Developing the communication and leadership skills that help technical professionals lead teams and work with clients.
One day, an engineer is solving complex design problems and coordinating various building systems. The next, that same person is expected to lead meetings, delegate work, give difficult feedback, reassure clients, and help other people grow. The promotion may be well deserved. The preparation is often incomplete.
That transition is familiar across architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) firms. Technical education gives professionals a foundation for designing buildings and systems. As their responsibilities expand, they also need practice in communication, self-awareness, and leadership.
An ASCE poll illustrates the challenge. Of three professional “power skills” (communication, leadership, and teamwork) more than half of respondents identified communication as the most difficult. Approximately one-third selected leadership as the skill they felt least comfortable with. ASCE also reported that communication was the most sought-after of these skills in hiring. The poll offers a useful signal from civil engineering, rather than a measure of the entire AEC industry.
At Engenium Group, recognizing those development gaps and needs led us to add a dedicated internal coach to our team. Our experience has reinforced a practical lesson: helping people become effective leaders requires consistent support in tandem with technical mentorship.
Where Technical Mentorship Needs Support
Our early approach to employee development was informal and largely technical. Experienced engineers mentored colleagues through project work, drawing reviews, site visits, and client interactions. That model remains essential to developing engineering judgment and skills.
But technical leaders were also being asked to guide people through conflict, career decisions, confidence, delegation, and difficult conversations. They cared deeply about their teams, yet did not always have specialized training, tools, or time for that work.
As the firm grew, development conversations competed with client needs, quality reviews, staffing, and deadlines. The support an employee received could depend on a leader’s availability and natural coaching ability. We needed a more consistent way to help people develop the skills their changing roles required.
What Professional Coaching Adds
A professional coach uses questions, reflection, goals, and accountability to help someone recognize patterns, consider options, and take ownership of change. That work complements technical mentorship and management. It may mean preparing for a difficult conversation, examining a habit of taking delegated work back, or understanding how a communication style affects colleagues. Coaching serves a different purpose from therapy.
Research supports its potential. A 2023 meta-analysis found a medium positive effect of workplace coaching across the outcomes studied, including skills and affective outcomes such as attitudes and motivation. The authors also emphasized unanswered questions about which approaches work best and why. That evidence supports coaching as a development tool; it does not establish a particular financial return or project outcome for an AEC firm.
Related research suggests that emotional capabilities can develop through practice. A randomized study involving 54 senior managers found improvements in several emotional-intelligence measures among those who received structured training, with some gains maintained or strengthened after one year. This was training, rather than coaching, and took place at one company. Its relevance is narrower but useful: leadership capabilities can be developed rather than treated as fixed traits.
Making Development Part of the Workweek
Engenium Group created a full-time internal coaching role in 2025, when Jackie Iloh, PCC, SHRM-CP, PHR, our Career Development Coach, joined the team. Our approach to professional development connects discipline-specific technical mentorship, individualized career coaching, and company-wide workshops that give employees shared tools and language.
As a baseline, employees are encouraged to meet with Jackie every other week, with flexibility based on career stage, workload, and current needs. Most coaching sessions are employee-driven. Someone may choose to prepare for a client presentation, work through a challenging project interaction, or build confidence in giving feedback.
Access at every career stage is significant. In the ICF and Human Capital Institute’s 2023 study, which gathered responses from 470 HR, learning and development, and talent management professionals, only 27% of organizations made professional coaching accessible to all employees. That finding describes the surveyed organizations, not AEC firms specifically.
A separate meta-analysis of 17 studies found stronger effects for internal coaches than external coaches. That result does not establish that an internal model is best for every firm. Familiarity with the organization, continuity, and ease of access are potential advantages of our approach, rather than proven explanations for the research finding.
Small Changes in Everyday Interactions
Some of the changes we have observed are simple. One example is how people recognize each other’s work. In a busy office, it is easy to assume colleagues know we appreciate them. Usually, they cannot read our minds.
We have seen more people name a specific contribution: a thoughtful client response, care in coordinating a difficult detail, or support that helped a teammate meet a deadline. Specific recognition tells someone what mattered and why. These are observations from our workplace, rather than measured outcomes attributable to coaching alone.
Other conversations require more effort. Setting expectations, addressing conflict, and holding someone accountable can be uncomfortable. Coaching gives employees a place to prepare and reflect. For technical professionals accustomed to solving problems themselves, learning to ask questions that help a colleague develop an answer can be an important shift.
Protecting Trust in an Internal Program
An internal coaching program depends on trust. Employees need to understand what remains private and the ethical and legal limits to confidentiality. Leadership must respect those boundaries, including when knowing more would be convenient.
Coaching should not become a way for leadership to investigate employees’ feelings or gather details about individuals. Its purpose is employee growth. When a broader organizational theme emerges, such as confusion about a policy, a coach may recommend a company-wide clarification without identifying the people or private conversations behind it.
That distinction matters, especially in a small firm where details can make a person recognizable. Employees need room for honest reflection, and leaders need to address organizational issues without using private sessions as a source of individual reporting.
Why this Matters to Project Teams
Professional services at our firm depend on relationships among employees, architects, owners, and contractors. Listening carefully, explaining a concern clearly, and navigating disagreement all affect how those relationships work. Coaching gives professionals a structured place to practice those capabilities.
“Some companies ask what happens if they invest in developing their people and those people leave. I think about what happens if we do not invest in them and they stay.” — Brandon Harwick, President, Engenium Group
Retention is part of the conversation, but compensation, workload, leadership, opportunity, and personal circumstances also influence whether someone stays. We cannot isolate coaching as the cause of a particular business result. The more credible case is that it supports the capabilities through which we deliver our services.
For project collaborators, the intended benefits are practical: clearer conversations about difficult issues, more effective delegation, and teams better prepared to work through disagreement. Those are reasons to invest in development and behaviors to look for over time, rather than promises of a guaranteed return.
Choosing a Practical Starting Point
A full-time internal coach will not be the right starting point for every firm. An outside coach, a fractional arrangement, or a focused pilot may be more practical. Start by asking where development needs recur and whether employees have consistent support to address them.
Technical leaders remain essential to developing engineering judgment. Giving employees access to additional expertise allows those leaders to share responsibility for development rather than carry every part of it themselves.
For Engenium Group, coaching makes that investment part of the workweek. It gives people time to practice the communication and leadership skills their roles demand, with support that continues beyond a promotion or a workshop. That is how we aim to help technically strong professionals become more effective colleagues, project leaders, and client partners.
