Be a Good Manager; Practice These Ways to Take Care of Your People
Image by Drazen Zigic on Freepik This is how it went at the high school career fair. I was talking with students about what they wanted to do career-wise. “I want to be a manager,” one teenager said proudly. “Why do you want to be a manager?” I asked. “Because they make the big […]
Moving From Transactional to Transformational Engineering Leadership
Image by senivpetro on Freepik As leaders, we have a responsibility, duty, and stewardship to take care of those we lead so they can grow and become the best they can be for themselves and the organization. In order to do this, we don’t simply want to be interacting with them in a transactional […]
Top 5 Leadership Skills Every Engineer Needs to Succeed in the Workplace
“Leaders instill in their people a hope for success and a belief in themselves. Positive leaders empower people to accomplish their goals.” ~ Unknown Engineering is a profession that requires a combination of technical skills and leadership skills. Engineers need to possess excellent problem-solving skills, attention to detail, and analytical skills to develop innovative solutions. […]
Scrum for Effective Multi-Project Teams (Part 3)
Image by DCStudio on Freepik Picking up from Parts One and Two in this series, this installment explores another level of the Scrum mindset in the AEC industry. When a design team is comfortable implementing Scrum concepts on the individual project level, they eventually reach a tipping point with the number of projects (and […]
Scrum Techniques for Productive Project Teams (Part 2)
Image by DCStudio on Freepik In Part One of this article series, keys to collaboration for engineering project teams were highlighted as Team, Communication, and Results. These three keys are fundamentals of the Scrum mindset for project management, promoting efficiency to meet market demand while encouraging growth of our engineering companies and team […]
Adaptive Project Management with Scrum Techniques (Part 1)
Image by DCStudio on Freepik As the quantity and complexity of projects continue to rise across the industry, improving the efficiency for engineering teams is critical to meet demand. When current project demands already over-utilize staff, embracing the growth mindset required to provide career opportunities to staff can also be difficult. Efficiency gains relieve the […]
The Four Major ‘Shifts’ Changing Everything About Leadership and Firm Success
Image by pressfoto on Freepik Like most large-scale systemic events, March 2020 gave “official birth” to a new era of work and life — one with new rules, new ways of thinking, and lots of big change. Among the change we’ve all seen and experienced for several years now, there have been a number […]
The Most Important Equation for Engineers When It Comes to Learning
Image by partystock on Freepik In this article, I want to highlight a critically important equation that every engineering executive, leader and HR professional must be aware of to avoid wasting a lot of time and money and to best develop their most important resource: their people. The Formula for Results A colleague recently shared […]
9 Top Tips from Leading Engineering Project Managers
Image from Freepik To be successful project managers, you must be communicative and solution-focused. Juggling a multitude of tasks every day while being present in many different places is the daily norm. There is no one-size-fits-all approach to ensure project management success, but here are a few powerful tips from leading engineering project managers […]
The Challenges and Opportunities of the Great Resignation (for Engineering Leaders)
Image from Freepik The last few years have brought a lot of commotion and shakeup in the employment world. From mass layoffs to record unemployment and everything in between, “volatility” is certainly the word that comes to mind. One phenomenon that was coined during this time was the “Great Resignation.” 2021 saw the highest levels […]