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By Daryl Simons Jr. | As employees rethink the role of work in their lives, AEC firms must reconsider what long-term performance really requires.

By Greg Sepeda | Many AEC leadership groups operate like golf teams – strong individuals, but little coordination – leaving collective results far short of potential.

By Greg Sepeda | The Marvel universe delivers 10 powerful lessons in leadership, proving that purpose, humility, and teamwork save the day.

By Mark Zweig | There are nine reasons why selling your firm to the right buyer can strengthen opportunities, stability, and growth for your people.

By Mark Zweig | If you want people to work harder, hire the ambitious, lead by example, and reward real performance.

By Duncan Robertson | Being able to turn challenges into lasting opportunities requires sacrifice, strategic risk, and strong teams.

By Duncan Robertson | Shed the word “busy” from your vocabulary to focus on the priorities that will have the greatest positive impact on your firm.

By Chad Coldiron, Casey Shea & Stefanie Richter | High-performing firms that embrace technology solutions are seeing transformative results across their operations.

By Mark Zweig | These 10 things will make a difference if you are serious about making your people more entrepreneurial.

By Dan Houf | If AEC firms cannot have certainty in how they operate and grow, it will be difficult to stay competitive.

By Will Swearingen, Kevin Johns & Alexis Martin | Finding extra deductions or credits will serve you now and when the time comes to transfer ownership.

By Mark Zweig | AEC firms must do better with delivering feedback and rewarding exceptional people, or risk losing their highest performers.

By Mark Zweig | See how you stack up against the best in the industry – and remember, it’s never too late to change your behavior.

By Mark Zweig | These are the most important qualities that decide who gets to move up as firm leaders, managers, and future owners.

By Peter Atherton | These shifts have fundamentally changed the way we must lead and develop our teams and organizations if we want to sustainably grow and prosper in this new era.

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.

By Scott McNally | If you swing for the fence, remember the fans, watch for curveballs, and rally your team, your firm will be successful.

By Todd Perry | Lessons learned after taking a big risk to launch a new firm in an up-and-coming sector.

By Mark Zweig | Business ownership can be one of the most rewarding things for any person to participate in.

By Liisa Andreassen | Founder, design principal, and CEO at Snow Kreilich Architects (Minneapolis, MN), a nationally recognized, award winning architectural studio.

By Mark Zweig | These are some of the most important qualities to look for in a potential business partner.

By Keyan Zandy | There are a lot of heroes in our companies, but some are less noticeable. Their successes are quieter and less dramatic, but no less valuable.

By Phil Keil | Systems, value creation, simplicity, and granting authority to the most local level.

By Mercedez Thompson | Leaders must engage in burnout prevention strategies that alleviate overburdened employees, reduce the number of meetings, encourage PTO, and promote flexible hours.

By Mark Zweig | An enduring firm will be worth much more – through an internal or external sale – than one where some of these issues are not addressed.

By Jamie Claire Kiser | The decisions firms make today will determine the talent available for the next professional generation.

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

If we want to be in position to effectively respond and even get ahead of the curve, we all need to know what’s likely to come next.

Founding principal of Kudela & Weinheimer (Houston, TX), a landscape architecture firm that has produced beautiful, exceptionally built environments for more than 25 years.

Managing principal of Woodblock Architecture (Portland, OR), a firm that sees each new project as an opportunity to create something awesome and build new relationships.

Chairman and CEO of Mabbett & Associates, Inc. (Bedford, MA), a verified Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business.

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

By Will Swearingen | As owners enter the final years of their careers and ponder ownership transition, they have to make some concessions.

“Every time you take off early or give yourself that perk you always wanted, you could unknowingly be demotivating someone. I’ve seen some egregious examples of this over the years.”

President of CEI, a 20-year-old minority-owned engineering and contracting firm based in Miami Lakes, Florida.

President and founder of Calibre Engineering, a national civil engineering firm based in Highlands Ranch, Colorado.

By Phil Keil | People need something to rally behind. Identifying a mission for your firm is more than just a box to check when creating a strategic plan.

“One of the things they teach you about entrepreneurship in business school is that you should have your exit strategy in mind as you start and grow your company.” One of the things they teach...

With more competition, more intensive procurement, higher costs, and increasingly lower fees, firm leaders must leverage the power of mission. We have a mission as an organization. It is why we exist. The best ones...

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...

“So many firms in the AEC business are making transitions right now. Aging boomers in their 60s and 70s are selling down, and their chosen successors are taking the reins.” So many firms in the...

CEO and founder of Sam Schwartz Consulting, LLC (Hot Firm #67 and Best Firm #49 Multidiscipline for 2018), a 130-person transportation planning firm based in New York City. By Liisa Andreassen Correspondent “Ownership transitions, especially...

Do you want to make 2018 a great year of growth and prosperity? Pay attention to, and act upon, a four-point plan to get the best out of your firm. To prepare for a successful...

The last few weeks have been pretty rough. A nice young fellow who cleaned my antique cars was killed in a New Year’s Eve altercation with a gun-wielding criminal. Several of my friends and acquaintances,...

The transition from boomers to millennials is going to happen anyway, so put in a good-faith effort and make it a positive experience. By 2020, 50 percent of the U.S. workforce will be millennials. In...

CEO of Wantman Group, Inc. (#5 Hot Firm and #19 Best Firm Multidiscipline for 2016), a 310-person engineering consulting firm based in West Palm Beach, Florida. By Liisa Andreassen Correspondent “The easiest work is repeat...

Working with millennials was a hot topic at the recent Hot Firm and A/E Industry Awards Conference. Most researchers define the millennial generation as those born anywhere between 1982 and 2004 (although some sources end...

By Mark Zweig | Those who are called “principal” should be cognizant of several important aspects of their roles. Here are a few of them.

Planning regulations in Johnson City, Tennessee produced a 26-foot bun and frankfurter made of brick, and it’s the talk of the town. By Richard Massey Managing Editor Johnson City is a quaint place of 66,000...

It’s time for a quick review of what firm leaders should – and should not – be doing. There are a lot of people with the “principal” title in A/E of environmental firms. But I...

Architect Mike Reynolds, founder and owner of an unconventional design-build company, uses recycled materials to construct a sustainable enterprise. By Richard Massey Managing Editor Mike Reynolds, the founder of Earthship Biotecture, rose from obscurity outside...

A lot of A/E/P firms complain, but in fact, they’re not really trying to grow. As an executive in residence teaching entrepreneurship in the Sam M. Walton College of Business at the University of Arkansas‎,...

When seeking to define his or her position, a top leader should consider these 7 vital responsibilities. Because top firm leaders (CEOs, presidents, managing partners, etc.) probably have a better opportunity to define their own...

In work and in life, our past experiences, relationships, and the information we consume contribute to our outcomes. You know – in life, or in business – things pretty much happen as you expect them...

Industry prosperity can’t last forever, but preparation now can help you be ready if – and when – the cycle ends. The A/E industry is hot right now, People! The overall industry is as healthy...

Mark Zweig tackles the misconceptions with four examples. I started out in business at a young age, buying and selling bicycles, then motorcycles and then cars, on my Mom and Dad’s street corner. Then I...

Are you investing in consistent, brand-building marketing activities, Mark Zweig asks. Let’s face it. Living too well can be a problem. I’m talking about eating your seed corn, spending too much, and not reinvesting in...

But let’s just be clear – no one really enjoys working in a maddening environment. I was working with an engineering firm two weeks ago and we were discussing ways to improve operations. They had...

As a consultant for 30 years now, I have done a lot of turnarounds. Even though they can be terrible and painful, when they go well, a successful turnaround can be incredibly gratifying. There is...

I recently accepted a more permanent position at The Walton College of Business, part of the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville. My role is teaching entrepreneurship classes to undergraduates, as well as promoting our entrepreneurship...

Turning around an A/E or environmental company that is not doing as well as it should be doing takes an artful leader (or bunch of leaders). If you take a closer look at these transformations,...

I read somewhere once that being in love is a mental illness. All logic goes out the window. Rationality does not prevail. The ugly can become beautiful. Suffering is tolerable. Sacrifices can be made. Walls...

Whenever I see people get all upset about some trivial detail in their lives or their work, I find it distressing. Life is so much easier if you spend appropriate amounts of mental and emotional...

I spend more of my billable time helping A/E/P and environmental consulting firms with their business planning than anything else. Most firm owners want to do more with their businesses, to be more successful. But...

One of my associates and I recently went to Idaho to visit a new consulting client— Power Engineers, Inc. (Hailey, ID). Without question, one of the high points of our trip was meeting their CEO...

Anyone who studies human behavior in business organizations can tell you that confidence is a critical quality for leaders to have. This certainly applies to A/E/P and environmental consulting firms. When the leader is confident,...

No doubt about it, all of us who are managers in an A/E/P or environmental firm have to face some tough situations from time to time. They aren’t usually “fun” decisions, or situations that give...

Believe it or not, having fun helps your pocketbook. If your people are having fun, they’ll work harder, longer, and put out better quality work. And that will make you more money. I’m convinced that...

We’re in the throes of our annual business planning process here at ZWA. You know the routine— get everyone together, have an office party and a holiday dinner at a nice restaurant and spend a...

I just got back from the annual principals’ retreat of a real successful firm, which was held at The Woodlands outside of Houston. One of the goals for the retreat, established by the firm’s board...

There are lots of different success formulas for A/E/P and environmental consulting firms. It’s always interesting to me when one of our consultants discovers that a company we are working with is successful in spite...

There’s truth to the old adage that “the seeds of destruction are sown along with the spoils of success.” We see it all the time, but that doesn’t make it any more palatable. I’m talking...

I’m writing this article on Monday morning, “Marathon Day.” For those of you who didn’t know, Marathon Day is a big deal here in the Boston area. We’re planning on shutting down today between 11:00...

I am continually reminded of the bizarre sense of risk some principals in A/E/P and environmental firms have. I am talking about the obsession so many principals seem to have about extracting as much as...

We give out a lot of advice to our clients. Some of it’s free, but we get paid for most of it. In our business, just like yours, clients are usually happy when you first...

Ask anyone who has risen to the top of a consulting engineering, A/E, or environmental consulting firm where are the greatest weaknesses in their staff, and they will almost always say it’s in their “soft”...

In any number of surveys conducted over the years on what demotivates professionals in the workplace, “not feeling in on things” always ranks at or near the top. By “demotivation,” we are referring to what...

Too many people are unhappy— unhappy with the way we’re running our country and unhappy with the way we’re running our firms. The presidential elections to be held on November 3rd and the issues facing...