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By Kraig Kern | An observation on modern communication, efficiency, and the messages that quietly disappear.

By Mark Zweig | Strong leaders address underperformance directly, clearly, and quickly before it damages culture, client relationships, and team morale.

Zweig Group consultants and leaders regularly speak, teach, and participate in major industry events across the AEC community.

By Duncan Robertson | Motivational leadership drives loyalty, ownership, and growth by connecting people’s individual goals to the firm’s larger purpose and vision.

By Wallace Smith | Giving back is a responsibility that strengthens communities, builds better businesses, and reminds leaders their greatest impact starts beyond the blueprint.

The leading source of business management insights, research, and strategies tailored specifically for leaders of AEC firms.

By Tiara Marcus | Great project delivery goes beyond efficiency, blending precision, clarity, and empathy to build trust and lasting client partnerships.

By Liisa Andreassen | President and COO of OBMI (Miami, FL), a global master planning, architecture, and design firm.

By Ying Liu | These three common leadership personas quietly sabotage strategy execution.

By Dan Schwartz | Successful M&A communication is achieved through strategy, storytelling, and staying human in the face of complexity.

By Sara Parkman | Zweig Group’s 2025 Rising Stars share what inspires purpose, loyalty, and change in the AEC workplace.

By Hugh Smith | Community outreach and engagement are foundational to the success of any project.

By Tiara Marcus | True leaders tune out the noise and let their expertise, talent, and technical understanding speak for itself.

By Brad Thurman | Building true, long-lasting professional relationships with your clients takes a lot of work – but will pay off for you in the end.

By Sarah R. Adams-Slominski | Step back and check in on how your employees are doing, learn what they care about, and discover what helps them stay engaged in their work.

Join us as Justin Smith moderates a panel of esteemed experts, including Aaron Lauinger, Tiara Marcus, and Brian Sielaff, representing firms excelling in client engagement, project leadership, and culture protection.

By Liisa Andreassen | President of Southern Steel Engineers (Lexington, SC), a firm that provides state of the art engineering and analysis for structural steel projects.

By John Butt | The transition from being an individual contributor to a people leader is a significant milestone in a professional’s career – but it can also come with many challenges.

By Sarah R. Adams-Slominski | Team leaders can more effectively manage employees of all ages through strategic communication practices.

By Brad Thurman | Empathy, clear communication, and attentive listening are crucial in building trust and improving client relationships in the AEC industry.

By Val Brennan | By moving beyond outdated tools, we can foster more meaningful connections, better demonstrate our capabilities, and evolve with the needs of our clients.

By Mark Zweig | Anyone who is a design professional and who wants to get ahead is probably going to have to learn to be a manager.

By Jeremy Clarke | Spot these devastating hires before they sabotage your team.

By Hannah Dapore | Intentional strategies to uphold a strong company culture regardless of geographical boundaries.

By Dawn Landry | By leaning into our self-awareness to understand diverse personalities, we can transform challenges into opportunities for growth and success.

By Hanbury | One firm’s rebranding reflects its growth, commitment to thoughtful design, and emphasis on storytelling through a collaborative and evolving identity.

By Leisbel Lam | Having a service recovery mindset in your projects is essential in order to keep your organization’s sustained competitive advantage.

By Victoria Verlezza | Supportive leaders who prioritize communication and psychological safety can foster a positive work environment where employees feel valued and motivated.

By Brent Schniers | Though there’s no roadmap for navigating grief, there are steps leaders can take to manage their own emotions and guide their organization through a tough time.

By Stjepan Mikulić | This approach ensures the foundation of change is built on a solid understanding of human behavior, enabling more sustainable firm-wide implementation.

By Javier Suarez | AI provides opportunities to bolster our understanding of our intended audiences while supporting our efforts to refine our messages.

By Jennifer Haddad | When leaders combine a strong company culture with workplace flexibility and employee empathy, they can create an environment where hybrid work can thrive.

By Leisbel Lam | To integrate effective change management, identify needs, understand deeply, honor the past, mandate change, and provide a precise, optimistic roadmap forward.

By Ying Liu | Insight into the unique challenges and opportunities often faced by CSOs in the AEC industry.

By Leslie Jenkins | Instead of trying to impress potential clients, focus on emotional intelligence, really listening, and creating relationships built on common goals and trust.

By Leisbel Lam | We need to be holistic, bold, and nimble in order to transform our organizations to better align with a service culture and gain a competitive advantage.

By Kraig Kern | If you stay disciplined, empathize with your team, and commit to excellence you can meet your deadlines and ultimately win more projects.

Jerrod Hogan, CEO of OWN, Inc., discusses how his unique journey to leadership, influenced by his upbringing and a life-altering event, led him to transform his firm into an employee-owned company. This change fostered growth, client satisfaction, and...

By Keyan Zandy | This tool can help you develop a deeper understanding of your client’s experience by exploring their emotions, motivations, and attitudes.

By Raoul Rañoa | There are various techniques and tools you can use distill complex data into digestible and actionable insights.

By Liisa Andreassen | Founder of Indigo River (Nyack, NY), a certified Women-Owned Business Enterprise committed to helping our society evolve together with our environment.

By Jeff Sober | If you want to keep people at your firm long-term, it’s time to rethink traditional approaches to preventing turnover.

David Bolt, president of GMB, discusses his extraordinary design career journey and creating a collaborative environment that fosters growth and embraces change.

By Janki DePalma | Recognizing this bias helps managers and company leaders create spaces where everyone can thrive. 

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 Liisa Andreassen | CEO of Verdantas (Dublin, OH), an environmental, engineering, and technical consulting company with global perspective.

By Jennifer Haddad | If you can approach the situation with empathy, compassion, and an open mind, you can create a positive experience and leave the door open for future opportunities.

By Reid Poling | As much as school can and does teach you, there are some lessons that can only be  learned “on the job.”

By Liisa Andreassen | Principal at JQ (Dallas, TX), a team of professionals providing structural and civil engineering, geospatial, and facility performance services within a diverse group of markets.

Janki DePalma – the senior associate and director of business development at Kirksey Architecture – discusses active listening, empathy, building relationships, and the importance of psychological safety in the workplace, especially for women.

By Keyan Zandy | It’s critical to take the time to develop your trust-building skills. You, your teams, and the projects you are all working on together will only benefit.

By Liisa Andreassen | President and CEO of CHA Consulting (Albany, NY), an innovative, full-service engineering consulting and construction management firm.

By Kraig Kern | Identifying and fixing crucial problems is the job of leadership, but sometimes the most debilitating problems are with the leaders themselves.

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 Jay Kennedy & Julie Thiel | Be thoughtful in how you approach and manage your emotions, and you will find success building and maintaining meaningful client relationships.

By Kevin Bertrand | Strong connections lead to strong communications and successful outcomes, so it’s important that we listen, understand, and respond in ways that are supportive.

By Mitch Fortner | To be effective over the long-term for an organization, our personal ambition must be grounded in mutual respect, collaborative teamwork, and integrity.

By Liisa Andreassen | CEO of MKSK, a collective of planners, urban designers, and landscape architects who are passionate about the interaction between people and place.

By Will Swearingen | If there are people with dominating or otherwise off-set personalities on your leadership team, it could be time for a change.

By Linda Schulte | When your team views you as a leader and not just a manager, they will work much harder and be willing to go the extra mile when necessary.

By Liisa Andreassen | President at Baisch Engineering (Kaukauna, WI), a consulting engineering firm that provides full-service integration engineering to industrial clients worldwide.

By Liisa Andreassen | Partner at Method Architecture (Houston, TX), a full-service architecture firm that is uniquely ego-free in its commitment to a systematic, client-focused creative process.

By Liisa Andreassen | President and CEO of GRAEF (Milwaukee, WI), an international multi-discipline engineering, planning, and design firm that was founded in 1961.

By Tom Godin | People don’t leave companies, they leave managers – so make sure your managers have the skills they need to succeed.

By Liisa Andreassen | They are the CEO and president of RDG, a firm made up of architects, artists, engineers, landscape architects, and planners with a passion for design.

By Mark Zweig | We’ve all heard about the attributes of highly effective people, but what about the habits of highly ineffective people?

By Keyan Zandy | It is up to us to do what we can to improve our employees’ mental and physical health, as well as our own.

By Liisa Andreassen | CFO of Studio+ (Fort Myers, FL), an architecture and interior design firm focused on design solutions that transform lives.

By Liisa Andreassen | Founder of Trahan Architects, a global architecture firm that mobilizes artistry and innovation to develop thoughtful structures that enhance quality of life.

By Liisa Andreassen | CEO and chairman of the board at MG2 (Seattle, WA), a global architecture, design, construction, and branding studio.

By Christina Zweig Niehues | We’re all busy – but take a few minutes to value the time of your partner organizations.

By Joseph Losaria | To succeed in building a new business line, you need to set your ego aside, believe in yourself, and trust your team with your vision.

By Liisa Andreassen | President at MWM Design Group (Austin, TX), a firm that continues to embody its founders’ core values of personal integrity, responsibility, and service.

By Sara Parkman | They are the senior principal and president of Genesis (Blue Bell, PA), a full service firm that delivers facilities for life-saving therapies.

By Tim Schroeder | Grow your team’s empathy by embracing a culture of feedback, realigning your perspective to view feedback as an opportunity, and becoming coachable.

By Liisa Andreassen | President and CEO of PRIME AE Group (Baltimore, MD), a firm that creates vibrant communities by connecting people and conserving culture and the environment.

By Tim Schroeder | Making incremental changes to pay attention to what’s important to your people and rallying your team behind a common goal could lead to astonishing results.

By Liisa Andreassen | CEO of Sasaki (Boston, MA), an interdisciplinary architecture, planning, landscape, and design firm with offices in the U.S. and China.

By Keyan Zandy | Many firms have been slow to engage in conversations with their employees about mental health. It’s time to make a change.

By Keyan Zandy | The positive changes we’ve made will stay with us long after the days of the pandemic are over.

By Liisa Andreassen | They are the founder and principal of McKinney York Architects (Austin, TX), a certified HUB and WBE that creates beautiful, responsible architecture in a culture of collaboration.

Janki DePalma, director of business development with Kirksey Architects, discusses listening, empathy, relationships, self-control, and what makes a great business developer.

By Lindsay Young | This is our opportunity to get creative and bring in new ideas for our firms to get work.

By Chad Coldiron | Practice becoming a better communicator, and you’ll build better rapport and credibility with clients, colleagues, and just about everyone else.

By Chad Coldiron | With remote work burnout setting in for many, here are some ideas to take care of your people now and for the foreseeable future.

By Mark Zweig | These are some of the common elements that are often present in the most successful leadership transitions.

By Christina Zweig Niehues | Celebrate the present, and focus on extreme flexibility and radical empathy going forward.

Educating yourself about these biases as well as potential strategies for mitigation can help you avoid prejudice in your decision-making.

By Mark Zweig | With new cases of COVID-19 on the rise, now is not the time for complacency. Instead, it is a time for self-reflection and new action.

As an accomplished speaker, consultant, trainer, and business coach, Wilburn helps professionals become better leaders, better communicators, and better people.

By Mark Zweig | If we truly want to elevate our people and help them achieve all they can achieve, we must help them be better communicators.

By Chad Coldiron | Prioritize the tasks on your to-do list in order of importance and how long they will take to maximize efficiency.

By Will Swearingen | In recent months, long-time issues like communication have been trumped by new challenges: loneliness, problems with technology, work-life balance, and distractions.

Most of these ideas take very little money – just your time. Invest in yourself and your business and you’ll be stronger and better for it on the other side of this.

Understanding others will help you build the connections that will lead to success – in your professional and personal life.

CEO of EDiS (Wilmington, DE), a fifth generation family-owned firm that has been thriving in the same region for more than a century.

Women must stop apologizing, speak up, and stand tall if they want to be successful leaders.

By Phil Keil | If you’re struggling to build a productive team, it might be time to take a long look in the mirror.

No one wants just a job, and no one wants to live in “quiet desperation.” As leaders, we can help employees sidestep burnout.

The industry is in desperate need of future leaders who know how to talk with, and understand, their people.

CEO of Chipman Design Architecture, a third-generation, family-owned firm based in Chicago, Illinois.

Using both sides of his brain, and with empathy, can-do man is engineering a great career in Seattle.

Do you want to survive the next year, the next recession, and the ongoing reset of the workplace, the marketplace, and the recruiting space?

Strong emotional intelligence, empathy, and the ability and capacity to engage the ‘whole person’ move teams and projects forward.

Ditch the ego, the fancy title, and the unnecessary rules. Instead, be the spark that inspires your team members to follow their passions. If you are a manager, you have people following your orders. If...

CEO of Apex Companies, LLC (Hot Firm #41 for 2017), a 700-person environmental engineering firm based in Rockville, Maryland. By Liisa Andreassen Correspondent “There is nothing that drives value creation for an organization more than...

Understanding what fans their flames and what douses their embers will foster a more productive and fulfilling environment for everyone. Editor’s note: This top eight list was borrowed from Tony Morgan, chief strategic officer and...

Do your clients really love you? And do you love them? Before jumping into a big contract, you might want to know. Something I learned a long time ago has to do with my relationship...

They’re everywhere, and the key to dealing with them is to understand and appreciate their bad behavior by exercising a little empathy. We spend a lot of our lives at work. So it makes sense...

Do you want to win a project, identify a new service offering, or attract a new employee? Pick the right medium and have at it! Humans have been communicating through stories for more than 25,000...

Mick Gronewold, Principal, Fehr Graham Principal at Fehr Graham (Hot Firm #72 for 2016), a 170-person engineering and environmental firm based in Rockford, Illinois. By Liisa Andreassen Correspondent “If you ain’t falling down, you aren’t...

CEO of HGA (a multiple Hot Firm award winner), a national, 750-person integrated architecture, engineering, and planning firm based in Minneapolis. By Liisa Andreassen Correspondent “Our most successful proposals help the client visualize the journey...

The holiday season always motivates us to give back, but a company-wide campaign can provide for charity where and when it’s needed most – locally and all year long. I really like this quote from...

The exclusive rights to a new technology launched TerraTherm into a world of contamination – and that’s right where John Bierschenk wanted to be. By Liisa Andreassen Correspondent It all started with research. John Bierschenk,...

These are the two core words that define how and what people lead. I’ve spent a great deal of time thinking and learning about leadership. Endless books have been written about leadership and I’ve pursued...

By Jeremy Clarke Getting top talent is still a critical priority… even in this economic environment. How so? Well, because business needs are still evolving, and employee turnover is still an unavoidable reality. All of...

Press Release: July 26, 2011 FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. (July 26, 2011) – For many leaders in architecture, engineering, planning and environmental firms, a finance chief’s job goes beyond managing finances. When editors of The Zweig Letter...

Most A/E/P and environmental firms spend a lot of money just for the opportunity to make a presentation to a client. You send your technical/professional staff chasing all over the countryside, hither and yon, looking...