Jud Mackrill via UnsplashMike Riccitiello, P.E., PMP, president of Atlas Engineering in Raleigh, North Carolina, and Tam Tran, a partner at the Huuman Group in Pleasanton, California, and a business coach, have decades of experience in business leadership. In this article, they show how connected leadership turns everyday interactions into higher trust, retention, and performance.
It’s 8 p.m., and you were supposed to be home hours ago. In fact, you’ve just missed another dance recital.
The rest of the office is dark and everyone else left long ago, but here you are, frantically putting the finishing touches on the design package that’s due to a key client tomorrow morning.
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The best part? This wasn’t even your deadline. One of your best project managers just left the firm two weeks ago to work for a competitor, and you’re the only one left to pick up the pieces.
You’re exhausted, stressed, and feeling the weight of it all.
If this scenario sounds familiar, you’re not alone. According to DHR Global, eight in 10 employees report experiencing some degree of burnout. This leads to lost productivity, lower employee engagement, high turnover rates, and an overall negative impact on workplace culture.
In engineering and architecture firms, we often blame burnout on demanding client expectations, tight deadlines, complex project requirements, scope creep, and staffing shortages. The reality is that burnout can be a symptom of a much larger problem, one that impacts the sustainability and growth of your business and is felt deeply at home.
The issue is this: Leaders struggle to build cohesive teams that stick together, row in the same direction, and stay engaged.
What now?
So, what can leaders do to address these challenges and build more resilient and sustainable firms? We believe the answer lies in connected leadership, which we define as a style of management that goes beyond merely giving orders and managing tasks. It’s about leading with empathy, building trust, and creating real, authentic relationships within teams and across organizations.
At its core, connected leadership is about fostering a sense of community, shared purpose, and mutual respect.
What makes it critical at this moment?
Today’s business environment is increasingly complex and fast moving. Leaders who understand their teams’ challenges, empathize with their struggles, and invest in their growth are far more likely to build successful teams.
Research indicates that while technology has increased our ability to connect with each other, we are more isolated than ever before. The rise of remote and hybrid work has disrupted the traditional ways of working together.
The lightning-speed advancements in artificial intelligence are transforming how we operate. The generational differences from baby boomers to Generation X to millennials to Generation Z are creating clashes of expectations in terms of leadership, communication, and career development.
Connected leadership provides an approach for navigating these disruptions and bridging these divides.
Building connected leadership skills
Becoming a connected leader is a journey that starts with self-awareness.
Take 15 minutes to reflect on the following questions:
- How do I typically show up in my work relationships?
- How well do I listen to my team members and understand their challenges?
- What actions do I take to build trust within my team?
Identify areas where you excel and areas where there is room for growth.
The next step is to translate that self-awareness into action. Growth happens through intentional practices and habits. Below are three impactful and timeless approaches to building stronger, more connected teams.
One-to-one check-ins: This practice offers more than just a status update or one-way communication; it’s an opportunity to connect as humans. When leaders take the time to sit down with team members, not just as managers but as people who care, they can create a deeper bond that fosters trust, loyalty, and engagement. These check-ins don’t just serve to get work done but also to listen, empathize, and build personal relationships that transcend the office walls.
In the engineering and architecture industry, this personal touch often takes a back seat to the busy day-to-day grind. Looming deadlines and constant meetings fill the week, and business leaders are especially prone to falling victim to the “I don’t have time for that” mentality.
The good news is that it doesn’t require an hourlong counseling session to achieve. We call them check-ins because it can be as simple as asking how your individual team members are doing and actually listening and caring about what they say. How is their family doing? What’s going on in their lives outside of work? What is the biggest obstacle in their way?
These quick and simple check-in questions lead to conversations that can create lasting impressions.
Core values: This is the foundation of a firm’s culture. These set the expectation for the behaviors, attitudes, and beliefs that allow your organization to succeed. Does your organization have them? If so, how well are they exhibited among each team member? If you don’t have them, it’s time to make the effort to develop them.
At Atlas Engineering, we spent six months diligently working to clarify our core values, getting feedback from our entire team. For a small firm that had been in business for over 20 years, we had a very specific culture, but it was difficult to communicate what that culture felt like to anyone outside of the firm.
Our final core values became a calling card, defining how we show up for each other as team members and how we interact with our clients. They play a critical role in hiring, helping us attract the right candidates and giving us a basis for determining whether they’re good fits for our team. When strategic business decisions arise, we fall back on our core values to guide our reasoning.
Leadership off-sites: The relaxed, informal setting of an off-site encourages authentic interactions and strengthens relationships, crucial aspects of being a connected leader. Whether used for strategic discussions, problem-solving, or team building, off-site meetings provide participants with breaks from daily distractions, allowing participants to focus on the tasks at hand with the people who surround them. They help leaders and teams reconnect on a deeper level, enabling team members to show up authentically in a more relaxed and open environment. This supports honest communication, improved problem-solving, and effective collaboration.
Team-building events have been a cornerstone of Atlas’ culture. More recently, however, we’ve been more intentional with them. In early 2024, we started incorporating strategic planning off-sites with the leadership team to build alignment on our long-term vision for the firm and to establish the one-year goals we need to achieve to get us there.
Beyond just the leadership, team-building events give the entire staff a chance to connect and build relationships outside of the office. Our core values are partnership, service, and commitment, so we created an entire day outside of the office living those values through volunteering at a local charity and a friendly team-building competition. It was a way to celebrate our achievements, build stronger relationships, and create lasting memories.
Just smart business
Connected leadership is more than just another management approach. It’s a disposition for leaders, a way of showing up that amplifies employee engagement, team collaboration, and talent retention. In the engineering and architecture space, where growth is highly dependent on head count, connected leadership helps us attract and retain the right talent to scale our firms.
It leads to stronger teams, higher productivity, and more sustainable business growth. When leaders build authentic relationships with their teams and foster a culture of trust and empathy, the entire organization benefits.
