You’re an engineering manager who wants to make a big impact. What skills do you need to have?

Here are some key skills that an engineering manager may need: ? Leadership: to be able to inspire and motivate the team towards a common goal. ? Communication Skills: essential for conveying ideas clearly, listening to the team, and fostering collaboration. ? Technical expertise: having a solid understanding of the technology being used may help ? Problem-solving: quick thinking, creative solutions. ? Strategic thinking: seeing the big picture, setting goals, and formulate strategies to achieve them. ? Empathy: to build strong relationships and create a positive work environment for the team. ? Decision-making: to be able to weigh options and assess risks.

Stay Updated: Keep your technical skills sharp and up-to-date with the latest technologies, methodologies, and best practices in your field. Regularly engage with technical content, attend workshops, and contribute to or lead technical discussions within your organization. Understand the Big Picture: It’s crucial to understand how your projects fit within the broader technological landscape and the company's objectives. This enables you to make informed decisions and drive initiatives that align with corporate strategies.

Technology is no longer an "IT department", technology runs todays businesses. Keep up and experiment with new technologies that help solve business and customer problems more effectively and efficiently at scale. Look for opportunities where technology can help innovate and find novel ways to stay competitive in the market. To do this grow the engineering teams business domain knowledge such that technology and architecture modernisation objectives aligns with business outcomes. One big mistake is to invest in technology without a clear business or customer problem. Look externally how other organisations are solving existing problems, this often means adopting a growth mindset, taking risks and experimenting with new technologies.

Navigating the complexities of engineering management demands a multifaceted approach. Skillful problem-solving and decision-making, coupled with strategic thinking, are essential in confronting challenges and uncertainties. Balancing competing priorities, such as speed versus quality and short-term versus long-term outcomes, requires a nuanced understanding of project dynamics and stakeholder needs. By leveraging logical reasoning, creativity, and data analysis, engineering managers can navigate ambiguity effectively, optimize processes, and drive value creation for customers and stakeholders alike.

Strategic Thinking: Understand the business side of technology. This means looking beyond the immediate technical challenges to see how technology drives the business forward, identifying new opportunities for innovation, and aligning your team's efforts with the company's strategic goals. Networking and Relationship Building: Cultivate strong relationships within and outside your organization. Networking can provide insights into industry trends, open up new opportunities for collaboration, and offer support during challenging times.

In my view, the most significant impact arises when the features you develop directly enhance customer experiences, streamlining their processes or enriching their lives. This direct contribution not only elevates the value of our work but also cements our role in driving meaningful change.