In this episode of Transform Your Workplace, Brandon Laws sits down with guest Leo Macleod — thought leader, consultant, and author of From the Ground Up. The two discuss his new book, and Leo shares stories of clients he has seen emerge as leaders against all odds.
GUEST AT A GLANCE
Leo MacLeod is a leadership development writer, consultant, and teacher. He is the creator of Pocket Tools, “the DIY Tool Kit for busy people,” and the author of the recently published book, From the Ground Up: Stories and Lessons from Architects and Engineers Who Learned to be Leaders.
A QUICK GLIMPSE INTO OUR PODCAST
🔊 Podcast: Transform Your Workplace, sponsored by Xenium HR
🎙️ Host: Brandon Laws
📋 In his own words: “The Transform Your Workplace podcast is your go-to source for the latest workplace trends, big ideas, and time-tested methods straight from the mouths of industry experts and respected thought-leaders.”
THE NATURAL PROGRESSION
Many of the firms that Leo MacLeod has worked with — clients who’ve worked with engineers and architects, for example — are built on billable hours. Leo says, “You start out at a firm, and you make money for the firm by doing the work so that they can build a client.”
The next step in the natural progression is for you, as an employee, to manage people “to get more out of others,” but you still have to do work. Then, Leo added, “if you really want to be an owner of a firm and call the shots, you have to be responsible for bringing in your own work, bringing in your own clients, so you need to fit in some business development as you’re managing people.”
Of course, some organizations have sales teams — they have “people who go out and get the work.” But for architects and engineers, a lot of these firms are run almost like small businesses — they have to do it all. And that’s why Leo wrote his book, From the Ground Up: Stories and Lessons from Architects and Engineers Who Learned to be Leaders. It’s about those who have moved up the ladder, all while being under a constant time crunch and balancing both managing and doing.
PODCAST EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS
From Contributor to Coach
“When we start out in our career, we’re taught to totally own a task, to be wholly responsible for it, to be responsive to everything, to work independently, not to ask for help, to follow up with the client, to close the ends, to problem solve all those things. That’s the model. The challenge becomes when you move into a position of managing other people. It’s actually not the best strategy to just continue to own every aspect of the project. That’s not a good recipe for empowering other people.”
Letting Go
“When you’ve spent years and years being uber responsible for the output of what you do, and now you’re in a position of having to let go of that, it feels yucky and irresponsible. […] It doesn’t feel responsible for me to give the work to somebody else who is not as good as I am or doesn’t understand the client’s needs. […] Now you’re asking me to delegate and give up and let go and coach other people and be okay with imperfection and ‘good enough.’”
Asking the Right Questions
“Rather than to think that there is a template that you need to follow, always start by designing what I call your ‘mountain’ both personally and professionally. Where do you want to be in three years? How much are you working? What kind of projects are you working on? What are you doing with your free time? Where are you going to be in the firm? What kind of projects do you want to be doing? Because what that’ll do, if that’s your desire, is inform what you need to then develop as skills.”
Building Relationships
“You don’t need to have a formal mentorship relationship. I think a lot of people get a little caught up in that. […] I encourage people to be more opportunistic about things.
For instance, if they want to work on stormwater projects, find who’s really knowledgeable in the office and how to get on that person’s team. That’s a form of mentorship because if you’re around that person and you’re on their team, you’re going to be putting yourself in a position of learning the skills and getting the experience to do the kind of things that you want to do.”
Finding Support
“Once you get your mountain defined or an idea where you want to go, go talk to your supervisor and say, ‘Hey, I want to share with you kind of where I’d like to go.’ But people don’t do that. They don’t sit down and say, ‘I’m interested in these kinds of projects, and this is why I want to be doing more of this work.’ And it just kills me because how can that supervisor help you get to where you want to go if they don’t know that? […] I try to encourage people to be advocates for themselves.”
Being Mindful
“A lot of it has to do with just being mindful of how you’re spending your energy. It’s not so much your time. It’s your energy. Where is your focus during the day? What are you doing? So a lot of times what happens is that the day will go by, and people don’t feel like they have any kind of control over it — because things just kind of happen, and they are just responding to it.”
LEARN MORE
Leo’s book, From the Ground Up: Stories and Lessons from Architects and Engineers Who Learned to be Leaders, isn’t just for people in the aforementioned careers — it’s about the universal challenges of moving up the workplace ladder. Get yourself a copy or check out Leo’s website where you’ll find online courses and other resources.