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By Mark Zweig | Meeting people face-to-face builds energy, strengthens relationships, and creates new opportunities.

By Mark Zweig | In a relationship-driven business, clients hire people they know and trust — not just the firms they represent.

  "A lot of architects are rather introverted as well, so it takes some work to pull that out. And for me, my win is, did I get you out of your shell to share...

By Janki DePalma | Extroverts can create meaningful connections by observing cues, balancing conversation, and actively listening.

By Alan Lloyd | With the right approach, our people can develop the skills and confidence needed to excel in business development, contributing to our collective success.

By Jon Leach | In a world in which employee engagement is steadily decreasing, it’s increasingly important for firm leaders to understand the psychology behind their office spaces.

By Luci Hogue | Whether you love your job and want to get to the next level or if you’re feeling unsatisfied in your current position, these tips may help gain perspective.

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

By Mark Zweig | While there are no doubt some costs associated with making a brand for your firm, a lot of it just boils down to a little work and some discipline.

By Julie Benezet | Mentors do not fight for candidates’ advancement opportunities. That is the job of champions.

By Talin Espinoza | Now that we’ve been working from home for a year, let’s unpack the pros and cons of our new lifestyle.

Grow your firm and bolster future success by training and mentoring technical staff to participate in your firm’s sales and marketing efforts.

By Christina Zweig Niehues | Good communication shows compassion to your client – something that’s likely to be returned back to you.

Learn the basics of leadership so you can decide if you’re up to the task. If you are, assess your skills and improve where you can.

Trust your judgement, speak up, and keep learning. Your efforts will pay dividends down the road.

“We need to collect our money sooner. With dragged out collection periods, most companies don’t have the working capital they need without borrowing.”

  The AEC industry is known for its inward-looking professionals. When it comes to marketing your firm to the outside world, that’s not a good thing. I’m sure everyone has heard the old joke: How...

Here is the full transcript of a great conversation that we had with Mark Zweig. He gave us a history lesson on AECWorkforce and the importance of an effective job board for the Design and...

Here is the full transcript of a great conversation that we had with Mark Zweig. He gave us a history lesson on AECWorkforce and the importance of an effective job board for the Design and...

As a coach, your choices can impact the fate of your team members, so take pains to put the right people in the right places. I didn’t grow up in a very sports-centric family. We...

2017 Hot Firm & A/E Industry Awards Conference sponsor is led by Dawson Fercho, a business development guy who is part social worker, part psychologist. By Liisa Andreassen Correspondent Dawson Fercho says he likes to...

While the lure of them is understandable, there are probably better, more human ways of evaluating candidates before you hire them. Some people are enamored with personality tests. But despite their popularity in certain circles,...

I’m about to make some generalizations that could get me in trouble with people I care about. If this includes you, please forgive me! Engineers have problems. You heard me. Engineers have PROBLEMS! I have...

Your ability to sell work is probably the most crucial skill you can have IF you really want to maximize your opportunities in the AEC world we all live in. Here are a few pointers...

We have all heard the adage, "Hire for character and train for skills." A/E/P firms really need to "get" this idea. Most don't do it. They're focused on PE registrations and degrees and knowledge of...

Here are nine tips on how to be successful in the A/E/P business. Hint, most of these tips are not specific to the A/E/P business. I have the honor of being a guest lecturer once...

Though it has been around for a while, email isn’t going anywhere anytime soon; make sure you’re using it effectively. Email is not going away for those of us in the A/E business – even...

No method of communication is perfect, but each is best for certain situations, Mark Zweig writes. As leaders and managers of A/E/P or environmental firms, we all share one thing: lack of time. We work...

This article first appeared in The Zweig Letter (ISSN 1068-1310) Issue # 1000 Originally published 3/25/2013 Follow your passions, people – for a rich and successful life! It was an interesting week for me here...

By Jeff Clark From a personal viewpoint, I often wondered in the past what I would say, and with such frequency, on this celebrity-glamorized and ego-centric platform called Twitter. I’m not John Mayer and if...

As someone who has worked, studied, and written about this business for 28 years now, I thought today is as good as any day to share some of what I’ve learned. Here it goes: What...

Business planning does not have to be difficult. Every single firm needs a plan, whether you are a five-person architectural firm started two years ago, or a 3,000-employee, 35-year-old engineering and environmental consulting company. But...

The folks at Deltek Systems, Inc. (Herndon, VA) have always claimed their market for software and consulting services was “project-driven businesses.” The truth is, the first time I heard that, I was skeptical. I wasn’t...

We all know it. If we cannot train a second generation of leaders who will be able to take over the firm and run it successfully after we are gone, we probably won’t see any...

I have always been interested in design and construction. When I was as young as seven years old, I was drawing up floor plans for houses on graph paper and building them with my Legos....