The Fundamental Equation of Leadership for Engineers
This is a guest blog post by Pat Sweet, P. Eng. Leadership for Engineers. For most of us, seems to be one of those “you know it when you see it” kind of things. It’s hard to describe, but easy to notice. In effect we’ve all worked for great leaders, and we’ve all worked for […]
Leadership 101- A New Paradigm?
This is a guest blog post by Croft Edwards Congratulations, you have been such a great engineer that management has decided to make you a leader and give you a team of engineers to lead. Shouldn’t be too difficult to do, after all people are just like engineering problems and in your 4 plus years […]
What’s An Ambivert? It’s How To Move Others Throughout Your Engineering Career
For the longest time through my engineering career I labeled myself an ‘introvert’. You know, the typical engineer stereotype: reserved, shy, maybe a bit nerdy. OK, maybe seriously nerdy. In any case, I just considered myself the stereotypical engineer introvert. This was despite the fact that I was leading people, talking in front of groups […]
5 Ways to Get Big Picture Thinking
How many times have you heard that you need to get the big picture? Or that you feel like you didn’t have the big picture? I’ve heard this phrase repeated too many times to count and each time I do the thought that runs through my mind is this: what exactly is the big picture […]
7 Attributes of an Effective Strategic Plan
When you think “effective leader” what comes to mind immediately? I attended a leadership seminar at local university recently. Within the first fifteen minutes we were given a task to go out and ask three strangers this exact question. What do you think the result was? To be an effective leader you have to be […]
The Power Poses: Blowing Through Anxiety in Your Next Stressful Engagement
Researchers in psychology are uncovering amazing facts about how our brains are wired. The results benefit more than just the research scientists and psychologists. Even us engineers can benefit from this information and put it to good use in our daily lives. The brain is so impressive that it can help you improve your power […]
Leadership Doesn’t Come From Skills, It Comes from Caring
For the longest time I saw leadership as a conglomeration of skills a person developed over time. I knew there was more to it than just skills, the “special sauce”. But I didn’t spend any time trying to decipher what it might be and instead bore down on building up my skills through reading, observing […]
How to Start an Engineering Company on Your Own and Grow It by Word of Mouth: An Interview with an Engineering Entrepreneur
The following is an interview with Glen Cooper, performed by one of our guest writers, Menno Gazendam. Glen Cooper is currently an engineer turned entrepreneur. He recently released a happiness-and-positivity app via the App Store called HappiJar. The app is designed to help us store our happy moments all in a single place, share them […]
Lessons Learned from Two Days with Engineering Leaders, and Laws on Life’s Outcomes
A few days ago, we put on our annual Institute for Engineering Career Development (IECD) meetup in Austin, Texas. The event consisted of three days of intensive learning sessions from over 15 accomplished speakers, engineering leaders, several social outings, and interesting tours. Of course, I can’t forget to mention the more than 50 motivated engineers […]
A Good Engineering Leader Can Dance to Any Song
One of my goals this year is to spend an equal amount of time pursuing personal goals as I do professional goals, as in the past it has seemed that 75% or more of my efforts have been focused on my professional life. To that end, my wife and I have decided to take up […]