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

• A management perspective to consider

• Leadership insights to delve into

• And more…

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Alright, let’s get into it.

Noteworthy Headlines

2026 Industry Forecast (ENR)

Highlights:

• FMI Consulting is forecasting that spending for total construction put-in-place will decline 1.4% in 2025 before rebounding slightly, at a rate of 0.7% in 2026.

• FMI estimates data center construction to increase 24.9% in 2026, following a 33.4% increase in 2025 and 55.7% increase in 2024.

4Q2025 Civil Infrastructure Construction Index (FMI)

Highlights:

• The Index closed at 50.6, down slightly from 50.8 in the third quarter, signaling a steady but slowing market environment

• Backlogs remain solid yet increasingly tied to federally funded projects

• Cost and labor pressures persist, keeping productivity flat and profitability dependent on execution efficiency

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Management Perspective

For many people in business, it’s clear that you need to sell your product or service. That’s how you get money in the door to keep the business going. In the engineering world, that means detailed RFP responses, professional client presentations, and participating in business/government events.

But as an engineering manager, we have to sell to more than just clients. These include:

Engineering Talent

Recruiting talent is a competitive landscape. Top candidates are seeking more than just a big paycheck. They want to be associated with important projects, work with influential leaders, collaborate on high-performing teams, and contribute to an impactful mission.

That is a career narrative. And as a leader, you have to promote it. People won’t know about it just because it exists. It needs to be shared.

Then, like a flywheel, your team’s talent grows, fueling greater career narratives that then need to be shared, and so on.

Design and Construction Partners

Partnering with other firms on projects due to geography, scope breadth, and competition is very common in the industry. Therefore, it is important for your company to have a reputation of reliability, fairness, and technical competence. You want to be known as the firm everyone wants to partner with on projects.

This doesn’t happen overnight. It’s accomplished by managing perceptions about the partnerships as well as the actual work delivered. In other words, do good work and make sure others feel like the work was good.

Communities

Many projects are met with stiff opposition by various community members. Extreme NIMBYism pushes out all types of development near the group, while special interest groups balk at certain types of developments.

In order to help clients see their goals get achieved, companies need to work with community members to show that the development results in a net positive outcome for them. Examples could be improved traffic flow, better public spaces, more amenities, or job creation.

Authorities

Project execution in the AEC industry is highly influenced by authorities having jurisdiction (AHJs). Their requirements and reviews of projects can add significant time and/or money to projects. To mitigate these risks, companies must work hard to collaborate with AHJs early to understand rules and requirements so they can shepherd projects from beginning to end in a pragmatic way that adheres to client interests.

This requires frequent contact with AHJs to develop brand recognition with professional competence. Like anyone, these AHJs are busy and enjoy working with firms that understand how to get projects through the system correctly.

Final Thought

There is a fallacy that great work sells itself. While doing great work definitely matters, it doesn’t sell itself. Similarly, being a great company doesn’t mean that people will be clamoring to join it, partner with it, or select it for work.

Frenzy around a company is real and does happen, but rarely without calculated and consistent recruiting and pitching beneath the surface.

That’s part of our jobs as leaders. To do it ourselves and reinforce the importance of our teams to do it as well.

Management Insights

Joe Coulombe (founder of Trader Joe’s) on employee turnover:

“Productivity in part is the product of tenure. That’s why I believe that turnover is the most expensive form of labor expense.”

—

John D. Rockefeller (founder of Standard Oil) on the impact of organizational systems:

“It is not easy to improve the quality of talent, but it is easy to improve the method of using talent.”

—

Simon Sinek (author & leadership consultant) on organizational dangers:

“When the people have to manage dangers from inside the organization, the organization itself becomes less able to face the dangers from the outside.”

Management Resource

Achievement, not effort, makes people feel entitled to rewards (National Academy of Sciences)

Yale researchers conducted studies to determine what made people feel entitled to rewards. As a manager, part of the role is aligning staff rewards with company goals. Therefore, this article impacts how managers should approach compensation.

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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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