Managing Nonproductive Principals

All principals in consulting engineering firms (indeed, all employees) need clear roles and expectations, for themselves and for the success of their firms. On those occasions when principals are not as productive as necessary, they can and should be managed in humane, effective, and fair ways. When they are ignored, as they often are, it hurts the firm and all its members. This paper presents scenarios where nonproductive principals were well managed and a number of approaches that may be helpful in other situations.