Engineering Management Institute

Career Goals and Challenges

What Is Your Purpose? Three Timeless Pillars to Guide Your Future

By

This is a guest blog by Gina Covarrubias

Your PurposeWhether you are a student, professional, forcibly unemployed, or just taking a break, I have great news: each can be approached the same way! Apply these three pillars anytime to maximize your life purpose and guide your future.

Pillar 1: Service

Service is about directing your efforts toward a cause bigger than yourself. It includes carving out time and energy for the sake of serving an external purpose.

It can mean serving your team or organization in the workplace. Maybe it involves supporting your neighbors, your environment, or your country. Applying a service approach to your surroundings is one way to share your unique gifts with the world.

For example, try to answer:

[Read more…] about What Is Your Purpose? Three Timeless Pillars to Guide Your Future

3 Engineering Career Success Tips from CEOs & VPs Who Started Where You Are

By

This is a guest post by Zachary White

success

“How did you do it?” I love asking top leaders this question for one simple reason.

Success leaves clues.

I’ve asked top engineering leaders, from the Fortune 500 to Silicon Valley startups, how they got their results on my podcast. I want to share a few of their recent answers with you.

NOTE: This is not an exhaustive list, and they are not ranked in order of importance. That’s because the most important tip for you is always unique to your situation! So work with your own coach and mentor on which of these you need to focus on first, and go find a dozen more solutions to your unique challenges.

1. Find Your Mentor — AND Your Mentees

Everybody talks about the importance of having a mentor. I personally believe in having a tribe of mentors.

But very few leaders talk about the importance of finding your mentees as well.

[Read more…] about 3 Engineering Career Success Tips from CEOs & VPs Who Started Where You Are

Focusing on Your Frustrations Slows You Down – Focus on This Instead to Make Progress

By

This is a guest post by Jeff Perry, MBA

The Gap and The Gain“You are your own worst critic.” We hear this a lot, but does it have to be true? Do we always have to be so hard on ourselves as we try to make progress and reach new goals?

Goal setting, resolutions, making progress, and reflection are things many people do at the turn of a new year. Yet many people set goals only to not reach them, and get demoralized and stop trying.

So how do we actually find happiness in our lives and careers?

The answer: Lack of happiness, frustration, burnout, and dissatisfaction are driven mostly by focusing on The Gap — the difference between where we are now vs. the ideal that we want to be true. This focus gets us spending so much time feeling that sense of lack — “I’m not good enough, I don’t have enough, things will never be how I want them to be…” And on and on.

So how do we turn it around?

Focus on The Gain — the progress we’ve made, how we have improved, feeling gratitude, and more.

What Are The Gap and The Gain?

“The way to measure your progress is backward against where you started, not against your ideal.”
~ Dan Sullivan

The idea for The Gap and The Gain first came from Dan Sullivan, founder of the Strategic Coach, who has recently partnered with Benjamin Hardy to create a book about the concept.

[Read more…] about Focusing on Your Frustrations Slows You Down – Focus on This Instead to Make Progress

The Art of Asking Fearless Questions as an Engineer

By

This is a guest blog by Pamela A. Scott

For quite some time, I’ve been harping on the need to ask good questions. Regardless of where you are in your engineering career, I am confident that you would benefit from amping up your questioning skills. To do that, keep reading.

Many of us think we’re asking questions when what we’re really doing is recommending how to solve a problem. I learned that from 15 years in Vistage, an organization that provides coaching and peer advisers for CEOs.

The Vistage questioning process went like this. James, CEO of a medium-sized engineering firm, shared his problem with his Vistage group.

Questioning or Recommending?

“I’m stuck on what to do with a couple of employees who seem to be showing up just so they can collect a paycheck. Their poor attitude and laziness is impacting other employees. I’d get rid of them, but I can’t find someone to replace them. I don’t know what to do.”

[Read more…] about The Art of Asking Fearless Questions as an Engineer

Why 90-Day Goals Are More Practical Than Annual Goals

By

It’s that time of year. In January, you’ll typically find a lot of content being published about goal setting. Blog posts and podcasts urging you to set goals for the new year. Believe me, there is no bigger proponent of goal setting than myself. In fact, at EMI, we work with engineering companies to help them ensure their leaders are focused on the right goals. That being said, I have found that most professionals who set goals will spend less than one hour in late December or early January creating a list of goals for the year, only to file their list of goals away and rarely look at it again for the remainder of that calendar year.

Try Setting 90-Day Goals Too

If you are one of those professionals who set lofty goals on or about January 1st, but then get buried in your projects and neglect them, try setting shorter-term goals in addition to your larger goals. I recommend 90-day goals, also known as quarterly goals. At EMI, we have strategic initiatives from our strategic plan from which we reduce strategic actions, which get further reduced down to quarterly goals for each team member.

Let’s be honest: one year is a very long time, especially when you get dealt curveballs like a global pandemic. To think that your goal at the end of the year will still be the same as it was 365 days ago isn’t very realistic and doesn’t allow for flexibility.

90-Day Goals [Read more…] about Why 90-Day Goals Are More Practical Than Annual Goals

Goal Setting: The Meaning of Failure and Success

By

This is a guest blog by Gina Covarrubias

failure and successWhy should we set goals — to obtain success, achievement, or happiness? And how are we supposed to manage failure when our goals fall short? In this post, you will discover newfound insights to help you answer these questions!

[Read more…] about Goal Setting: The Meaning of Failure and Success

Effective Strategies in a World of Remote Work

By

 

This is a guest post by Jeff Perry, MBA

Remote WorkI’ve always been a pretty big fan of flexible work options and remote work. It’s been nice to have the ability to do it when I’ve been sick, traveling, or taking care of other business. While not possible for all job roles, remote work can have a lot of benefits. 

With the coronavirus and its many effects on the working world, we will need to adapt to increased and accelerated remote work. Some people love it, others don’t.

No matter your personal feelings, embracing the advantages of remote work and learning how to effectively communicate in remote settings will become increasingly important for career success.  

Benefits of Going Remote 

[Read more…] about Effective Strategies in a World of Remote Work

Healthy Conflict: How Disagreements Spur Innovation

By

This is a guest post by Patrick Sweet, P.Eng., MBA, PMP, CSEP

Healthy ConflictFor most engineers, conflict at work is something to be avoided. It’s about as desirable as spilling coffee on your pants before a big presentation or dealing with (yet another) paper jam. There’s an important difference, however, between conflict and most other office challenges: conflict is incredibly important. In fact, almost all innovative products and processes are the result of conflicts at work.

This leads us to two questions. Why is it that conflict is so important for innovation, and how can you approach conflict in a healthy way? In today’s article, I’ll tackle both important questions.

Why Is Conflict Important for Innovation?

[Read more…] about Healthy Conflict: How Disagreements Spur Innovation

Who Will Win the Talent Standoff?

By

This is a guest blog by Peter C. Atherton, P.E. that was previously posted here.

TalentPlaying to win requires a real investment in organizational redesign, along with the creation of both a vision and a culture that are worth the work.

The Standoff

The standoff is between younger talents’ needs and older talents’ interest and ability to engage and develop them. It’s the future versus a non-functional or sustainable status quo.

To succeed, we need to reimagine work in the context of today’s actual constraints and the reality of a forever-changed world.

The Problem

Organizationally, too many of us are in the functional shape of an hourglass.

We have little “middle,” and what we do have continues to be overloaded and piling up with pressure moving upward instead of downward in the organization where more capacity exists.

[Read more…] about Who Will Win the Talent Standoff?

The Power of Perseverance in Developing a Strong Engineering Career

By

This is a guest post by Nader Mowlaee

perseveranceThe good news is that your beliefs can strengthen your engineering career success, and as you build stronger core beliefs, you will raise your motivation to learn and grow into a more capable engineer. But the bad news is that changing your life and reaching your career goals will not be an easy task. You will likely fail over and over again before you succeed, and the chances are that achieving new levels of success on the job will take longer than you had initially forecasted. 

However, through building new habits, developing your skills, and demonstrating tenacity and grit, you can create a strong engineering career beyond what you initially thought was possible. On the other side, a poor set of personal habits, a low level of aptitude, and a lack of perseverance can explain why most engineers fail to achieve their career goals.

We are going through a very tough job market right now, and since the pandemic began, there have been many engineers who lost their jobs or had to pivot into a new career path so they can survive, keep making an income, and in some cases, to thrive. But you can’t allow job market setbacks, short-term failures, and temporary job losses to take away your energy and take you away from getting what you deserve.

Perseverance

[Read more…] about The Power of Perseverance in Developing a Strong Engineering Career