TALENT OPTIMIZATION: Recruit like everyone else and get the same results as everyone else.
Most firm leaders obsess over how to pitch themselves in interviews with strategic candidates, yet so many candidates aren’t actively looking for a new job and are deeply skeptical of the risk associated with change. Instead of over-engineering your sales pitch, flip the script: Invite high-value candidates into conversations where they articulate what they want, what they fear, and what would make a move worth it. Letting them “sell” their motivation exposes whether they’re truly ready. Get more best-in-class recruiting tips for AEC firm leaders in PSMJ’s best-selling book, Build Your AEC Dream Team.
BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT: Make 2026 the year of the Chief Pricing Officer in your firm.
Of course, this shouldn’t be a full-time role in the firm. But, appoint somebody to be the one to push back, to advocate for the firm, and to challenge anyone involved in fee-setting to think bigger about the value being delivered. Even just a 2-3% fee increase can have a significant impact on bottom-line profitability.
OWNERSHIP TRANSITION: If you give stock away to employees, that is exactly what they will think it is worth.
Affordability is often one of the biggest bottlenecks for internal ownership transition. So, it can be tempting to gift stock to next generation employees as a means of recognizing “sweat equity” and perpetuating the legacy of the firm. Stop right there! This well-intentioned move will end in disaster…driven by newly-minted uninformed and disengaged owners. Get creative with equity-based incentive compensation, synthetic equity, and other tools that transfer ownership in a much lower risk and sustainable manner. The act of an incoming owner having to physically “pay” for ownership will lead to much higher engagement and that ever-elusive “ownership mindset.”
STRATEGIC PLANNING: You’re never too busy for strategic planning.
We get it…you want to make time for strategic planning, but you're just too busy. According to PSMJ Senior Consultant Jared Jamison in the latest issue of the PSMJ newsletter for PSMJ PRO members, "One of the biggest things I notice about firms claiming to be too busy to plan is their loss of control and purpose". They become rudderless without a goal of what they want to achieve or knowing why they want to achieve it. They may keep spending time working on the wrong types of projects for the wrong types of clients or may continue practices that are not efficient or do not support their value proposition.
ORGANIZATION STRUCTURE: Oops…you just outgrew your org chart.
Double-digit growth over the past few years has been quite good for many firms, but not all good! One of the critical lessons that we teach in AEC Principals Bootcamp is the concept of growth plateaus. To be sure, to the extent possible, you always want to keep revenue ahead of expenses, but there will come times when you need to take a leap to more a more structured organization. For example, around 50 employees is when you usually start needing an HR Director, at 100, you need to start separating the CEO and COO roles. Are you still using your 25-person firm “command and control” org chart to run today’s 75-person “feels like things are kind of getting out of control” firm?
This is content from the PSMJ Newsletter, exclusive to PSMJ PRO Members. PSMJ PRO is the fastest-growing network of AEC firm leaders. Not a PRO Member? Try a 50-day trial (no credit card required). You can request a trial here: https://bit.ly/50dayLI