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BUSINESS NEWS JQ ENGINEERING ESTABLISHES SUSTAINABILITY FELLOWSHIP JQ Engineering, LLP has established the JQ Engineering Endowed Fellowship in Sustainability. Distributions from this endowment will be used to provide one or more fellowships to full-time students in good standing pursuing a graduate degree in the Zachry Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering with a focus in sustainable development at Texas A&M University. JQ Engineering CEO, Stephen Lucy, and his partners were the driving forces behind this fellowship. “My partners in JQ Engineering, Christopher Story ‘95 and John Hoenig ‘00, are Texas A&M Aggies and civil engineering graduates,” Lucy said. “We all wanted to give back and provide support targeted at first-generation and underrepresented groups. Through our shared commitment to Texas A&M, we have established several fellowships within the Zachry Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.” Lucy’s father, Dan H. Lucy ‘48, was also a Texas A&M civil engineering graduate, and was a first-generation college student.
“Since second grade, I told everyone I was going to attend Texas A&M and be a civil engineer,” Lucy said. “Both myself and my brother Dan, class of 1981, followed in our father’s footsteps and became civil engineers.” Ultimately, Lucy said that Texas A&M is second only to his family in regards to the positive impact on his life. “Education opens up so many opportunities,” he said. “In addition to a great education, Texas A&M also provides access to the Aggie network, which is of immeasurable value.” Lucy said that he had always planned to give back to Texas A&M based on all the financial support he received during his time there. “I received the President’s Endowed Scholarship, which not only benefited me financially, but also provided me a relationship with my donor, Robert Guyler, that lasted until his death,” he said. “I visited with Mr. Guyler and his wife, Priscilla, one weekend every semester until I graduated with my master’s, and then continued to see him after my time at A&M,” Lucy said. “He was
a great mentor and generous with his time and advice. My engineering firm still works with Mr. Guyler’s construction company to this day.” Lucy and his wife, Lisa, have one daughter, Kaitlyn. In addition to his father and brother, Lucy had two uncles and has several cousins who also attended Texas A&M. Since its founding in 1984, JQ has been dedicated to providing reliable, innovative, and collaborative solutions to our clients and projects. The firm’s team is founded on creative and interpersonal ideals, embracing a can-do attitude that brings clients’ visions to life. The firm has grown from providing structural engineering services to local communities to offering civil engineering, geospatial, and facilities performance services throughout the United States. JQ’s approach of intentional communication, collaboration and commitment puts clients at ease. As a group of creative, engaged and people-focused professionals, JQ strives to exceed expectations.
MAKE THE MOST OF TIME. Here are five practices for leveraging time: 1)Establish a nonnegotiable time limit. Whether it is a date or number of minutes, make sure your initiative has a nonnegotiable time limit, and strictly enforce it. 2)Advertise the limit. When you make a deadline public, the public will enforce it. It establishes their expectations and your accountability. 3)Clear off your desktop. More than 50 years of research has shown that our brains don’t do well with multitasking. It decreases efficiency by as much as 40 percent and causes loss of vital information. A deadline forces you to eliminate distractions and concentrate on the primary task. 4)Solicit feedback. While preparing, ask others for feedback. It will check your direction, generate new ideas, and sharpen your thinking. 5)When it’s time to deliver, give it your all. Whether it is a speech, project, or transaction, when the time comes to deliver, give it all you got. You’ve worked hard to get there, and you want your effort to show. Time limits, however painful, tighten focus, propel you over challenging hurdles, and maximize your chances of success. JULIE BENEZET spent 25 years in law and business, and for the past 18 years has coached, taught and consulted with executives from virtually every industry. She earned her stripes for leading in the scariness of the new as Amazon’s first global real estate executive. She is author of the award-winning The Journey of Not Knowing: How 21st Century Leaders Can Chart a Course Where There Is None . Her workbook, The Journal of Not Knowing , provides a self-guided discovery mission to navigate the adventure of pursuing one’s dreams based on the Journey principles. She can be reached at www.juliebenezet.com.
JULIE BENEZET, from page 3
❚ ❚ Deal deadlines. In my first financing transaction, the investment banker opened by announcing an aggressive filing date with the SEC. It struck me as arbitrary, as it wasn’t tied to anything real such as a company running out of money. Nevertheless, the date was nonnegotiable, causing a tight, stressful schedule. We achieved it. With that lesson behind me, I noticed what happened to transactions without firm deadlines. When people or things became difficult, instead of working out the kinks, team members escaped into other priorities, leaving the transaction to founder. “Limited time means focusing on what is essential to your mission, ignoring white noise, and keeping your eye on the prize.” ❚ ❚ Leading engineers and designers. The information age needs the creativity of designers and engineers to develop new concepts. That’s the good part. The hard part is they love their work and will relentlessly pursue developing something better. As a result, the end never arrives. Because competitive business pressures need projects to be “done,” leaders of creative talent must establish a due date, and short of a disaster, not waiver from it. ❚ ❚ Audience engagement. In our impatient world, you must decide what matters most in each moment. Newscasters routinely preface their questions with “quickly” to prompt interviewees to get to the point. Executives in leadership seminars learn that summarizing their key career lessons and future dreams in five minutes raises audience engagement. A racing digital timer in front of a public speaker reminds them to land their message.
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THE ZWEIG LETTER FEBRUARY 8, 2021, ISSUE 1378
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