FMI's founder once said: "You don't build a business, you build people, and then people build the business." Julie Witecki has spent her career helping leaders in the built environment actually live that out — and in this conversation with Bryce, she gets specific about where most firms fall short.

Julie advises executives and ownership teams across construction and AEC on leadership development, talent strategy, people systems, and organizational growth. She brings a perspective shaped by years inside some of the industry's most complex firms, and she's not here to give comfortable answers. This episode covers what firms are still getting wrong about why people leave, how leadership behavior drives retention more than compensation ever will, and what the next generation of leaders in the built environment actually needs to look like.

This episode is for firm owners, principals, and anyone in AEC who has ever said "people are our greatest asset" and then wondered why the good ones keep leaving.

About Julie Witecki: Julie Witecki is a consultant and advisor at FMI, one of the most trusted management consulting and investment banking firms serving the built environment. She works with leaders across construction, architecture, and engineering on leadership development, people strategy, talent, and organizational growth. Julie is a recognized voice on leadership, culture, and women in the AEC industry.

• Website: www.fmicorp.com

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/juliewitecki/

What We Cover:

• Introduction and Julie's career arc advising leaders across the built environment

• What "trusted advisor" actually means at FMI and how those relationships are built

• How the definition of leadership success has shifted over the last decade in AEC

• Doc Fails' founding philosophy — "you build people, and people build the business" — and what that looks like inside firms today

• Where leaders struggle most when developing people, especially as firms scale

• What separates firms that say people are a priority from those that actually operate that way

• How strong leaders balance accountability with empathy in high-pressure environments

• What firms are still getting wrong about why people leave

• How employee expectations have shifted post-pandemic and who is adapting well

• Why leadership behavior drives retention more than compensation, flexibility, or benefits

• The biggest strategic blind spots holding firms back right now

• Hard conversations leaders are avoiding that they need to be having

• What progress for women in construction looks like — and where the work is unfinished

• How organizations can support women leaders without performative DEI

• What qualities will define the most effective leaders in AEC over the next decade

• Julie's one piece of advice for a principal or executive listening today

• How Julie defines success at this stage of her own career

Key Takeaways:

• Leadership behavior is the number one driver of retention — more than comp, flexibility, or benefits. Firms that don't understand this will keep losing people and blaming the market.

• There is a difference between saying people are your priority and building systems that prove it. Most firms are still operating on the former.

• The hard conversations leaders are avoiding — about performance, direction, and accountability — are exactly the ones their teams are desperate to have.

• Supporting women in leadership isn't a DEI initiative. It's a business decision. The firms that treat it as the latter are the ones making actual progress.

• The next generation of AEC leaders will need to hold technical credibility and people leadership simultaneously. Firms that only develop one are building a gap.