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dership SKILLS ENGINEERS BRING TO LEADERSHIP ROLES Dominant Skills Clear Strengths

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Potential Blind Spots

Being a detailed analyst and problem solver Being the “smartest engineer in the room” who is focused on being right A skeptic who views most new ideas as being wrong until proven right Bringing a focused and in-depth approach to problems and situations – a “vertical” thinker Avoiding mistakes and minimizing risk in the pursuit of perfection

Being a strategist and decision maker Being the best communicator in the room who is focused on getting the “smartest solution” An optimist, who views new ideas as the catalyst for future growth and opportunity Bringing a broad and diverse perspective to business situations – a “horizontal” thinker Learning from mistakes and taking calculated risks in the pursuit of business growth Finding the best business solution that balances technical, client, and financial requirements Taking personal pride in creating the best environment for innovation and business results

Capacity for quickly processing information and coming to valid conclusions; handling complexity Asking the hard questions; skepticism about new ideas; willingness to challenge others Like working with complex problems and data; focus on important details; concentrate on a problems long periods of time Drive for innovative solutions to difficult problems/challenges; always looking for better ways to do things; thinking “out of the box” Focusing on “what can go wrong;” building in important safety factors; ensuring all risks are mitigated before taking action; avoiding disasters that may harm people Emphasis on defining repeatable processes for getting things done; laying out methodical plans for getting things done; organized Staying focused on the problem; keeping personal emotions out of business decisions; ability to handle stressful situations well

Need to be right; tendency to ignore the ideas of others; intellectual arrogance and aloofness with others All new ideas are wrong until proven right; challenging or questioning everything; hyper-critical with others Over-reliance on data to make decisions; preoccupation with details; under-communicate their thought process to others by a factor of 10 Tendency to over-engineer solutions; reluctance to make imperfect decisions; aversion to 80% solutions that can solve problems quickly Unwillingness to take action on risky decisions; tendency to delay tough decisions without all the data; building too much redundancy into solutions with minimal benefit Preoccupation with “process” to the exclusion of results; difficulty with ambiguous situations; linear thinking in situations calling for intuition Lack of awareness of, or insensitivity to, the emotions of others; conflict avoidance; unwillingness to provide positive feedback to others

Intelligence

Critical Thinking

Analytical Discipline

Creating the best technical solutions to a specific problem

Problem Solving

Taking personal pride in one’s own technical and professional prowess

TAKE THE LEADERSHIP STEP. Given the challenges facing engineer- ing professionals in making the transition to leadership, what are the key skills and capabilities required for aspiring execu- tive leaders to be successful in today’s world? Besides my own experience in working with some of the best engineering firms (and leaders) in the business, the answer may also lie in the work being done by professional organizations and lead- ing schools of engineering. The common elements of these works is represented by my Leadership STEP framework, outlined below. This framework describes six key leadership roles that engineering profession- als and managers must learn in order to be effective in taking on a senior leadership role. 1)Strategic Thinker. Build on their skills in analysis, problem solving, and tactical planning to redirect their thinking to broad- spectrum industry knowledge and experience. Coach them in becoming comfortable with ambiguity, connecting the dots between seemingly unrelated information, and recognizing win- dows of opportunity for action. This requires new skills in con- ceptual/lateral thinking, risk taking, and the ability to transfer learning from one situation to another. 2)Business Architect. Build on their skills in project management and delivery to explore innovative ways to deliver the firm’s products and services to new clients, simplify and accelerate the delivery of products/services, and challenge conventional ways of getting the work done. Provide opportunities for these people to lead new business ventures with new clients and market areas. This requires an understanding of organizational design, entrepreneurship, and talent management focused on how to

Risk Aversion

Logical Thinking

Objectivity

requires more than simply assigning people to larger projects and bigger teams as they progress in their careers. As Marshall Goldsmith stated in his book, What Got You Here Won’t Get You There : “being an effective leader requires as much ‘unlearning’ of old skills and habits as it does building on the strengths that you already possess!” The key transition challenges for emerging science, technol- ogy, and engineering leaders are:

See TIM ATHEY, page 8

MBER 28, 2015, ISSUE 1121

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