As a leader, how often do you ask yourself if you can do more to benefit society while keeping consistent with your firm’s mission? Is there another stream of revenue– one that is particularly meaningful– that you are leaving untapped?  If you’re unsure about how to get started, begin with your firm’s strategic plan.

Michael Porter shares my perspective and speaks about his own in this Ted Talk, Never Mind Corporate Responsibility, Companies Can Solve Actual Social Problems. He sees social responsibility as the largest opportunity in business today– solving social problems (also referred to as corporate social responsibility (CSR).

Michael identifies that there are several industries, like banking, who are seen by society as a cause of problems. This is where the A/E and environmental services industry is different. More than ever, we are seen as an important part of society’s solutions. So, how do we leverage that?

You will hear from me in the near future about an exciting new initiative assembled to do just that-to help our industry leverage our position, our skills, and new technologies to create more powerful, and rewarding business opportunities.  A group of 50 industry professionals, including myself, met last summer and early February at the University of Omaha and have established the Engineering Change Lab-USA.

Join my blog and you will be the first to know more about this initiative. In the meantime, here is Michael Porter’s TedTalk.

Corporate Responsibility Ted Talk

What opportunities do you envision for our profession 10 or 20 years for now? Share with me and I will bring your ideas to the Engineering Change Lab-USA.

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Oh, by the way, I bid 50% under budget to win the job

A lesson I learned early on in my engineering career was the consequences of accepting a project from a partner who knew it was a money loser. “Getting a foot in the door” was the excuse. A year later, with a way over budget project, I had my performance review. “Too bad your project lost so much money.” “What the F!?” Not too much later I changed jobs. I realized I could not obtain a high reputation in a firm like that.

This experience was one of many that supported my extreme discipline of making sure my budgets were adequate and projects were completed with top level profits. Over the course of my career, this performance contributed to me being elected shareholder at two firms and I regularly was the most profitable project manager. I learned that making money led to good things.

Personal gain requires discipline

Howard Birnberg, Executive Director of the Association for Project Managers, touched on several of the skills I mastered that made me successful. His piece in CSNews identified solvable weaknesses in project manager performance. They include failure to adequately assess your firm’s capabilities, to have good contract language and to secure an adequate budget. He recognized that the path to success required more than just learning new techniques. The path was 3 part–learn, apply, and stay disciplined.

Learning that cements new skills into behavior is a win-win

My approach is also 3-fold and takes advantage of the power and flexibility of digital learning.

First, an interactive and engaging on-line business learning program focused on all aspects of profit control. Second, video conference coaching between each of the on-line learning modules. And third, video conference application of learned skills to project and division managers’ real project in real-time.

Participants not only learn, but they become proficient. Their performance and the company’s immediately leap to new heights. The ROI on the program is instant.

What if you and all of your firm’s project managers and principals effectively and consistently applied profit gaining behaviors? Would life be better for all?

Follow this link to learn more about the program through two short video clips. 

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What do each of you have in common? Each of your livelihoods are impacted by your contribution to generating revenue. You are either billable or you have a role in bringing the dollars in the door.

Particularly for the junior roles, I suggest you can have a larger impact than you might think.

Life Without Fear

Allow me to share a story of my early engineering career.

I learned how to convert “knowing to doing” starting in my 20s as a project engineer with an A/E firm. One big reason I succeeded is at 25, like many of us, I had no fear! And I had no fear because there were no expectations that I generate revenue for the firm.

With a 98% billability goal, I knew I was not going to be able to woo new clients. I was on the client’s site often, being billable while working on projects.

So, I decided to have conversations with each of my clients while in or near their office. Getting a meeting was easy because they knew I was out and about working on their projects.

I found that I had an advantage by being young. Since my clients were often twice my age, they seemed to enjoy teaching me about their business.

I asked them about their goals, their infrastructure programs and their process for implementing them. They went out of their way to tell me. It felt like a father-son tour when they showed me their facilities to make their points.

I also discovered that my superiors encouraged me to have such conversations. They even sent me to some training about sales. It helped greatly to start off with some of the “knowing.”

When the conversation got going on a particular pursuit, I, of course, brought in a principal of the firm. Pretty soon, work was being booked that I had identified. Suddenly, I also got a lot more respect from the firm’s principals.

People Love Youth

As a business consultant, my clients frequently ask if they should allow junior staff to meet with a new client. They are worried that the junior staff won’t get respect. They suggest that instead they accompany the junior engineer, architect or scientist.

My answer is always, “Yes.” Encourage them to have conversations.  Don’t worry too much about mistakes they may make because their youth will receive more forgiveness.

Make sure you prepare the staffer, provide training, and do a debrief. Junior staff are in the field where they encounter the client far more often than most project managers and principals. So, take advantage of the opportunity for largely billable out-of-office client visits.

If you are a junior staffer, change the way you look at your impact. Explore how you can engage your clients and give it a try. The results may surprise you and you just might like it too.

Doug Reed

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You probably just thought, “Way too much– I would never get home!” Or, “That’s impossible because technical people don’t like selling.”

I hear these perspectives all the time and it reminds me of an event early in my engineering career.

Selling Services was the Farthest Thing From My Mind

I was with a 50 person A/E firm managed by a business educated CEO. He was not an engineer, so he knew he needed us engineers to sell. He knew clients did not want business people who knew nothing about infrastructure talking about projects with them. He was determined to pursue client relationships using technical staff.

The CEO’s approach was to bring in an outside instructor to lead a hands-on workshop. Just about everyone in the company participated in workshop including me. Lots of technical people attended who, like me, just wanted to work on cool projects without a focus on selling.

We learned about the power of conversation. We were shown how to recognize our fears about business conversations and learned to have confidence in our own abilities. We also learned about a process (engineers love process) to follow to win our clients’ respect and confidence.

This wasn’t selling. It was about how to be popular with clients with the goal to improve client relationships. Never ever having won a popularity contest, this seemed like a time for me to try.

I immediately took my new skill to one of my clients. At age 28 I also had the chance to meet with prospective clients about their RFPs. Improving client relationships wasn’t so bad.

At first, it was awkward. It wasn’t quite the same as it was in the workshop. But, I stuck to it.

I began to see that prospective clients would return my follow up calls after a first meeting. And, my active clients seemed to enjoy talking with me, even about their personal life. I enjoyed it.

A year later I had the process down pat. And, having experienced it with many personalities, I had adapted the process out of necessity. As a manager I then taught my direct reports which lead to requests to teach other groups and offices.

After 35 years in the A/E/Environmental business, I learned that just about everyone can enjoy their job more. Cementing great client relationships is a key, even for a technical career.  If the result is that the client wants to keep giving us more interesting and enjoyable business, is that selling?

The secret is– it doesn’t feel like selling. Technical staff love it, marketing staff are giddy, and accountants can finally relax. Not to mention, shareholders are tickled to see their stock value rocket.

My oldest, tried and true workshop has been completely redesigned and renamed to Listening Builds Relationships. It was rolled out for a client to rave reviews. This one workshop has had more impact than any single sales or client management class I have ever seen.

Re-design means the 3-1/2 hour workshop applies the latest participative learning methods for a fast-paced program. The skill is retained, applied, and it benefits every employee of the firm. It is why I was made a shareholder-twice.

Share this with others in your organization and your friends with other organizations. She/he will thank you. Email me at dreed@fostergrowth.biz for more information.

P.S. If your firm has under 100 Massachusetts located employees, the State will pay for half the program cost.

The post How to Improve Client Relationships Just by Listening appeared first on Doug Reed - Foster Growth.

A lesson I learned early on in my engineering career was the consequences of accepting a project from a partner who knew it was a money loser. “Getting a foot in the door” was the excuse. A year later, with a way over budget project, I had my performance review. “Too bad your project lost so much money.” “What the F!?” Not too much later I changed jobs. I realized I could not obtain a high reputation in a firm like that.

This experience was one of many that supported my extreme discipline of making sure my budgets were adequate and projects were completed with top level profits. Over the course of my career, this performance contributed to me being elected shareholder at two firms and I regularly was the most profitable project manager. I learned that making money led to good things.

Howard Birnberg, Executive Director of the Association for Project Managers, touches on several of the skills I mastered that made me successful. In his piece on CSNews, failure to adequately assess your firm’s capabilities, to have good contract language and secure an adequate budget, could result in big problems. Learn, apply, and stay disciplined.

The post Why top performing project managers produce top level profits appeared first on Doug Reed - Foster Growth.

A CEO was within 5 years of retirement and had grown his company from 30 employees to 200 in a decade.  He had an empowering style and had built a strong management team. As he shifted his thoughts to retirement, he became distracted, such as engaging himself in a local business group, where he was elected president. He didn’t know it, but his shift was more about burn-out then he thought.  His hours in the office diminished and he frequently missed management meetings.  A recession occurred and revenue dropped.  The issue was brought up at meetings, but he brushed it aside.  The other owners were afraid to be insistent on action, so the problem endured and the company went deep into debt.  Finally, as the company’s lender threatened to close the note, the minority shareholders snapped and demanded the CEO step down, or they would leave the firm.  Faced with the reality of owning a business without its key players, he abruptly stepped down and left the company.   Not exactly the way to exit from a highly successful career and start retirement.

Here is a better way. A founder and CEO of an environmental consulting firm established a one person one-vote stock structure.  Fundamental was the desire to be relevant, and to attract talented and aggressive professionals. Without saying it, this set up a culture of free and open dialogue. The company grew from 10 employees to 800 employees with 100 shareholders.  Having seen a dramatic rise in his wealth, the CEO began slowly selling his shares several years before retirement and was no longer an owner. Yet, he continued to be employed and contribute– sustaining the respect and admiration of his team. He had less responsibilities and was no longer the CEO, but he was able to reduce his focus, avoid burn-out and plan a graceful exit.

For more on this phenomenon, how to recognize burn-out and what to do about it, read this article by Sam Bacharach that talks about five signs a leader is burned out.

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