Who Knows What You Know? – Your Voice Matters!
Last month we discussed Continuous Learning, growing together as teachers and students, deepening our commitment to sustained personal and professional growth. As our COVID-19 response continues to mature, the AEC industry is rapidly advancing new ways of communicating, learning, and delivering projects. As we Zoom from meeting to meeting (cheesy pun intended), it is easy […]
Would You Want to Work With You?
Picture this: It’s 11:30 a.m. on Tuesday morning, you’re thinking about where to go for lunch, but you are still waiting for a response from your project team member. You had requested this information via email three weeks ago and every few days you get a, “You should have it soon.” You sent an email […]
COVID-19 and the AEC Industry
Navigating how to operate your business through the COVID-19 pandemic is a challenge. While much is still unknown, and we’re a little over a month in the shelter-in-place order, we were curious to see how professional services firms in the architecture, engineering, and consulting industries are adapting. What we found is that the AEC […]
The Ideal Learning and Development Strategy for You and Your Firm During and After COVID-19
Prior to the COVID-19 crisis, most leaders agreed that employee recruitment and retention was the #1 issue facing engineering and architecture firms. At the same time, employee learning and development were our talent’s top priority. What will change moving forward? Our first concern at this moment must be safety and survival. Our next concern needs to […]
Continuous Learning: Providing Coaching and Accountability
Last month’s blog discussed Embracing a Risk-Intelligent Approach. The guidance stated that we shouldn’t be paralyzed by unknown unknowns, allowing a risk-intelligent culture to support sustainable growth. In these uncertain times, as we respond to broad human suffering from the COVID-19 pandemic, I’d like to expand on mitigating unknown unknowns as an introduction to our […]
How to Support Women in Your Workplace
In the engineering industry, only 13% of professionals are women. Moreover, only 30% of women who earned a bachelor’s in engineering remain in the field for more than 20 years. Often, workplace culture, a lack of appreciation for their skills, and gender discrimination, in general, drive them away from the industry. This is a detriment to the […]
Engineers Quit Managers Not Companies – Dear Manager, We Need to Talk!
I am writing you this note because I think we need to talk, but quite frankly, I am a bit intimidated to bring this up. I have been working for you for quite some time and feel like things may have dwindled a bit between us. But to be honest, I think that there […]
An Engineering Growth Framework for Engineers and Engineering Managers
Without a proper career path in front of you, chances for further progress seem diluted at best. An engineering growth framework addresses such concerns expediently by providing ground rules and a wide-ranging action plan for those who wish to move ahead in their careers. The growth framework offers tremendous insights; it focuses on how […]
Developing an Entrepreneurial Mindset: Risk Is Opportunity
In previous EMI blogs, we discussed Thinking Big and Being Mindful as We Set Goals and Building Confidence Through Empathetic Stakeholder Engagement. I fully respect that managing these objectives with a myriad of associated voices can be distracting as we attempt to sustain growth. Sustaining growth, for our businesses and talent, is particularly difficult in the Architectural, […]
Creating Recurring Revenue for Increased Stability of a Small Firm
In the world of engineering, owning a business or even being self-employed often requires stepping outside of technical design and into new territories of bookkeeping, marketing, web design, payroll, invoicing, and a bevy of other tasks not normally taken on by engineers. In 2011, I realized I belonged to the former — the drive to […]