, every time.

By Liisa Andreassen | Owner of Croft, Inc. (Acworth, GA), a full-service architecture and engineering firm that serves clients nationally in many diverse markets of the public and private sectors.

By Liisa Andreassen | President of raSmith (Brookfield, WI), a multi-disciplinary firm of civil engineers, structural engineers, land surveyors, development managers, landscape architects, and ecologists.

By Mark Zweig | The leadership abilities of you firm’s principals and managers will determine your collective success this year.

By Mark Zweig | There are 10 things practically every firm in this business should do but won’t. If you try these things, your firm will be more successful.

By Mark Zweig | These six traits are most likely to lead to success and are absolute “musts” for whomever is the CEO of the firm.

Phil Keil, Zweig Group’s director of strategic services, knows how to put the pieces together to craft unique strategies and implementation plans for AEC firms.

Managing a client’s expectations is a delicate art that requires planning, restraint, and diligence.

“Being a leader means you have to keep growing and learning. We can all change. This includes you!”

“What causes AEC firms to fail? I have been a student of this business for 39 years now. Here’s what I have seen.”

Each week, The Zweig Letter features commentary from top-flight leaders of AEC firms. Here is a compilation of how they handle, and move beyond, failure. By The Zweig Letter Staff John Hiltz, president of OHM...

If you lead an AEC firm, you have a lot of tough questions to ask yourself, and the answers aren’t always pretty. But ask and answer you must. In a romanticized view of the business...

Review and understand any new or enhanced supplemental coverages available under your policy and note those most timely and valuable to your firm. Design firms may want to double-check their professional liability insurance policies for...

CEO of BIG RED DOG Engineering & Consulting (Best Firm Multi-discipline #47 and Hot Firm #65 for 2017), a 105-person multi-discipline engineering firm based in Austin, Texas. By Richard Massey Managing Editor “As individuals and...

Five facts to consider during the recruiting process at your firm. Managing expectations in an executive search process can be a burdensome task. After all, you’re eager to quickly find that perfect new team member...

The business is evolving faster than ever. Here are Mark Zweig’s eight steps for implementing change. I am convinced that both the world and the A/E/P and environmental business are changing at an accelerating pace....

Mark Zweig offers 13 lucky suggestions on how to be closer to your clients. How you manage your clients is a big part of success in the A/E or environmental consulting business. And these skills...

This article first appeared in The Zweig Letter (ISSN 1068-1310) Issue # 996 Originally published 2/25/2013 Mark Zweig offers six suggestions on how to pick the right people and nurture them. But act with care....

By Christine Brack Principal, Business Planning Consulting Design firms don’t sell an actual product, even if drawings and written deliverables are part of the final package. They make their living selling units of professional time....

Everyone thinks they know why clients hire their A/E/P or environmental firm. Sometimes you DO know— but sometimes people make bad assumptions. Those bad assumptions will HURT your future selling efforts because you will be...

When I first got out of graduate school with my MBA back in 1980, I went to work for a consulting/recruiting firm in St. Louis that specialized in serving the construction and real estate development...

It’s the kind of question that plagues principals: Why, if their firm has spent more than $300,000 on an all-new web-based software program that is designed to integrate every single front office function, are they...

You’re all aware of it. The “circular theory,” otherwise known as “what goes around comes around.” It’s one of nature’s laws that seems to hold true as much as the laws of physics. If you’re...

Almost every motivated person working in an A/E/P or environmental firm is either already a manager, or wants to be one. That’s OK, but I’m not sure all of these people really understand what it...

Management people are usually critical of technical people for their lack of business knowledge. But having a business degree is no assurance you know any more than the average design or environmental consultant about how...