Leadership and Soft Skills for Architects, with Carlo Magni

A CPD lesson with Carlo Magni, Associate Director at EPR Architects. Approx. 57 minutes. Watch the video below or listen to the audio.

Who this is for

Architects, engineers and designers stepping into a first leadership role, anyone managing a team or project alongside technical delivery, and introverts who want to lead with confidence without pretending to be someone else.

Learning outcomes

By the end of this lesson you will be able to:

1. Distinguish hard skills from soft skills, and explain why soft skills change how you work rather than simply adding to what you know.
2. Recognise the three levels of work (technical, supervisory and strategic) and what each one demands.
3. Adapt your management approach to the individuals in your team rather than applying one style to everyone.
4. Protect time for managing and delegating, instead of treating leadership as an add-on to your own workload.
5. Explain why introverts can make highly effective leaders, and how to play to that strength.
6. Prepare and deliver a clear, story-led presentation, even when public speaking sits outside your comfort zone.

1. From Italy to London: the second language of work

Carlo trained as an engineer and then an architect in Italy, built around eight years of experience, and moved to London before Brexit. He prepared by teaching himself English through podcasts and upgrading his Revit skills, then approached roughly 50 practices in person and secured several offers. His takeaway: technical skill gets you through the door, but communication is a second language of work that you keep learning long after the job offer.

2. Hard skills and soft skills are not the same kind of thing

Hard skills, such as Revit or Navisworks, are abilities you either have or you do not; you stack them up over time without changing who you are. Soft skills, such as communication, leadership and handling difficult conversations, are different: learning them asks you to stretch beyond your comfort zone and sometimes to change beliefs and habits. That is precisely why they are harder to build and more valuable to invest in.

3. Three levels of work, and why everyone starts at the bottom

Carlo frames careers as three types of job: technical (doing the work), supervisory (managing the people who do the work) and strategic (analytical thinking and decision-making). Most people begin in technical roles and progress upward, but each step rewards a different mix of skills. Naming the level you are operating at helps you see which skills to develop next.

4. People are different: the first rule of managing

The single most reliable finding in the research, Carlo argues, is that people are different. There is no universal style that works for everyone, so the job is to understand yourself first (including how you are perceived), then understand each team member's strengths and motivations, and adapt. A light structure and simple rules keep the team manageable without forcing everyone into one mould.

5. Make time to lead, then delegate

A common and underrated error is treating team management as something to squeeze around your own delivery. Managing people takes time, so leaders need to agree that time with their own bosses rather than quietly neglecting the team. Delegation is the release valve: leverage the team's strengths instead of trying to do everything yourself. A practical tip from Carlo is to prepare for the week on Friday afternoon rather than Sunday night.

6. Not everyone needs to be a leader

Progression in architecture often assumes the only route up is into management, but staying in a technical role for a whole career is a legitimate and valuable choice. Carlo recalls a specialist who was happy mastering a single building type for years. The coaching principle: ask people what they actually want, and do not try to change someone who has no wish to change.

7. Effective versus successful managers

Carlo points to the long-running "Real Managers" study, which followed hundreds of managers and found two distinct groups. Successful managers, who were promoted fastest, spent most of their time networking and communicating upward. Effective managers, who actually ran the core of the business, spent most of their time with their teams solving problems. The two groups overlapped by less than ten per cent, and the difference came down to how they spent their time.

8. Why introverts can be the stronger leaders

Being extroverted is the biggest single factor in being perceived as leader-like, so extroverts are often picked for leadership more readily. Once in post, however, introverts can have an edge: to get there they have already practised stretching beyond their natural style, and they tend to listen more, understand their people better and avoid over-dramatising problems. Carlo's framing is that the quiet ones have done the harder work to arrive, and it shows in their effectiveness.

9. Public speaking and storytelling as learnable skills

Public speaking is one of the most stressful tasks for almost everyone, introvert or extrovert. Carlo treats it as a craft built through preparation, feedback and repetition, and recommends Toastmasters as a free, feedback-driven way to practise. For architects, storytelling matters as much as the drawings: a strong idea that is poorly communicated is worthless, and a clear narrative lets an audience relate to what you are presenting.

10. Hard skills open the door, soft skills win the job

From a recruitment angle, hard skills such as Revit are often the filter that gets a CV into the room; soft skills are what convince an employer you can solve their problem once you are there. The advice runs both ways: keep your technical skills current enough to stay credible and competent, and keep investing in communication, judgement and decision-making throughout your career.

Key terms

• Hard skills: technical, teachable abilities such as Revit or Navisworks that you either have or do not, and can stack over time.
• Soft skills: interpersonal abilities such as communication, leadership and handling difficult conversations, which require changing how you work.
• Effective vs successful managers: from the "Real Managers" study, effective managers run the core of the business with their teams, while successful managers rise fastest through upward networking.
• Emergent leader: someone perceived as leader-like, a perception strongly linked to extroversion and separate from whether they prove effective.
• Navisworks: design-review software that lets teams navigate combined 3D models from many consultants quickly to spot issues and clashes.

Reflective prompts for your CPD record

• Which level are you mostly working at right now (technical, supervisory or strategic), and which soft skill would move you toward the next?
• Where are you applying one management style to a team of different people, and what would adapting to each individual look like?
• What is one situation outside your communication comfort zone that you could prepare for and practise, rather than avoid?

About the guest

Carlo Magni is an Associate Director at EPR Architects in London and a coach who helps first-time managers and introverts lead with confidence. Episode recorded 2025. Explore the EPR Architects practice page and Carlo's profile on the Architecture Social directory.