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By Jessica Warren | AEC firms that invest in community impact are not just doing good, they are building more resilient and competitive organizations.

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

By Sara Parkman | AEC firms that fail to invest in young professionals today will struggle to find leaders tomorrow.

By Michael Makris & Laura Terrebonne | When promotions become the goal, firms miss the real work of building leaders, influence, and long-term engagement.

By Matt Verderamo | Our future depends on bridging generational gaps through mentorship, field experience, and modern leadership development.

By Scott D. Butcher | To succeed in disruption, AEC firms must refine client focus, target markets, and go/no-go processes.

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

By Daryl Simons Jr. | How to create a stronger, more dynamic, and future-ready workplace – where everyone has the opportunity to thrive.

By Kevin Norgaard | Together, younger and older employees create a dynamic and innovative workplace where every generation has something valuable to offer.

By Javier Suarez | Instead of trying to fix “the big problem,” we should handpick issues that we could have a decent chance of addressing successfully.

By Kraig C. Kern | Corporate giving today should be about about creating meaningful opportunities for employees to make a difference while developing professionally.

By Rennee Richardson | Embracing cross-generational collaboration in the workplace helps bridge experience, skills, and fresh perspectives.

By Lynn Bruns | Strategic investment in leadership development is crucial for accelerating business goals, increasing profitability, and improving recruitment and retention.

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

By Lalitha Benjaram | Committees are an efficient way for young professionals and newer employees to meet other team members and develop a strong connection to their organization.

By Sara Karstetter | The employee-focused recruiting, retention, and compensation strategy.

By Stuart McLendon | Facing a talent shortage exacerbated by baby boomers’ exodus from the workforce, AEC firms must innovate to succeed.

By Lalitha Benjaram | A hybrid work model’s success lies in strategies like volunteer engagement, recognition initiatives, and focused professional development for employees.

By Keyan Zandy | Generation Z can teach older generations valuable lessons about how they think and view their work.

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 Gregory Teague | Engaging with your community enriches company culture, employee development, and offers an inside advantage to local projects.

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 Randy Wilburn | Podcasting is one of the best ways you can tell the story of your brand.

By David Harvey | When well-trained staff are equipped with the skills needed to do their jobs well, everyone will reap the benefits.

By Mike Nunley | We have a responsibility to take the lessons we learned from older generations and refine them to prepare a new generation for success.

By Alan Lloyd | With all the discussion about the “great resignation,” why isn’t anyone talking about the employees that aren’t jumping ship?

By Brian King | Firms with a strongly integrated multigenerational workforce will experience tremendous power and opportunity for success over the next number of years.

By Shirley Che | As leaders, we must be the ones in “the room” recognizing and advocating for the rising stars we work with.

By Ryan Gallagher | Firms that actively work to attract these rare creatures will be best positioned to grow and prosper.

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 Allyson McDonald & Megan Chang | Matching your communication style to the needs of those you’re communicating with will ensure your message is received.

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 Kyle Ahern | A good, standardized parental leave policy is a major benefit that can set your firm apart.

In an increasingly global marketplace, equity, diversity, inclusion, and engagement strategies will be integral to the success of your organization for the foreseeable future.

By Jamie Claire Kiser | Generational differences can be a powerful source of innovation and adaptability.

Lean methodologies can truly move the needle in an industry beleaguered by workforce shortages and increasingly pressed for our most valuable commodity – time.

Engineers of the future will solve problems and meet challenges in a different way and through technology that will continue to be dynamic.

Baby boomers and millennials may use different leadership styles and cope differently in business and in life, but the interaction of both can deliver some key benefits.

If you are within the leadership group of your company, there are times when you may need to purge your leadership team to move forward.

Many firms still cling to old-school attitudes and business practices that chase away top performing employees looking for a more future-friendly place to grow their careers.

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

President of DY Consultants, a nationally-recognized aviation consulting firm based in New York City.

President of Reaveley Engineers, a national structural engineering firm based in Salt Lake City, Utah.

By Phil Keil | Have a purpose and commit to mastery and excellence and you will find happiness both personally and professionally.

In terms of feedback, there’s a big difference between what millennials want and what you’ve been told they want.

Being cautious and reasonable about your growth plans is a smarter move than filling seats just for the sake of beefing up the org chart.

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.

By Jamie Claire Kiser | At what should be an incredibly productive and exciting time in the lives of young professionals, the AEC industry is failing to engage.

Successful people will overcommit where their passion meets a purpose, where service is not a burden but a privilege.

Being relevant can be powerful, but it will require you to put down your devices and actively engage with those around you. No doubt you have been in meetings and looked around the room and...

Approximately 10,000 baby boomers will retire every day over the next decade. By 2030, millennials will comprise three-quarters of the U.S. workforce. A common blood sport at leadership team meetings these days begins with, “WHAT...

Innovation demands that we think, struggle, act, and sometimes fail. A tough slog, but it has to be done. It’s a balancing act to fit innovation into the daily practice of the AEC industry. Whether...

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)...

Brenden Sherrer, an M&A consultant at Zweig Group, talks about the state of M&A in the design industry, a legal extern program that Brenden introduced, and millennials in the design industry.

In yesteryear, leadership could get away with glaring inconsistencies, but these days, young professionals aren’t having it. In my last article, “Prove It,” I explained why organizational trust, employee choice, in addition to path and...

One-two punch of growth, big incentives for 2018 Hot Firms and Best Firms to Work For. By Richard Massey Editor Each year, Zweig Group names the 100 fastest growing Hot Firms in the country, as...

Each week, The Zweig Letter features commentary from top-flight leaders of AEC firms. Here is a compilation of their thoughts on maintaining the leadership pipeline. By The Zweig Letter Staff Nic Andreani, president with W&M...

By Jamie Claire Kiser | A meandering mission statement won’t inspire your team. If you want your employees to rally around your brand, give them something they can believe in.

If you want to empower your millennial team members, you have to offer them choice, provide purpose, and safeguard the organizational trust. Millennials are part of the “prove it” generation, and their trust is made...

Principal at G2 Consulting (Hot Firm #67 for 2016), a 75-person geotechnical, geo-environmental, and construction engineering firm based in Troy, Michigan. By Liisa Andreassen Correspondent “As long as the clients are pleased and the revenues...

President, CEO, and chairman of the board for T&M Associates (Hot Firm #73 for 2016), a 350-person engineering firm based in Middletown, New Jersey. By Liisa Andreassen Correspondent Gary Dahms, PE, PP, CME, has been...

Randy Wilburn recently had a chance to speak with Anthony Fasano, PE, author, speaker, and host of The Civil Engineer Podcast and The Engineering Career Coach Podcast. Their wide-ranging discussion covered everything from the millennial...

Social responsibility can be one of the biggest and most powerful marketing and recruiting tools at your disposal, but be careful. How much should your firm be concerned with social responsibility? And are charitable donations...

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...

President of Infrastructure, RPS (Best Firm Civil #36 for 2017), a 500-person firm based in Houston. By Liisa Andreassen Correspondent “Our limitations are people,” Abbott says. “We could do more if we could find more...

No generation owns the work ethic, but when it comes to motivation and anxiety, there’s a big difference between millennials and boomers. I recently read a report from Project: Time Off called, “The Work Martyr’s...

President of Wakefield Beasley & Associates (Hot Firm #14 for 2016), a 165-person architectural design firm based in Alpharetta, Georgia. By Liisa Andreassen Correspondent “We are a fast-paced, high-performance company, and underperformers are detrimental to...

Ditch the lecture-and-listen style of training and replace it with something much more effective – the do-it-to-learn-it style. In the ultra-competitive AEC job market, professional growth is becoming the new perk. Employees and candidates –...

Your next generation of business builders has arrived. Have you shown them the way forward with a comprehensive set of goals and expectations? What are the career paths in your firm? The next generation wants...

President of ESG (Hot Firm #36 for 2017), a 120-person architecture and design firm based in Minneapolis. By Liisa Andreassen Correspondent “We have a small SWAT team that focuses on networking and about 75 percent...

Smaller housing within walking distance to essentials and amenities is appealing to both the young and the old. We’re listening closely to the market desires for our West 2nd District Project here in Reno. We’re...

In an environment where innovation is the driving force, you need a space that allows for inspiration, ideation, and implementation. We are quickly entering a new era. And it comes with new problems. A small...

In this episode of the podcast, Randy Wilburn speaks with Brenden Sherrer, an M&A consultant with Zweig Group. They covered a number of topics, including Sherrer’s experience after joining Zweig Group and the overall view...

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...

Generational ownership and leadership transitions pose unique challenges. Anyone you promote to the highest level must be cut from the right cloth. The statistics bear repeating: Most professional services firms are aging at the top....

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...

If we want to make this world a better place to live, it’s up to us, and not elected officials, to make it happen. Leadership is the single characteristic of behavior that determines a person’s...

In this episode of the podcast, Randy Wilburn has a roundtable discussion with Zweig Group’s executive search consultant, Chad Coldiron, and interns Sanjay Jenkins and Jordan Barrett. They discuss the millennial generation and the value...

So you’re thinking about acquiring an A/E firm? You’ve got a lot of questions to ask yourself, and you need to have honest answers. In a recent article, I wrote about how important it was...

If we want to make this world a better place to live, it’s up to us, and not elected officials, to make it happen. Leadership is the single characteristic of behavior that determines a person’s...

Book about elevating sustainability as a national strategic imperative is an impressive guide on how the US can shape a prosperous future. My daughter was at a sustainability conference in Santa Clara, California recently. She...

Much has been made of how to design workplaces that attract and inspire millennials. But there might be a better demographic filter for your workplace. Millennials. Gen Y. Echo Boomers. Regardless of the name, this...

CEO of RTM Engineering Consultants (Best Firm #37 Multidiscipline and Hot Firm #50 for 2016), a 120-person firm based in South Barrington, Illinois. By Liisa Andreassen Correspondent The Zweig Letter recently caught up with Tony...

New Jersey firm has a nice book of business thanks to a willingness to both study and influence the industry it serves. By Richard Massey Managing Editor DMR Architects of New Jersey has been retained...

Company leaders play an important role in making sure their people are aligned, capable, and engaged – a recipe for success. Are your employees fulfilled? If not, it may be costing you a bundle. While...

If you want to groom the next generation of leaders, you’ll have to make sure your firm is changing with the times. I’m a millennial. Gasp! There, I said it. A lot has been made...

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...

From job to job and firm to firm, all with the push of a button on a mobile app. Is that the future for the design industry? There’s plenty out there who sure hope so....

The annual Hot Firm and A/E Industry Awards Conference in Phoenix was a success, and it’s heading to Seattle for 2017. By Richard Massey Managing Editor The 2017 annual Hot Firm and A/E Industry Awards...

This year’s event, as in previous years, featured a full slate of breakout sessions with dynamic speakers. Here’s what they had to say about the 2016 conference. “As our industry heats up, good people are...

The two don’t have to be at odds with each other. Make sure someone’s at least answering the phones so perks don’t impede responsiveness. Coming off the high of our annual Hot Firm and A/E...

Thanks for checking out our TZL Extra video series here at Zweig Group. Our goal is to bring you the best and brightest minds leading the Design Industry. In this episode, we have Will Schnier,...

The Klotz firm is reaping national accolades for its growth and its workplace, but since a firm never arrives, the quest for excellence never ends. By Liisa Andreassen Correspondent Maintaining the status quo is not...

Did your interns live the dream? If so, great, but if not, it might be time to retool your program by taking these six simple steps. As a communications major with an interest in broadcast...

In the form of growth, profitability, and important projects, multidiscipline firm based in upstate New York is reaping the benefits of a well-executed ownership transition. By Liisa Andreassen Correspondent In 1977, when Wayne Wegman joined...

In a recent article, I wrote about how important it was to prepare your firm for sale even if you are not thinking about an external ownership transition. You can read that article here. This...

With college debt at an all-time high and expected to increase, now’s the time to think about adding loan reduction as a benefit. Recruiting great talent takes skill, a little bit of luck, and some...

Mistakes happen, and to minimize them without demotivating your people, a measured response is critical. We had a situation this week – a headline had been added to my recent article on millennials in the...

Today’s workforce is multigenerational, so those with experience and seniority must learn to understand, and teach, younger colleagues. I was born in 1944, a couple of years before the Baby Boom. But my values and...

A few weeks ago, I wrote a short article about how important it is for firm owners to understand the value of their business. The point of the piece was to address the real threat...

For most of my career, I have defended the "new generation," i.e., those just getting out of school and starting their careers. The older people have always complained about the group coming in behind them,...

Inspiration is necessary for technical/design professionals and those who manage projects to be successful. ​I’ve been saying for years that having two tracks – one for managerial and sales people, and one for design and...

By Christine Brack, PMP, ZweigWhite A CEC of Metropolitan Washington invited me to present a session on Effective Communication in February to their emerging leaders and other distinguished constituents. Good techniques and best practices are...