Intentional Leadership Takes Center Stage at the ACEC Women’s Leadership Forum
Intentional.
It was the word repeated more than any other by both presenters and attendees at ACEC’s second annual Women’s Leadership Forum, held this week in St. Louis. More than 80 women (and a few men, including ACEC Chair John Rathke and Workforce Committee Vice Chair Orhan Ulger) gathered for the first of a two-day long session to discuss how women can expand their influence and impact within their firms and within the engineering industry as a whole.
Rathke set the table and the tone for the day’s discussion, calling the Forum a “laboratory of support”—a place to “share what works, and a place to share without shame what hasn’t.” And the women in the room took up the challenge, discussing topics like work-life balance, mentorship, and generational disconnect. ACEC Tennessee Executive Director Kasey Anderson moderated the first panel with three emerging leaders—a trio of accomplished, talented women who have risen through the ranks of their own firms on trails blazed by those before them, and who are themselves paving similar paths for others.
And that word: “intentional.” They kept coming back to it. How supportive workplace cultures don’t just happen—they’re created, intentionally, by senior leaders who recognize the importance of women’s voices around the table. “So many people went out of their way to help me,” said SCI Engineering Vice President Shawnna Erter. Now in leadership roles themselves, her fellow panelists agreed that they are now obligated to pay that generosity forward. Whether it’s hybrid office schedules that allow working moms to be just as present at home as they are at work, or something relatively small but still meaningful like ditching “suit culture” (and the attendant higher pricing for women’s dry cleaning), panelist Alison Graves of Civil Design Inc., put it succinctly: “I think work can be different.”
And it IS different…now. In a room full of professionals ranging in age from just-graduated to near-retirement, everyone agreed that the world of work has improved immeasurably from the bad old days. It really had no choice but to change. As workforce shortages continue to loom large for our industry, it’s never been more important to offer a compelling value proposition—to as many as we can, and as wide as we can.
That was the focus of the second panel: a discussion of the diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging (DEI&B) landscape in light of the Trump executive orders banning these programs. Katharine Mottley, ACEC Vice President of Tax and Workforce Policy, opened the panel by informing attendees that their presence at a Women’s Leadership Forum did not run afoul of any federal regulations. With the DEI&B waters now considerably muddier than they once were, how can firms that are fighting for scarce talent ensure their net is cast as widely as possible? The three panelists—Lalitha Benjaram with Mead & Hunt, SSR’s Jessica Nyce, and management consultant Changa Storrusten—agreed that the new policies have upped the ante, but they also agreed that there remains great opportunity to build strong, diverse workplaces by homing in on what supports the business. It’s the “Field of Dreams” school of recruitment: if you build it, they will come.
The day closed with a lively and fast-paced workshop on change management led by KCI’s Melissa Wilcox. Wilcox began her presentation by asking the group to raise their hands if they liked change—then scoffed in disbelief at the dozen or so attendees who said they did. “Liars!” she joked, laughing. “The only person who truly likes change is a wet baby.”
But change is inevitable, Wilcox said, and how you weather it depends on how you respond to it. Change is disruptive. It means leaving something behind, and it’s a process similar to the stages of grief: a journey from denial to acceptance that inevitably begins with someone asking, “What’s wrong with how we’ve always done it?”
The discussion then turned to assertive communication. Wilcox walked attendees through her process of having difficult conversations, sharing examples from her own experiences in human resources. Every such discussion begins with a question: “How do you think things are going?” It’s a question that leaves no room for ambiguity—and invites the employee to suggest possible remedies. Wilcox referenced a famous example of a difficult conversation: the scene from “Top Gun” in which Maverick and Goose are called on the carpet for “buzzing the tower.” The scene plays out as a step-by-step tutorial: Prepare. Engage. Explore. Address the problem. Close.
The takeaway from Wilcox’s presentation is that every interaction invites perception, and perception spurs reaction. She closed by showing a picture of a baby and a cat gazing with great interest at a fish in a bowl. One sees a pet. The other—lunch.
We are the sum of our perspectives.
