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…

First time reading? You can subscribe here.

Alright, let’s get into it.

Noteworthy Headlines

AEC Firms Aren’t Prepared for AI (ENR)

Highlights:

• 82% of respondents expect an AI-driven industry transformation.

• 20% of respondents claimed readiness at a mature or advanced level; most reported being in a pilot or beginning stage.

The Biggest Companies Across America Are Cutting Their Workforces (WSJ)

Thoughts and highlights:

• There’s a shifting mindset about what a large, successful company looks like. Staff headcount used to be an important positive metric, but that’s changing to a negative one as companies are expected to do more with fewer people by utilizing new technologies like AI.

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Management Perspective

The following is a guest post from Rowdee founder Cody Howard.

One of the most dangerous traps a leader can fall into is forgetting what it feels like to be bad at something. As we master our technical skills and climb the ranks, we risk losing touch with the very experience that defines our newest hires: the vulnerability of not knowing, the frustration of slow progress, and the small victories that come with each breakthrough.

Will Guidara, author of Unreasonable Hospitality, understood this principle when he emphasized that “knowing less is often an opportunity to do more.” The moment we assume our expertise shields us from the need to learn, we begin to lose our ability to relate to those just starting their journey. We forget the anxiety of asking what might seem like a “basic” question and the genuine effort it takes to build competence from scratch.

I’ve found that one of the most powerful ways to maintain this connection is by deliberately putting yourself back in the beginner’s seat. Choose an adjacent technology, a new hobby, or an entirely different technical discipline and commit to learning it over 6-12 months. The act of starting from zero will immediately reconnect you with what your junior employee experiences daily. You’ll remember the patience required for skill-building and the profound satisfaction that comes from incremental progress.

This practice serves multiple purposes beyond empathy. It keeps your work intellectually stimulating while proving to yourself that you haven’t lost the capacity to grow. The discipline and persistence you bring to learning that new skill directly translates into how you approach challenges in your leadership role.

Perhaps most importantly, this ongoing learning gives you fresh credibility when coaching others. When a new hire expresses frustration about their progress, you can speak from recent experience about what that experience actually feels like. As Guidara noted, “a leader’s responsibility is to identify the strengths of the people on their team, no matter how buried those strengths might be,” and it’s immensely challenging to identify that which you can no longer relate to.

The confidence that comes from proving to yourself again and again that you can master new things creates a positive feedback loop. You become more encouraging because you have visceral proof that growth is possible at any stage. And you never lose touch with the beginner’s mindset that makes great leaders truly great: the understanding that everyone is still learning, still growing, and still deserving of patience and support along the way.

Management Insights

Adam Grant on strong and weak ties:

“Strong ties provide bonds, but weak ties serve as bridges: they provide more efficient access to new information. Our strong ties tend to travel in the same social circles and know about the same opportunities as we do. Weak ties are more likely to open up access to a different network, facilitating the discovery of original leads.”

—

Kim Scott on relationships with people who report to you:

“Your ability to build trusting, human connections with the people who report directly to you will determine the quality of everything that follows.”

—

Robert Fritz on how environment impacts people:

“If a riverbed remains unchanged, the water will continue to flow along that path it always has, since that is the most natural route for it to take. If the underlying structures of your life remain unchanged, the greatest tendency is for you to follow the same direction your life has always taken.”

Management Resource

Lunch with Coworkers (HBR)

I struggle with this one a lot. I’ll work through the lunch hour to get more done. Some days that’s fine, but doing that every day sends negative signals to others.

But just having lunch with people isn’t enough - sometimes that can feel exclusionary, kind of like the “cool kids” table at school.

This article dives into different perspectives on how to better connect with your colleagues in the middle of the day.

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

• Let me know what challenges you’re having as a manager.

• Let me know what challenges you see other managers having.

Send me an email at [email protected]

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

Collin

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