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

Nonresidential Materials Prices Increased for Third-Straight Month (AGC)

Highlights:

• The increase was reported before most tariffs kick in.

• AGC warns that new tariffs will further inflate construction costs, disrupt supply chains, and undermine project delivery.

Trade War May Boost Demand for U.S. Warehouse Space (WSJ)

Highlights:

• Many warehouse customers, such as Amazon, Home Depot, and FedEx, have been rushing merchandise into the country as they seek to get ahead of tariffs.

• Average warehouse vacancy rate across the U.S. increased to 7% in the first quarter of 2025, up from 5.7% a year earlier, and up from 3% in late 2022.

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Management Perspective

I was at the Architectural Engineering Institute’s (AEI) conference this week and one of the graduate students there shared data in his presentation that is a good reminder for all engineering managers: there is a big difference between benefits being available and feeling available.

The graduate student had conducted a preliminary survey of professionals in the AEC industry and found a disconnect in responses between various benefits being available and respondents feeling like they could actually use the benefits.

Furthermore, the respondents who disproportionately felt like the benefits were not that available were people younger in age, women, and non-white individuals.

As a leader, you are influential in the culture of your team. It’s not enough to have benefits like PTO, flexible work options, and mental health resources. Your employees need to know they are available and feel like they can use them.

There are a few ways to do this:

1. Encourage your team to use the benefits that are available to them. Tailor your encouragement to each team member so they know you’re being authentic.

2. Lead by example. Show that you are taking time off, using flexible work schedules/locations, and more. Show that you are doing all of that to enhance your personal and team performance, not hinder it.

3. Reinforce and support people when they take advantage of benefits. This can be as easy as saying, “Great! Is there anything we can cover while you’re out?” to someone sharing upcoming PTO plans.

4. Share. If someone recently returned from a trip, encourage them to share a bit about it at a team meeting. You may need to be the icebreaker on this, depending on the culture and comfort level of the team.

When staff feel like benefits are actually available for them to use, they will be more likely to use them. And using those benefits should lead to increased team performance and staff retention.

Management Insights

Mervin Kelly on compensating performance:

“You get paid for the seven and a half hours a day you put in here [at Bell Labs], but you get your raises and promotions on what you do in the other sixteen and half hours.”

—

Morgan Housel on getting the right fit:

“A talented person can quickly become mediocre when you force them to be someone they aren’t.”

—

Kim Scott on building professional relationships:

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

Management Resource

Strategic Growth with M&A (McKinsey)

It’s hard to find great people. It’s hard to win good work. And it’s hard to develop and maintain diverse revenue streams.

Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) can be a solution to all of those. But M&A is hard too.

This report from McKinsey shares some strategies behind M&A in the engineering and construction industry.

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Or…

• 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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