Becoming an Engineering Leader

Engineering is a highly technical profession where engineers are often described as adept problem solvers, creative innovators, or “good at math, and stuff”. While these positive traits somewhat broadly portray the profession, they also highlight the currency of technical proficiency and the undervaluation of “soft skills” such as leadership. I will not digress into a rant of calling important skills, such as communication, emotional intelligence, work ethic, time management, and teamwork, “soft”; rather, this is a call to action to invest in yourself by developing and practicing leadership skills and traits early in your engineering career.

As a pragmatic engineer in training, I approach “leadership development” as a series of small steps that I can take towards self-improvement and professional development. At its core, leadership development is a practice of self-examination, assessment, and adjustment to become a better person and engineer. Like any practice, the process of continuous improvement becomes a habit when you engage in it often enough. The question is: where do you start?

Follow the Leader!
Start your personal development journey by picturing leaders you already admire. These can range from famous engineers (e.g. Julie Payette, Elon Musk, etc.) to leaders at your workplace. Whether they are great leaders or poor leaders, lessons can be learned from their example. Next, list their qualities. I believe great leaders (engineering or not), possess at minimum:

• Credibility
• Communication (speaking clearly and listening to hear, not to respond)
• Decisiveness
• Character and ethics
• Passion and desire to contribute to something greater than themselves

Mirroring and Skill Development
Some of these qualities can be developed, while others must come from within. For instance, character cannot be coached but ethics can. So what does it take to develop these qualities?

1. Practice frequent and honest self-reflection. It may be helpful to schedule days/months/times where you do this to keep yourself on track. For instance, I set goals for myself every month and use this time to reflect on what went well in the last month and what could be improved. Another good time to practice self-reflection is during the lead-up to an annual performance review (although I wholly believe that it’s valuable to reflect more often than once a year).
2. Identify which leadership traits you think you have. This goes back to picturing leaders you admire. What are their traits? And how can you get closer to walking their walk and talking their talk?
3. Ask a peer or project manager to identify strengths and weaknesses.  This exercise can affirm or test your self-perceptions and will to help you see your “gaps”, areas that you can work on improving.
4. Make a plan to consciously address your gaps. Think of some ways to challenge yourself in areas where your skill development has room to grow. Pick one area to improve upon and determine how to measure your progress. Don’t forget to ask for feedback from others to give perspective on how you are doing.
5. Also, make a plan to enhance your strengths.  Great leaders are fully aware of their weaknesses, but focus their improvement efforts on bettering what they are already excel at.  The return on effort investment is often far greater with this approach.

All together now!
Putting your plan in action can be as simple as asking for feedback at work on your communication style or asking for an opportunity to improve your leadership skills. For example, sign up to present on a project to improve upon your communication or organize an event to boost your organizational abilities. Volunteering is another great way to start putting your skills into practice if you haven’t been able to connect with the right opportunity at work.
Remember, leaders didn’t walk into their roles at the top. They started by building credibility, earning trust, and developing skills while finding their place in a community. So go for it: find your community and make a difference. After all, that’s exactly what a leader does.

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About the Author

Elaine Samuel is the co-founder of EngGirlProblems, a blog dedicated to the open discussion of the challenges faced by women in engineering. She is an environmental engineer in training at GM BluePlan Engineering in the GTA. Elaine earned a Bachelors of Engineering Science in Environmental Engineering and specialization in International Development, and a Masters of Engineering Science in Environmental Engineering, both from Western University in London, Canada.