Helping You Engineer Your Future. Earn career security and release the leader within you. Use the self-study aids offered here to develop your "softside" competencies.

Whether we are an employee, independent consultant, or entrepreneur, technical competencies are necessary, but not sufficient, for personal success and fulfillment. This observation applies whether we serve in the private, public, academic, or volunteer sectors. Non-technical or “soft side” competencies enable us to work more effectively with supervisors, supervisees, colleagues, clients, customers, students, the public, other stakeholders, and members of our community, neighborhood, and family. Augmenting technical competencies with “soft-side” knowledge, skills, and attitudes is the key to earning career security, a much more viable life strategy than chasing job security.

Using my knowledge of and experience with non-technical knowledge and skills, I help individuals and organizations engineer their futures.

See the bottom of this page for over 60 of my essays, professional papers, and other documents. These complimentary offerings touch on a wide variety of mostly non-technical (professional practice) topics and are arranged in 9 categories (e.g., Communication, Creativity and Innovation, Leadership and Change, Personal Development) for your convenience.

“Compare yourself to who you were yesterday, not to who someone else is today.”

- Jordan B. Peterson, Psychologist

ARCHIVED WEBINARS AVAILABLE TO LEARN AND EARN CEUs — I have presented 340 webinars, as part of the continuing education program of the American Society of Civil Engineers. ASCE archived 17 of my “road-tested” personal development, leadership, management, communication, and ethics webinars and offers them for purchase at individual, group, ASCE member, and non-ASCE member rates. For topics and prices, click here.

Use these webinars to learn about topics of interest and to earn CEUs. By taking and passing a post-test, users receive CEUs with the number based on the webinar length.

WRITE AN AMAZON REVIEW—If you are familiar with my recently published book, The Communicative Engineer: How to Ask, Listen, Write, Speak, and Use Visuals, consider sharing some of your thoughts on the book’s Amazon website.

Looking for a gift for a recent college graduate who wants to have a successful career? Then consider one of these books: The Communicative Engineer, Engineering’s Public-Protection Predicament, Introduction to Creativity and Innovation for Engineers, Engineering Your Future, and Managing and Leading.

So called nontechnical, “soft side” competencies are often devalued or diminished. They are said to be of little importance or easy. “Soft side” competencies are neither.

Too many professionals fail to advance in their careers – to acquire career security – because they lack “soft side” knowledge, skills, and attitudes. Sometimes they do not realize their liability. We need to know something is “broken” if we are to “fix” it. In other cases, individuals know they have “soft side” deficiencies but fail to see the value in taking corrective action. Either way, the result is the same – failure to realize individual potential, to find and release the leader within.

If you recognize the value of “soft side” competencies you also know that they are not necessarily easy to acquire. Mastering nontechnical competencies requires knowledge of best practices and then thoughtful application of them. This website provides resources to help you practice improved stewardship with your gifts and your personality profile and make better use of who you are and what and who you know.

Complimentary Items

Communication