New Leadership - 2017 Promotions

Congratulations to our newest Associates, Senior Associates, Associate Principals and Principals! One of Page's Senior Principals, Bob Burke, is taking this opportunity to share a few thoughts about career development. Bob started his own career at Page four years after graduation and soon began to assume responsibility as lead engineer on hundreds of projects throughout the U.S. and overseas. Today, he is the managing principal of one of Page's six offices with firmwide responsibility for the Engineering service. Read on to see what Bob has to say.

Cultivating an Entrepreneurial Spirit at Page

At Page, we encourage all employees to be entrepreneurs. I’ve spent virtually my entire career here and the opportunities I was afforded depended on the fact that there wasn’t a distinct color-by-numbers career path; there was no step one, step two, step three. I think that approach is very limiting, so my preference as a leader in this firm is to try to take advantage of peoples’ natural talents and their particular interests to encourage them to grow. 

My fellow Senior Principals and I seek to create that kind of environment rather than box people into potentially narrowly defined positions. I like to think that anyone can branch out from their role and grow; anyone currently working in the firm could grow into my role, for example. It is important to us to provide the opportunities for the talent that comes in our door to rise to the best of its ability. That is what I mean when I say we embrace an entrepreneurial spirit at Page.

When we look across the firm to identify the emerging or existing leaders, for us, communication skills are right the top of the qualities that stand out across our teams. An individual’s ability to communicate really determines his or her success in leadership. Communication with clients, communication with the team you are working with, communication with the team you are managing is all so important to being successful.

But my main advice to all our colleagues at Page as they plan for and develop into their careers is: Don’t fight your strengths.

Even if you want to focus on design, you may find out five to ten years into your career that you are good at design, but you actually have more valuable aptitudes for other things such as a building technology or managing large teams and executing complex projects. If you don’t cultivate your natural strengths, you might miss a huge opportunity. I have watched people flourish when they identify their strengths and then purposefully seek opportunities to grow on a path that leverages those abilities.

Bob Burke, Senior Principal, Page Austin