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06.11

Engineers Need Exceptional Growth Plans

By Gary Hinkle

An engineering career is a challenge, not something for academic lightweights or people who aren’t passionately interested in the intriguing practice of mechanical, electrical, civil or other engineering disciplines in the real world. As students, aspiring engineers must conquer a hefty load of advanced coursework in math, physics and other subjects that may not, at times, seem to have any practical application in the real world. Soon after starting their careers, most realize that their academic education was just the beginning, and that career-relevant continuing education is critical for success. As Carl Selinger says in his book, Stuff You Don’t Learn in Engineering School, “Engineers are concerned not just with technical competency, but with so many things…that their engineering education has not prepared them for.” Investing in continuing education needs to be a life-long commitment.

When it comes to improving on technical competencies, engineers generally know where to go to hone their skills: classes, books, websites, white papers and more are readily available to help engineers learn the theories, methods, and tools they need to advance their technical abilities. But there are other subject areas engineers must also be good at, abilities that are equally (sometimes more) important, and these aren’t as easy for engineers to figure out on their own.

Engineers need development plans that equip them to tackle priorities systematically, to continuously improve competencies such as:

Communication and Interpersonal Competencies

• Creating and delivering effective technical presentations

• Documenting work products

• Transferring knowledge to peers

• Meeting commitments and accepting accountability

• Participating in team meetings

• Working well with others

Leading Others

• Delegating work to junior associates

• Influencing colleagues to accept new ideas

• Negotiating compromises

Business Skills

• Making good business decisions

• Following company-specific processes

• Contributing to the organization’s continuous improvement

• Accurately estimating time and effort needed to complete assignments

• Managing conflicting priorities

• Planning skills

Eventually, many engineers take on project leadership roles which call on a broader and more advanced set of abilities like delegating, influencing, communicating, estimating, negotiating and planning. The challenge they face is how to significantly improve in these areas of leadership and management.

Whether on a leadership track or not, even the brightest engineers, realizing the importance of all these competencies, find it makes their heads spin. They often don’t know where to start and don’t know how to go about developing these abilities.

Professional Development Planning

There is indeed a strong business case for exceptional professional development activity, yet too many companies let productivity issues, low morale, and retention problems eat away at their profits because managers aren’t directing employee development adequately. It’s great when Human Resources departments are driving training and education, but it’s no substitute for management that is really tuned in to the needs of their direct reports.

Management deficiencies can’t be solved overnight, but a culture of self-management can be established quickly by equipping engineers and managers with comprehensive professional development plans. A good development plan serves as a roadmap for ongoing contributions that meet or exceed employer’s expectations, and every individual who believes in his or her plan should be motivated to follow it on their own. Managers must be supportive, but each individual should create his or her own development plan.

Four Steps for Creating Your Plan

1. Assess your strengths and weaknesses broadly using the competencies listed above combined with important technical proficiencies and other known skills that are currently needed, and those needed for career growth.

2. Prioritize the weaknesses. Ask trusted managers and colleagues which weaknesses you’ve identified will be most beneficial to develop.

3. Focus on the top three competencies to develop. Create a detailed plan for each competency, and include a timeline for completion.

4. After satisfactorily developing those three competencies, reassess and repeat indefinitely.

Over time, it’s likely that different skills will become a priority while other skills languish a bit. This is especially true for technical skills, as new technologies and tools replace those that become obsolete or irrelevant. Another example is shifting from a role where management skills (scheduling, budgeting and planning, for example) are important, to a role where leadership characteristics (influence and negotiating ability, for example) are essential.

Gary Hinkle is past chair of the IEEE Oregon Section and president of Auxilium, Inc.

Comments may be submitted to todaysengineer@ieee.org.