TCEP 218: Top 10 Career Tips from Leading Civil Engineering CEOs

In this episode, I provide you with the top 10 takeaways and career tips from our first 10 episodes on The Civil Engineering CEO show. It is a video show that features CEOs from leading civil engineering firms, and because they shared such insightful information, we thought it would be great to recap some of those key pieces of advice and share them with you here.

Engineering Quotes:

Here Are the Top 10 Career Tips from Leading Civil Engineering CEOs:

1. Always Be Thinking About How You Can Increase Your Value to Your Company

In episode number 1, I talked to Kevin L. Haney, P.E., the President and Chief Executive Officer for Colliers Engineering & Design (formerly Maser Consulting). Kevin recommended that all civil engineers should always be thinking about how they can increase their value to their company — your value is essentially all you have in your career. How valuable are you?

Here is something he said that stood out to me:

“You can’t equate your value to the organization to your title in the organization. A title means nothing. Somebody’s value to an organization is based upon the duties you perform, the skill sets you have, and the ability to not only impact the bottom line but grow other people. That’s the value.”

So I ask you, what value do you offer to your firm and how can you increase it?

2. Encourage Diversity and Inclusion in Your Engineering Teams

Our second takeaway, which is from episode 2, is where I spoke with Dave DeLizza, P.E., President and Chief Executive Officer of Pennoni. Dave talked about how important diversity and inclusion are to a company, but more than that, how important they are to engineering teams.

Dave talked about how if your engineering team lacks diversity, its perspective and vision will be limited. Is your team’s vision limited? How can you change that?

3. Civil Engineering Cannot Be Automated

Our third takeaway is from episode 3 where I talked to Aine O'Dwyer, Principal and CEO of Enovate Engineering, about why navigating change in the civil engineering industry is so important. We talked specifically about The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which is going to bring more complex infrastructure projects to civil engineers in the years to come. Many people feel that software and AI will be critical to executing these projects, and while that is true to some degree, Aine reminded us that civil engineering is a people's profession.

Regardless of the software available, you will need to interact with people, lead people, and influence people. How are you preparing yourself to do that?

4. Servant Leadership Is Powerful in Engineering

Moving on to our fourth takeaway, which is from episode 4, I chatted with Uri Eliahu, President and CEO at ENGEO, about how they utilize servant leadership and what it is like to work in a company that employs it.

He said:

"As leaders, our job is to serve, and we measure our successes by the growth and successes of the people we serve."

I agree with Uri's philosophy of leaders serving the people they lead. You have to care about those you lead, and you have to make sure that they are clear on and achieve their career goals. How are you doing that?

5. Building Trust in the Workplace Is Critical to Company Growth

Takeaway 5 is from episode 5, where I talked to Iris Leia Lorelle, P.E., CEO at Capital Engineering and Consulting, about the importance of building trust in the workplace and how it means everything when building a company.

Iris said:

“I’ve always strongly believed that a company can’t grow without people working in it who have the skills to delegate. Being able to delegate takes the ability to trust.”

If you don’t trust your team members,