Course Description
Leadership is a strong factor in determining the longevity of architectural firms. Even those entrepreneurs with the strongest design skills, will find that leading others is a whole new discipline. Like any other role, those who invest time in learning from the experience of those who have gone before, will be most likely to excel in those responsibilities.
Past history gives us pretty clear indications of what should be done to successfully lead members of a firm, including architectural firms.
And with about a thousand architectural firms being established each year, it might be a good idea to look at how they can also succeed in business.
Course Objectives
Upon successful completion of this module, the student will be able to:
- Identify basic time tested characteristics of successful leaders
- Determine leadership responsibilities in an architectural firm
- Explain six basic approaches to leadership in an architectural firm
- Examine team structures used to move architectural projects through a firm
- Discuss considerations for incorporating new technology in design firms
- Evaluate useful principles to consider when staffing an architectural firm
Instructor Bio
Paul Spite, BS, BA
AFD Consulting, Founder and Principal
Paul is a Registered Architect with over forty years of experience, a course developer and has been a teacher in multiple venues in the past. He is also a writer in many venues, having developed many studies, a few published articles, numerous short stories, multiple screenplays, two non-fiction manuals for church design and one novel. More to the focus of this endeavor, Paul has also created presentations for twenty-six lunch and learn presentations for building material manufacturers, webinars covering the subjects of Aging-in-Place and Architectural Acoustics and eleven distance learning courses for architects, engineers and contractors. As he nears retirement from managing his small architectural practice, Paul hopes to focus even more of his energy on teaching and on course development.