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

Autodesk boosts full-year guidance (WSJ)

Thoughts and highlights:

• Earnings reports from Autodesk, maker of popular AEC products like Revit, Civil 3D, and Navisworks, gives insight into the health of the design and construction industry.

• Quarterly revenue rose to $1.63B from $1.42B a year earlier. That revenue growth was driven by a 20% increase in sales for architecture, engineering, construction, and operations, and a 15% increase in manufacturing sales, year-over-year.

Construction starts declined 9% in April (Dodge Construction Network)

Highlights:

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Management Perspective

Paid time off (PTO). Some companies let you accumulate PTO hours per paid period. Some companies allow you to flex your PTO hours. Some companies let you donate your PTO hours to colleagues. Some companies boast unlimited PTO policies.

Yet there are very few that mandate a minimum paid time off.

Maybe more need to consider it.

The benefits of PTO are well known: employees can manage unexpected life events, pursue hobbies and interests, spend time with family, and recharge.

As we’ve covered in a previous edition, having benefits available to staff is not enough. They have to feel accessible.

PTO falls into that category.

I’ve worked with people who were hesitant to use any PTO hours because of a perception that they weren’t putting all their efforts into their work.

I’ve talked with younger staff about how they view PTO as something they should use sparingly in their early years.

As a manager, you may have limited control over PTO policies, but you can influence your team on how they use theirs. If you encourage (and check in on) a minimum PTO policy where your team uses at least so many hours every year, you show that it’s important to use PTO.

This type of mindframe requires discernment; you don’t want others to feel uncomfortable by making it seem like they have to spend their PTO. But encouraging a minimum PTO, and sharing that you and others are using yours, will help those who don’t feel like they can use their PTO to make the most of theirs.

Management Insights

Jake Taylor on getting things done:

“Most people overestimate what they can get done in a day, but radically underestimate what they can get done in a month… in a year… in a decade, with four hours of dedicated work. You could goof off the rest of the day and still run circles around your peers. At least that’s been my experience.”

—

Nabeel Qureshi on qualifying sales:

“Your job is not to ‘sell’, your job is qualification.

The actual ‘selling’ process goes extremely smoothly if you’ve qualified the person correctly. Most pain is caused by people not doing this qualification process correctly, overselling or underselling their product, and then being mystified by the inevitable ‘no’ / being ghosted by their customer.

Once you’ve qualified somebody as a good fit for you, actually selling to them is remarkably easy and seems to ‘just happen’ effortlessly. This is one of the most surprising things about sales.”

—

Tim Minchin on being a teacher:

“Be a teacher. Please, please, please be a teacher. Teachers are the most admirable and important people in the world. You don’t have to do it forever, but if you’re in doubt about what to do, be an amazing teacher.

Even if you’re not a teacher, be a teacher.”

Management Resource

How to design your org (First Round Review)

There is more than one right way (and more than one wrong way) to build an organization. This article shares insights from some veteran operators from prominent companies like AWS, Microsoft, and Square who have seen good and bad business organizations.

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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.

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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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