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FROM THE FOUNDER
Being an effective manager
Anyone who is a design professional and who wants to get ahead is probably going to have to learn to be a manager.
I f there’s one thing we can probably all agree on, it’s this: Anyone who is a design professional and who wants to get ahead is probably going to have to learn to be a manager. It’s just the way it is.
Otherwise, you are limited to only what you yourself can personally do, and that’s going to be a big limitation, as most projects design professionals get hired for require a team of people to accomplish. You are going to have to be a manager. While it may seem obvious to some, as my friend, Matt Lewis, the fourth generation family member to run Lewis Automotive Group says, “Don’t forget the term ‘manager’ has the word ‘manage’ in it.” That means you manage things to get the desired results. So what kinds of things does a manager in an AEC firm have to do if they want to be effective? There is a lot that goes into the classic definition of management that is “planning, organizing, and controlling resources.” Many subtleties impact how successful one is at doing that. And they aren’t all taught in school, especially colleges of architecture or engineering, although in all fairness, engineering
schools usually make some minor attempt at teaching basic management principles. Here are my thoughts: 1. Effective managers achieve results through the work of others. This is paramount. While it doesn’t prohibit the manager from also being a good producer themselves (some people in our business DO actually think that), the first priority is making OTHER people productive. The team is more important than the individual! 2. Effective managers understand people. Everyone who wants to be a manager could benefit from studying psychology and sociology, but unfortunately, most don’t get much of that in school. Management is about people. And design professionals don’t usually go into the design or technical disciplines that they do because they
Mark Zweig
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THE ZWEIG LETTER AUGUST 26, 2024, ISSUE 1551
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