Engineering Management Institute

managing people

Managing People During Growth and Expansion

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This is a guest blog by Ted F. Januszka, P.E.

Image by senivpetro on Freepik

As we near the half-way mark of 2023, our industry faces a huge challenge with respect to staffing and workforce retention. Simply put, there are not enough engineers in the U.S. to meet the current civil infrastructure demands of the A/E/C industry. I am not going to opine on the importance of workforce development and emphasis of STEM in our schools; however, I want to present another challenge: How do you manage and maintain current staff while growing and attracting new team members?

People management is a topic that has been discussed, studied, and yes, now blogged about for some time. At Pennoni, a 100% employee-owned consulting engineering firm, our employee-owner team members are the #1 asset of our company. This is indeed the case with most engineering firms today, something I recently discussed in a podcast on the topic!

Pennoni is continuing to expand, and our District of Columbia office is one of our newest locations. Located at 80 M Street, this office was opened in the fall 2022! Pennoni has been successfully working with District Department of Transportation (DDOT) since 2014 and during this period, our workload with DDOT has gradually increased. Coming out of the pandemic, we believed it was time to fully commit to DDOT with boots on the ground within the district. At Pennoni, we are committed to our clients and believe there are wonderful opportunities to continue these awesome relationships in the district. We plan to use this opportunity to develop new opportunities with other clients and agencies in Washington, D.C.

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TEQC 011: Producing High-Quality Engineering Project Proposals

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Project ProposalsIn this episode, we talk to Raymond Gradwell, P.E., PMP, about quality control and management of project proposals, contracts, and specifications. Raymond also provides some great tips on producing high-quality project proposals.

Engineering Quotes:

Project Proposals

Project Proposals

Here Are Some of the Questions We Ask Raymond:

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Be a Better You

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This is a guest blog by Pamela A. Scott

Better YouThe people who read this blog are educated, experienced problem-solving professionals, and, I’m assuming, really smart. That is what my 15+ years of working with engineers has taught me.  

However, for many of those engineers, their confidence wanes when it comes to non-technical knowledge, skills, and abilities.  

Does the idea of public speaking give you the shakes? Do you dread having to go to network events, even virtual ones? How much do you enjoy managing people, especially the difficult ones? Are you excited about business development and finding new work?

If you aren’t as confident about those skills as you are about technical knowledge and skills, read on. Here are two steps you can take to conquer your fears and become a better you.

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Leadership Is Not a Title — It Is a Perspective

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This is a guest blog by Mike Burns, PE, PgMP, DBIA

LeadershipPreviously, we discussed the importance of your voice as an industry and community integrator: Who Knows What You Know? — Your Voice Matters! Taking this guidance an important step further, I encourage you to move from managing people to empowering leadership from every vantage point, as our ability to deliver complex solutions in a timely manner necessitates an artful migration of diverse perspectives into inclusive solutions.

Infrastructure projects are inherently local and therefore unique, necessitating a patient combination of political savvy and technical expertise to move from policy expectations to project implementation. At each step, we must acknowledge, explore, and address ever-changing stakeholder wants and needs. Our ability to artfully migrate these evolving demands into sustainable, resilient, and equitable community solutions requires dispersed leadership. This is a concept that is at the heart of Progressive Design-Build , which seeks to empower robust communications as leadership ebbs and flows across an evolving set of teams.

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