Edition #6: How engineers turn into leaders
Nodirkhon Y.
CEO & Founder of PROFIBOOK ?? Book, manage and provide local and field services
Hi, a wonderful creature! You are reading the sixth monthly edition of my newsletter. These newsletters are in the format of thought of the time + digest of articles about leadership in engineering teams and interviews with experienced engineers and leaders. Happy reading, watching, and listening ??!
This time I will talk about what it takes to make a leader out of an engineer. I do not pretend to be objective. What I write here are my observations and conclusions.
Why engineers are usually bad at soft skills
I remember the day in the university it was announced that the neighbouring business faculty was to be moved to a new building in a different location in the city. It was one of the saddest days as we, engineering students, lost the opportunity to mingle with girls from that faculty. It is not that we could easily mingle with them, but at least there was a better chance when they were in the same building.
Why girls? Because 99% of our engineering faculty were boys. There was no such excitement in meeting other boys and, God save, from business faculty. When we spoke to guys from business faculty we felt they were superficial and talking nonsense or common sense. But that was different with girls, we were much more forgiving with them.
On the other hand, we were often viewed as weirdos and nerds in the eyes of most of the girls as our communications skills sucked. That seemed to be a never-ending loop. We did have a few girls in our faculty. But there was not much excitement as they were as nerdy as we were and if they were not, then they would quickly drop out.
And who were our lecturers and professors? Same weirdos.
Lack of experience communicating with the opposite sex is the fundamental reason why engineers suck in people skills and overall communication. Lucky were those who had sisters at least.
This leads to engineers being too honest, direct on the border of being rude, and impatient (because technology is faster and more orderly than humans).
My experience of being a nerd
Girl, was I a nerd? Maybe less than most of the faculty, but surely I was. So, what did it look like? Not talking for several days to anyone. Just sitting with books or over the computer or in the lab above the circuit breadboard. Soldering and smoking from solder gun (not healthy at all). Not sleeping nights, studying. Feeling stressed and, eventually, procrastinating heavily, and then sleeping even less. Thinking deeper and deeper, and eventually disconnecting from this world.
And then, when you eventually meet someone, you start talking non-stop without bothering if the person understands you. So even if not studying or working, your head is full of thoughts even when you are walking. No time and energy for chit-chat.
Engineering fields can be very tough and make you feel lonely at times.
Should there be more girls in the engineering field?
I do not see that it is a problem. Anyone today can make their choices regardless of gender. It is rather a question of what suits your character, temper, lifestyle and abilities. Apparently, most girls do not find the engineering field to be attractive and do not want to force changing their nature. And I completely understand and support them in their choice.
Besides, I find it stupid when girls and boys are divided into groups and compared unless it is for marketing purposes. Every individual is different and unique regardless of gender.
How do nerds turn into leaders?
Either when they work for a long time in a big company and are involved in some cross-functional collaborations or when they push themselves to learn to talk to girls and eventually start dating and get some intimacy.
Another option is that they make a great engineering or scientific achievement and become popular. However, in this case, their people skills will still suck and they will struggle to be good leaders.
How do organizations prevent engineers from becoming leaders?
It is quite often that department managers or project managers think they do their teams a favour when they are communicating with stakeholders or others in the organization on behalf of their teams. They call it "protecting my team".
The only thing it protects is the position of the manager as there would be no one to challenge within the team due to poor communication skills.
I have to admit that many engineers hate to be disturbed by many meetings as they need to focus on their research and development. But it also means, that their manager would tend to give their own estimates all this time without proper clue.
Actually, such "protection" leads to stronger silos, increases bureaucracy, and reduces creativity and innovation.
Why there is a need to protect your employees? Against whom? What a war mentality!
Nodir, do you think you are smarter?
Maybe.
I think is better to develop leaders in your teams. The leader is not the one who manages others. It is the one who clearly communicates own thoughts and vision. It is not sustainable if the manager is the one who speaks on behalf of everyone in the department or project.
An engineer who has leadership skills will make it clear to others that time is needed to focus and one should not be disturbed for meetings during some agreed period. And no need to make a tragedy out of it.
领英推荐
One day, when I became a department head, I gathered all senior engineers and told them that from now on they would be directly accountable for their work and would have to communicate directly to various stakeholders. However, I told them that I would support them and help to improve their communication skills.
From time to time, I would review their emails and tell them what needs to be improved to make their emails more concise and easy to understand. Sometimes, I would send them to meetings with other departments with a task to present our department. Then we would sit down together and review what was well and what was not (especially if it was online and there was video recording).
Overall, I would spend a lot of time improving the communication skills of engineers in my team including arranging for university courses on Communication and Presentation skills in English.
Are engineers making for better leaders?
There is never an ideal leader and manager. That is why collective leadership is a better way. For instance, one day you have energy and a better understanding to lead, another day, someone else. Collective leadership leads to better choices and decisions. However, it is different when we talk about strategic and visionary leadership. Here I think should be only one decision-maker.
Quote of the day
"You must accept the reality of other people. You think that reality is up for negotiation, that we think it's whatever you say it is. You must accept that we are as real as you are; you must accept that you are not God."
J.K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter series.
I got to know this quote from the book of Chris Voss, "Never Split The Difference", where he talks about the art and science of negotiating. He brought this particular quote to underline the importance of understanding not only what others say, but their underlying motives.
I highly recommend reading that book.
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Thank you! Share with me your thoughts or impressions that you got after reading today's newsletter.
Yours not yours,
Nodirkhon aka Nodir
Project Manager | Acting Manager of Project Office
11 个月Thank you for sharing such an engaging article Nodir! ?? Communication skills for engineers are crucial, fully agree. I also could relate to the challenges you highlighted, having navigated similar hurdles early in my career. It was during a business trip to Poland at the age of 22, I was sent alone to transfer competence, and there I experienced a significant leap in my communication abilities. Being thrown into a new environment forced me to adapt and engage openly, proving transformative for my skills ??