Architects & Engineers Articles -
Create Effective Leadership For a Forward-Looking Firm

Without effective leaders, architect and engineering (A/E) firms cannot achieve their full potential and may eventually fail altogether. Leadership is especially important now, when the engineering climate is changing at such a fast pace. Why? Leaders strive to meet the needs of tomorrow’s clients, not just today’s — leaders are visionaries who can turn problems into opportunities.

Leaders vs. Managers: A Distinction With a Difference

The first thing to realize is that many A/E firms don’t understand the difference between managers and leaders. What’s the difference? Managers enforce the rules; leaders break the rules. Managers determine how to get from point A to point B; leaders determine where point B is. In other words, managers supervise the firm’s day-to-day operations and solve problems as they arise, usually based on experience. Leaders focus on the future, anticipating problems and turning them into opportunities by creating solutions before those problems arise.

This is not to say managers are unimportant to a firm’s profitability. In fact, without managers, not only would day-to-day operations suffer, but leaders’ ideas could never be implemented.

But often firms expect architects and engineers to function as both leaders and managers without understanding how the two roles differ. Which role is neglected? Leader, of course. As a result, day-to-day management may be effective, but firm growth stagnates because the firm has no plan for the future.

Finding Leaders: The Wrong Way and the Right Way

Individuals often are moved into leadership roles for reasons having nothing to do with natural leadership ability — for reasons such as seniority, technical skills, bringing in clients and money, and tireless self-promotion. Those who lack natural leadership qualities but are put into leadership positions anyway tend to be ineffective. The style of such leaders is often either dictatorial — focusing on achieving a personal agenda rather than on what is best for the firm as a whole — or reactive — addressing problems as they occur with no vision for the future.

A smarter way to select firm leaders is to identify natural leaders. Natural leaders will easily step into leadership shoes, creating a strategic plan for the firm’s future, getting everyone in the firm involved, and motivating them to perform to the best of their abilities.

How do you identify natural leaders? Look for people who:

• Understand trends and opportunities in the legal marketplace,
• Are risk takers,
• Have passion that inspires others,
• Are good listeners,
• Focus on achieving firm goals — not just acquiring personal power,
• Have the highest levels of integrity and trustworthiness,
• Share information willingly,
• Admit mistakes and forgive others’ mistakes,
• Make tough decisions,
• Understand how people with different strengths, skills and talents can all make valuable contributions to the firm, and
• Build a sense of group cohesiveness.

Sometimes it may be difficult to clearly see who the natural leaders in your firm are because of preconceived notions.

Looking for the following clues can help:

Encouraging Leaders: Adjust Attitudes

You may be thinking that selecting “natural” leaders sounds nice on paper, but just won’t work in a real-life A/E firm. After all, you have some professionals in your firm who are so valuable (perhaps because of their rainmaking abilities or technical skills) that you have to put them in positions of power, despite their lack of natural leadership qualities. Otherwise, they may leave.

Don’t worry — we aren’t suggesting that you deny these individuals the opportunity to lead, but you need to realize that they will need training in leadership skills. Although many people are not natural leaders, they still can develop leadership skills with a little effort.

But one major roadblock in many firms is that people are not willing to work on their leadership skills. Often they don’t want to be led and don’t see the value in true leadership — architects and engineers have been trained to act individually and are used to a compensation system that emphasizes individual achievement over all else. You can change their attitudes toward leadership in two ways:

1. Tie some portion of compensation to leadership skills, and
2. Set an example that the key to advancement in the firm is displaying true leadership skills: focusing on the good of the firm rather than on individual power.

Training Leaders

When you put people into leadership positions, provide training to help them develop their leadership abilities. Even natural leaders can use some help. Here are a few ideas:

• Use a leadership coach (probably from outside the firm) to work one-on-one with leaders and emerging leaders.
• Conduct an internal leadership assessment where each leader evaluates his or her own leadership skills, and the leader’s peers and subordinates evaluate those skills as well.
• Hold a seminar on leadership skills for the executive committee, all architects and engineers responsible for client service and key administrative staff.
• Encourage reading on leadership, perhaps by creating a mini-library of leadership development materials.

Take Advantage Of Non-Director/Non-Principal Leadership

Leadership development shouldn’t be limited to directors and principals. Leaders among project managers, project supervisors, marketing directors, assistants, secretaries and other staff can also help your firm plan for the future. You probably have some natural leaders in these groups who can provide ideas for improving their areas as well as the A/E firm as a whole. Remember that project managers and staff can be privy to information the director group might never learn about — information invaluable in strategic planning.

And when considering potential directors, look for professionals who exhibit natural leadership qualities in addition to those with rainmaking or technical skills. Give those individuals an opportunity to develop their leadership skills before they become directors.

Don’t Wait for a Crisis

Developing a firm environment that encourages leadership qualities can be difficult but will be well worth the effort. Firms with true leaders will be better equipped to meet client needs now and in the future, and thus will be more profitable. Don’t wait for a crisis to start a leadership development program in your A/E firm.

Find out how our expertise in accounting for architects and engineers can add value to your business. Email us or call us at 1 (888) 875-9770.

related links

A&E Newsletters & Articles

Tax News and Business Updates

PODCAST: Overhead Rates, State Agency Updates and Best Practices for Engineers