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By Chad Coldiron | The AEC industry is facing uncertainty, but leaders remain optimistic, practical, and focused on adapting to what comes next.

By Morgan Stinson | Great leaders do not chase comfort – they choose difficult conversations, hard decisions, and accountability before crisis forces them to.

By Heather Applegate | Strong change management turns disruption into momentum by aligning leadership, reducing uncertainty, and helping people stay oriented through transition.

By Greg Sepeda | The best leaders resist false choices and build the capacity to operate within tension while maintaining clarity, discipline, and forward momentum.

By Chad Coldiron | In today’s AEC market, retention isn’t just about culture – it’s about whether employees can afford to stay. 

By Julia Moroney | The real AI conversation in AEC isn’t about tools or speed, it’s about preserving trust, judgment, and accountability.

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

By Tom Godin | When the mind and body of a business move together, worry fades and real performance begins.

By Daryl Simons Jr. | Rethinking first impressions creates fairer decisions, stronger relationships, and lasting benefits for candidates and firms.

By Michael Sanderson | This is one of the most powerful tools we have to reduce risk, train effectively, grow sustainably, and do better work.

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

By Dathan Gaskill | Fractional CFOs offer flexible, expert financial guidance to help AEC firms grow, reduce risk, and improve efficiency.

By Chuck Miller | Selling requires building credibility, showing up consistently, and proving that you’re in it for the long haul.

By Mailena Urso | The path toward success is shaped by your courage, curiosity, and resilience.

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

By Tom Godin | How the military’s mission command principles can improve leadership and management in AEC firms.

By Earl Bennett | Working within a safety-conscious culture contributes to the health and well-being of both employees and the organization.

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

By Liisa Andreassen | President and CEO of McFarlane Architects, a dynamic architectural, planning, and interior design firm that provides innovative design solutions to its clients.

By Mark Zweig | Helping other people develop and be successful could be one of the most rewarding aspects of your career.

By Ezequiel Tovar | Principals must plan for the future, mentor younger staff, and genuinely care for their people to be good stewards of their firms.

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 Justin Smith | Training opportunities that use the best of both worlds – science and experience – will bring your firm to the next level.

By Roger Marquis | What is a self-perform general contractor and why should your firm consider working with one?

By Stephanie Warino | External members on boards of directors increase innovation and spur growth.

Positively impact your firm’s retention rates by turning abstract ideas into actionable goals.

President of Schaefer Engineering, Inc. (Wentzville, MO), a firm founded on integrity with a commitment to provide quality professional forensic consulting services nationwide.

“Square peg for a round hole? No thanks! My first preference is square pegs in square holes!”

“This was the fourth or fifth time since 1997 that Zweig Group has done one of these events coupled with a racing school. They always get me thinking.”

President of Gale Associates Inc. (Best Firm #18 Multi-discipline for 2018), a 115-person consulting firm based in Weymouth, Massachusetts. By Liisa Andreassen Correspondent “Gale has been involved with a number of design-build procurements, primarily for...

The new generation brings a lot to the table, much of it good, so lighten up, be honest, and enjoy yourself as you roll up your sleeves and work. By 2020, nearly half (46 percent)...

Co-founder, president and CEO of WSB (Hot Firm #34 for 2018), a 475-person, full-service consulting and design firm based in Minneapolis. By Liisa Andreassen Correspondent “Early on, I paid too much attention to those who...

If you request even a minute of precious time to meet with your firm’s leader, make sure you don’t waste the moment. If there is one thing I have learned growing up in an increasingly...

President and founder of Brudis & Associates, Inc. (Hot Firm #36 and Best Firm Multi-discipline # 51 for 2016), a 90-person firm based in Baltimore. By Liisa Andreassen Correspondent “While I like to say we’re...

Employees can help attract, recruit, and retain great talent in a tight labor market, so look to them as an augment for HR. A steady stream of job postings for engineers, architects, and construction workers...

The workplace is at its best when teams are as close as tribes, but the only way to get there is to retain your talent. Retention is a growing concern, fueled by lower unemployment rates...

You don’t want to lose sight of your current business, but fostering ideas and innovation with your staff is increasingly essential. Achieving the seemingly impossible could be one way to sum up several epic sporting...

There's so much written about leadership training and developing better leaders in your AEC firm. But there's little information about how to become a better leader yourself. It's all about what you can do for...

There's so much written about leadership training and developing better leaders in your AEC firm. But there's little information about how to become a better leader yourself. It's all about what you can do for...

Campaign finance laws, bid rigging, price fixing, and bribery. We hear about this with contractors, but how about design professionals? Several times each year, there is an article about some contractor being debarred or convicted...

My Dad, Fred Zweig, died on August 16. He was born in 1920 – lived a long and, for the most part, happy life. He grew up poor in St. Louis. His mom was married...

How do you get a handle on billable hours and overhead without losing yourself in spreadsheets? Rely on the gut instincts of your department managers. I’m honored The Zweig Letter asked me to be a...

Being human, we all have opportunities to learn (and re-learn) valuable truths for dealing with others. You’re never too old to learn, if you keep your mind open to it. I have found over the...

Highly profitable firms differ from others in 5 main areas; how does your organization stack up? When you see some A/E and environmental firms making record profits right now – and others still barely breaking...

It’s lonely at the top and hard to find someone who will listen and provide useful advice, Mark Zweig writes. It’s been said before that it’s lonely at the top. There’s a lot of truth...

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...

Check out the similarities. It’s a chase. There’s anticipation of a meeting, a presentation of your value proposition, and a general nervous excitement that comes from both making sales calls and being in the dating...

By Ed Friedrichs What, you may ask, is this all about? A few days ago I began a blog dialogue (I feel like I’m finally entering the 21st century when I participate in a blog...

I was recently interviewed for a magazine article about the residential redevelopment projects we do here in Fayetteville. In addition to figuring out why my houses sell either before we start working on them or...

As the economy gets worse, and panic sets in amongst the management of too many A/E/P and environmental firms, mistakes will be made that are difficult to recover from. I’m referring to decisions such as...

I have worked in this business nearly three decades (how can I be that old??). And I can tell you with certainty that our managers have a real tendency to be overly optimistic. I have...

Rupert Stanchion was the founder and only CEO Stanchion Associates had ever had from its founding in 1980. Now nearly 60 years old, he was beginning to get the idea that some people thought it...

The older I get the more convinced I am that being a successful leader in a design firm is every bit as much an art as it is a science. You just can’t teach someone...

Jose Piranha listened to his two partners, Stephanie Straighthair and Jason Loseria, discuss how to dole out the firm’s profits in the coming year. They were sitting at their favorite table at Hugo’s, the little...

Exit stage left. If you are like most of our readers, you are probably a CEO, managing partner, president, chairperson, majority stockholder, or major shareholder in the A/E/P and environmental consulting firm you work in....

“You can lead a horse to water, but first, you’ve got to have a horse,” is one of the homilies my old friend Mike Latas of ) used to use all the time. I don’t...

Summer’s here. Our local swimming hole— “Farm Pond”— in the town I live in (Sherborn, Mass., pop. 4,300) is also a social gathering spot. Late in the afternoon and on weekends you’ll see all of...

“Leadership development” for our industry too often translates into another boring all-day seminar on liability reduction, or a weekend retreat with a soft-spoken consultant who walks us through “team building” exercises. We say we want...

Management junkies— There is a whole cadre of “management junkies” out there working in A/E/P and environmental consulting firms. These are smart people. But as a friend-of-a-friend of mine, Tony Pirrone (an octogenarian Cadillac salesman)...

One of the most important milestones in the development of an A/E/P or environmental firm is the first time the company turns down work. Knowing what work to take on and what work to refuse...