Date: Wednesday, March 25, 2026 at 12:00 PM
Location: MS Teams Webinar - a link will be provided the day prior to the program
Cost: PENC Members: Free | Non-Members: $25
PDH: 1

The Overlooked Advantage: Why Time to Think Separates Great Leaders from Good Ones

When was the last time you stopped to think?  To ideate?  To strategize?  To create a vision of the future for your firm, your team, or even you?

In today’s deadline-driven environment, productivity is often equated with constant activity and always being “on.” Yet leaders who consistently demonstrate strong professional judgment, effective decision-making, and sustained innovation share an overlooked advantage: they intentionally make time to think. When cognitive capacity is consumed by schedules, notifications, and reactive problem-solving, the ability to step back, assess risk, and lead strategically erodes.

This session reframes time to think not as a luxury or wellness concept, but as a critical professional skill that separates good leaders from great ones—and one that can be intentionally developed at any career stage. Participants will explore practical strategies for creating and protecting mental space, enabling clearer thinking, better decisions, reduced burnout, and more effective leadership for their teams, firms, and careers.

Learning Outcomes
After attending this session, participants will be able to:

• Explain how cognitive overload and constant urgency degrade professional judgment, leadership effectiveness, and decision quality in engineering practice.
  
• Apply a practical framework to intentionally create and protect time to think amid deadlines, distractions, and competing priorities.
  
• Use prioritization and time-allocation tools—including time blocking and the Eisenhower Matrix—to shift focus from reactive tasks to strategic, high-value work.
  
• Distinguish between tasks that should be done personally versus delegated, and apply delegation strategies to increase leadership capacity and organizational impact.
  
• Implement boundary-setting techniques that preserve mental bandwidth, reduce burnout risk, and support sustained performance over the course of an engineering career.
  

Bio of Speaker: Jeff Roman, PE, is a Principal and Director of Engineering at Progressive Companies, where he leads, grows, and mentors engineers and engineering leaders. He is responsible for engineering operations, leadership development, business development, and reputation-building efforts. Jeff is a strong advocate for integrated, collaborative design teams and for building trusted partnerships across disciplines in service of purposeful engineering outcomes.

Jeff has been recognized as Engineer of the Year in both North Carolina and Florida for his sustained commitment to STEM outreach. He has been named Top 40 Under Forty by multiple publications and has presented at national and regional conferences for NSPE, PSMJ Thrive, and PENC. His work has been published in PE Magazine and Fortune.

Previously, Jeff owned and operated two small businesses. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from Lawrence Technological University and an Executive MBA from the University of Florida.

Jeff and his wife live in Charlotte with their two sons. He is an active leader in Scouting USA and has served on numerous boards and committees supporting education and community organizations.