Are you suitable to be a Manager ? or be Happy to remain as an Engineer ?

Are you suitable to be a Manager ? or be Happy to remain as an Engineer ?

There are many articles about Gen Z staff being unhappy or unappreciated in their current jobs and always looking for meaningful roles, etc. Then there are also staff wanting to grow into management roles.

It is always easy to look at others and avoid confronting one's own limitations, as we tend to look at our positive attributes but ignore the negative ones, so that we can sleep easier at night.

When I first moved my role as an Engineer to a Management role in Philips Electronics from R&D to Quality Department, I had to confront my own limitations as I had never manage a department of 80 staff.

This 1984 IEE article which changed my view and learnt how to deal with my new management role. It was written by an experienced Engineer. No amount of Management Training courses can help you, if you don't confront your own limitations.

Management Learning Points:-

  • Delegation
  • Communication
  • Motivation
  • Job Satisfaction

My own journey to transform from an Engineer to a Manager was also not simple, as I had to let go the areas (my own Security Blanket), where I had high competence and then enter new areas, where I have no capabilities nor experience.

Many tend to stay in the area of comfort zone of being technical, rather than embrace the management skill learning. Myself, I did embrace up to a certain point.

After a few years of growing in the management career, I decided that it was a career path, which I did not want, as Philips Electronics wanted me to go to Eindhoven, Holland for 3 years, and then come back to run the Singapore operation. Career prospects, salary and perks were great and I gave my boss 1 year notice.

That was when I decided to start my tech start up, SysEng Pte Ltd in 1994 with 3 staff.

For guys who look for growth, they have to start looking at their self first, as this is what you have only. The rest is out of your influence.

William Lee Ives Tay Tan Kwang Hui Krithika Kandasamy Amos Goh Amos Tan Sebastian Yee Paul Mah Chris J Reed Elaine Claire Isaac Hung Sunny T. Patrick Loke KOH Niak Wu, Ph.D.

Dr. Suresh Babu Parasuraman

International Expert | Independent Consultant | Freelance Consultant | Sub-consultant | Water Resource Professional | Hydraulic and Hydrology Expert | Climate Resilience Expert | Team Lead | Mentor | Minimalist | …......

11 个月

Nicely said. One should not compare with others without knowing their weakness and should have ability to overcome their weakness or manage their weakness and grow further. Expecting your next article.

Richie Wong

Security and Surveillance Systems

11 个月

I’m looking forward to the next chapter!

Dennis Chew

Artificial Intelligence Team Lead, Researcher, Engineer and generally curious about anything tech

11 个月

You cannot change others but you can influence. You can only change yourself.

William Lee

Roboticist AI, Machine Intelligence enabling New Product Development into Manufacturing & Supply-Chain Operations

11 个月

Staying in University Lab is only Research, everything else is extremely difficult. To Leadership Initiative needs greener pasture ??

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