Hey, it’s Collin. Welcome to Engineering Echelons, a newsletter full of ideas and insights to help engineers excel at management.

Here’s what I’ve got for you this week.

• New and noteworthy news

• Something to consider

• Some insights to delve into

• And more…

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Alright, let’s get into it.

Noteworthy Headlines

2025Q2 NA Engineering and Construction Outlook (FMI)

Highlights:

• The whole year of 2024 had 7% engineering and construction spending growth; all of 2025 is projected to just have 2% growth.

• The Nonresidential Construction Index dropped 24% from the previous quarter.

• Indicators point to the industry entering a late-cycle condition.

Tariffs and the AEC Industry (ACEC via LinkedIn)

Highlights:

• The cost of construction materials could impact overall project budgets across multiple public and private markets.

• There are serious concerns among industry leaders that firms could see new barriers to international markets because of the emerging trade war.

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Management Perspective

Sometimes, we as managers rely too heavily on metrics that were intended to give only a partial indication of someone’s abilities and fool ourselves into believing it tells the whole story. Hiring and promoting based on years of experience is one of those metrics.

Boiled down to its essentials, years of experience is a proxy for estimating what someone’s capabilities are. Someone with many years of experience should theoretically be able to do more than someone with few years of experience.

Oftentimes this is true, which is part of the problem. When things work, we start to trust them. Then we’re blindsided when they don’t work.

In my time in the AEC industry, I’ve seen overreliance on the years of experience backfire in many ways. Here are a couple.

There was a person who had seven years of experience and wanted to lead a team, but this person’s knowledge and abilities were more equivalent to someone with three or four years. The team leader position that was posted had qualifications that required a minimum of seven years of experience, and the seven-year person thought they qualified. A difficult conversation ensued, which led to the seven-year person leaving the company on less than desirable terms.

There was a person who had four years of experience and was consistently teaching and correcting the work of someone with over fifteen years of experience. The four-year person was frustrated because they were doing more than the fifteen-year person, yet compensated significantly less. The result? The four-year person left that company.

Charlie Munger would say people get confused. He golfed with a man you would say, “What good is health, you can’t buy money with it.”

Don’t get confused: you are hiring and promoting for capabilities (both current and potential). Years of experience is just one metric that is intended to help you piece together that picture.

Management Insights

Sun Tzu on clear expectations:

“If words of command are not clear and distinct, if orders are not thoroughly understood, then the general is to blame.”

—

Ed Catmull on change:

“Since change is inevitable, the question is: Do you act to stop it and try to protect yourself from it, or do you become the master of change by accepting it and being open to it?”

—

Daniel Pink on selling potential rather than accomplishment:

“People often find potential more interesting than accomplishment because it’s more uncertain, the researchers argue. That uncertainty can lead people to think more deeply about the person they’re evaluating—and the more intensive processing that requires can lead to generating more and better reasons why the person is a good choice. So next time you’re selling yourself, don’t fixate on what you achieved yesterday. Also emphasize the promise of what you could accomplish tomorrow.”

Management Resource

What Employees Need from Leaders in Uncertain Times (HBR)

There’s a lot of uncertainty in the business world right now. As a leader, you have a role to play. This resource helps you consider what people you work with might need from you.

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• Let me know if you’ve found something worth sharing.

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Send me an email at [email protected]

Looking forward to hearing from you. See you next time.

Collin

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