Context & Clarity for Small Firm Architects

How can emotional intelligence change your life?Jeff Echols and Katharine White MacPhail welcome Enoch Sears, founder, architect, and host of the podcast, "Business of Architecture".• How can emotional intelligence change your life and business?• How can you understand your clients better?• How can you get to know yourself better?Share your experience and advice, and ask your questions.Mentioned in this episode:All AccessAll Access

Practices have changed over the past 12 months. They'll continue to change. The biggest challenge going forward may be bringing 2019 humanity into a 2021 firm that will remain remote or be some hybrid model. How do we bring humanity, the camaraderie, the personsal connections, the ease of face-to-face that we had, into a permanently remote or hybrid workplace?Mentioned in this episode:All AccessAll Access

This isn’t the first time we’ve covered Instagram on Context & Clarity, but it’s been one of our most popular social media topics. It makes sense. The photo and video sharing format plays well with architects wanting to share project photos, sketches, and drone videos. Unlike TikTok, that we talked about last week, I’m guessing you’re probably on Instagram. Lots of architects and other designers are. With regular photo or video posts, reels, stories, live, and IG TV, the posting possibilities are endless, but here’s my question: What are you going to do to stand out? What are you going to do to connect with clients on Instagram. Or is that even your goal?Mentioned in this episode:All AccessAll Access

Since we talk about business of architecture type topics every day on Context & Clarity, talking all week about empathy and emotional intelligence, this week may have come as a surprise. I mean, why wouldn’t we talk about business systems or marketing or something like that? Well, as it turns out, developing emotional intelligence can affect your business, your relationships, and your life, so maybe it's time to commit some focus to emotional intelligence.Mentioned in this episode:All AccessAll Access

How do we understand ourselves better? I’m talking about emotional intelligence. Emotional Intelligence is our capability to recognize our own emotions… and those of others (like in empathy) and our ability to discern between different feelings, and label those feelings, and use that information to guide uor thinking and our behavior, and adjust to situations. It seems to me that emotional intelligence is probably a critical skill for being the best architect you can be… probably even the best partner or best human being you can be.Mentioned in this episode:All AccessAll Access

We all move through phases as we experience crisis. It starts with denial, then we start to rationalize somehow, you may dip into depression, before you finally get to acceptance, and hopefully, growth. But this global pandemic and economic, political, and social turmoil has been going on for a year. You don’t necessarily go through those phases on a linear path. You may take two steps forward and one step back. So how are you doing? Mentioned in this episode:All AccessAll Access

How do we build a culture of better work?Jeff Echols and Katharine White MacPhail welcome Max Yoder, Co-Founder and CEO of Lessonly, and author of "Do Better Work."• What roles do communication, understanding, and accountability play in creating a culture of good work?• Why is perfectionism a threat?• How should we respond to volatility?Share your experience and advice, and ask your questions.Mentioned in this episode:All AccessAll Access

What we’re really talking about is Empathy. Empathy is the capacity to understand or feel what another person, your client, maybe, what they’re experiencing from their point of view. It’s our ability to put ourselves in their shoes. How do you expect to convince someone of the value of what you do, if you don’t put yourself in their shoes? How do you change someone’s life through your work, if you don’t feel what they feel? Feel what they need to accomplish. After all, as an architect, your one job is to change your client’s life. But, how do you develop empathy? Can you develop empathy?Mentioned in this episode:All AccessAll Access

There’s A LOT more going on on TikTok than teenage girls dancing. It’s a social media platform that’s come a long way since it’s beginnings as a lip-syncing platform called music.ly. Yes, there are some architects on TikTok. Not that many, but the one’s that are there that I know about are doing some incredible work. They’re telling stories about projects. They’re showing people how to sketch. They’re educating people on styles and lingo that’s previously been reserved for architects-only.Mentioned in this episode:All AccessAll Access

How can leaders foster workplace culture that produces better work? There's something at the intersection of understanding, communication, and accountability that seems to be the key to us doing better work and being better in our work and in our life. What if you could build a culture in your firm, not only that everyone loved, but that encouraged everyone to do better work?Mentioned in this episode:All AccessAll Access