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By Mark Zweig | The strongest project managers make the work feel clearer, calmer, and more focused from the very beginning.

By Mark Zweig | Annual performance reviews fail AEC firms because real leadership requires continuous feedback, not once-a-year management theater.

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 Scott Butcher | AEC firms use seller-doers, business developers, or both, and the best model depends on buyer preferences and firm capabilities.

By Chad Surprenant | A one-profit-center approach encourages teamwork across offices and disciplines, minimizing silos and supporting sustainable, firm-wide growth.

By Mark Zweig | Is your firm one that commands top fees and thrives, or one that will struggle to compete and keep up?

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.

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

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

By Morgan Stinson | Delegation is crucial for growth, helping managers shift from doing the work themselves to empowering others effectively.

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

By Greg Sepeda | Seizing opportunities fosters a mindset of continuous improvement, enabling us to refine our skills and expand our horizons.

By Morgan Stinson | Failure at some level is inevitable – but how we respond to and manage that failure is what can set us apart.

By Javier Suarez | We must hit the pause button at several junctions in our marketing and business processes to discuss the “why.”

By Kraig Kern | The line between persuasive marketing and over-promising can be particularly fine and fraught with potential hazards.

By Morgan Stinson | Low trust in workplaces incurs a hidden cost, hindering efficiency, innovation, and collaboration.

By Mark Zweig | If you take an honest look at people who are really good project managers, you’ll find they have some specific personality traits and abilities that lead to their success.

By Kyle Ahern | Best Firms invest in an employee-centric culture, organizational efficiency, and leadership development.

By Liisa Andreassen | Principal at MCE (Minneapolis, MN), one of the largest mechanical and electrical consulting engineering firms in the United States.

By Liisa Andreassen | Senior principal and president of 19six Architects (San Luis Obispo, CA), one of the oldest and most established architectural firms in California.

By Matt Verderamo | The way you handle yourself as an employee directly correlates to the level of success you can reach in your organization.

By Ezequiel Tovar | The four pillars of ownership transition strengthen your firm and provide a foundation for success.

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

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

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 | 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 Liisa Andreassen | President and CEO of JMC², a civil and structural engineering firm that offers solutions for land development and building projects of various scopes and sizes.

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 John Bray | There is no perfect buyer or seller in the marketplace, but how do you attract the best possible partner?

By Liisa Andreassen | President of Campos Engineering (Dallas, TX), an MEP engineering, testing, adjusting and balancing, and commissioning firm.

By Liisa Andreassen | Chief people officer at HEAPY (Dayton, OH), a nationally recognized leader in sustainable and resilient engineering design.

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

By Chad Coldiron | Over the last 12 months, firms have been forced to rapidly adjust how they approach many workplace strategies – including recruitment strategies.

By Liisa Andreassen | President of Lawrence Group (St. Louis, MO), an integrated design, development, and construction firm using the power of people with great ideas to bring clients’ dreams to life.

By Frank Johnson | Be deliberate in identifying those who have the potential to grow into leadership roles, and help them develop the skill sets they need to be successful as future managers.

CEO of Olsson (Lincoln, NE), an employee owned 1,300-person firm that is working to leave the world better than they found it.

President and CEO of Primera (Chicago, IL), a mid-size, full-service, woman-owned engineering design and consulting firm.

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 Mark Zweig | These six traits are most likely to lead to success and are absolute “musts” for whomever is the CEO of the firm.

President and CEO of RJN Group (Wheaton, IL), a firm that is passionate about the environment, committed to community, and devoted to the welfare of its employees.

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

Implement these tips to decrease tension and drastically increase the utility of your feedback.

Exercise these 12 roles with care and you will be surprised by how many admire and understand why your firm has grown so successfully.

It’s not easy to do, but if you want lifelong clients who are also friends, you have to commit yourself to the long haul.

Connections across teams and offices increase employee engagement and performance, but the connections must be fostered.

In business development, many missteps can be traced back to a lack of understanding and acceptance of who we are.

One of the most coveted characteristic traits an engineer can possess is also one of the most elusive.

President of Pond & Company, Inc. (Best Firm Multi-discipline #19 for 2018), a 550-person firm based in Atlanta with 25 offices in the U.S., Canada, Japan, and Spain. By Liisa Andreassen Correspondent “One of the...

When you look at principals of firms in this business who are really happy and successful – who have growing, profitable companies – you’ll see certain common traits that emerge. Here are a few of...

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)...

If you lead an AEC firm, you have a lot of tough questions to ask yourself, and the answers aren’t always pretty. But ask and answer you must. In a romanticized view of the business...

Tribes provide compelling places for support, validation, and direction, but tribalism cannot be allowed to thwart a firm’s success. I chose psychology as a major in college because I thought it would help me understand...

The highest performing teams across all organizations have identifiable characteristics – great role clarity, tough love, and solid performance standards. Just like the New England Patriots and the Philadelphia Eagles, great teams do not happen...

There are a few ways to transition out of your firm. The internal transition is popular because it has great value and keeps the firm going. At some point in every A/E firm owner’s business...

You lament the commoditization of your services, but are you doing anything to differentiate your firm, and in turn, earn better fees? We have all had the experience of standing with a group of our...

Talent and skill are essential, but keep a close eye on cultural fit if you want to avoid the mistake of bringing the wrong person on board. I was recently talking with a client who...

Can strategic thinking be learned? Sure, if you know where to start and are mindful of the mileposts along the way. Halfway through a two-day strategic planning retreat, a senior leadership team member nervously pulled...

The rationalization process is all about determining what is working and what is not – especially with a sharp eye to the future. Most companies are doing very well these days and the effort to...

President of WestLAND Group, Inc. (Best Firm #41 Multi-discipline and Hot Firm #45 for 2017), a full-service civil engineering and land surveying firm based in Ontario, California. By Liisa Andreassen Correspondent “It’s important to identify...

Break free from immediate metrics and returns, because with marketing, the ROI could take months or even years to realize. Growing up in the ‘80s, the recent passing of George Michael brought a lot of...

The talent war is here. Building a bigger pipeline of leaders and doing it much earlier in their careers is critical if you want to win. We sometimes have too much tradition and are slow...

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...

In spite of an incredibly healthy economy and high demand for AEC services throughout the land, there are still individual companies out there that are struggling financially for one reason or another. And inevitably, since...

Growth is all but assured in a healthy market, but if a firm doesn’t watch out, it can grow helter-skelter to the point of extinction. Many firms are experiencing growth during this post-recession period and...

A command of soft skills is essential to delivering a project that’s on time, on budget, and with no surprises. If you’re in the business of infrastructure and you manage projects, staff, or both, you...

Much like a “perfect” farmer, marketing professionals must take charge of each step of the growing (submittal) process, or else risk disaster. Dedication, hard work, persistence, and pride are some of the most commonly used...

Subscribe to The Zweig Letter for free to receive business management advice from industry experts to your inbox every week! If successful people accomplish 20 time‎s what average people do, unusually successful people accomplish 20 times what successful...

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...

Letting go is hard to do, so when the time comes for a changing of the guard, it helps if the second tier is groomed, confident, and empowered. Much of our recent work has been...

Friendships are not only good for the soul, their good for business, so make as many of them as you can if you want your firm to prosper. Personal engagement with clients determines so much...

By Mark Zweig | If you’re hiring people without these traits you’re doing a disservice to your firm.

Make your firm more valuable by making yourself irrelevant and surrounding yourself with leaders. Firms that command high market premiums are ones in which the owners are, in many ways, always seeking to become less...

The work and talents required of an A/E principal means that some traits associated with attention deficit can be useful. Experts have claimed that as much as 35-40 percent of the adult population has some...

There are a few basic traits that differentiate firms that make money from those that scrape by. Chad Clinehens and I were talking in the office yesterday about why some firms we work with make...

Ten characteristics Mark Zweig has seen in high-flying AEC leaders. Thirty five years as a student of human behavior – all concentrated in one industry (the AEC world) – coupled with an incredible amount of...

Despite what the pundits say, Mark Zweig believes that magnetic leaders aren’t such a bad thing. "Charisma” – some people have it and some don’t. It has been defined as a special charm or appeal...

Is personality a window to culture when interviewing candidates? It’s amazing how often the word “culture” is used in the recruiting process. More often than not, a candidate’s fit with, or should I say into,...

Need help identifying targets for potential recruiting? The answer is in the headline. Sometimes in the recruiting world, you’ll hear the term “sourcing.” It sounds like something you would hear in the buying/procurement business, right?...

Six traits that will make you and your team highly successful, Mark Zweig writes. There’s no doubt in my mind that most successful people in this business didn’t get there by accident. It’s because of...

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...

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...

I’m often asked two questions about leadership: 1. Are leaders born or made? 2. How did you become a leader? I believe everyone has the potential become a leader. Despite endless debate on the subject...

Many firms in the A/E/P or environmental business today have some sort of designated market leaders. Usually, there’s a new business plan and part of it requires a “realignment” to a more market-driven structure. Then,...

One trait that I have often observed in those design and environmental professionals who are known in their field is they aren’t afraid to stand out in a crowd. Whether it’s their bowtie, their red...

Every single A/E or environmental firm in this country needs more people who can sell work. These people feed the rest of the firm, allow the owners to sleep at night, and are generally the...

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...

I have had a chance to work with a great number of firm leaders over the years. Some were incredibly effective people. Some were incredibly ineffective, too. When you look at the characteristics of those...