Effectiveness vs. Efficiency: Picking A Productivity Mindset That Boosts Your Results
“Efficiency is doing things right; effectiveness is doing the right things.” – Peter Drucker Our mindset drives everything we do. In Carol Dweck’s book, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, the reader is introduced to two mindsets: fixed and growth. From her research, Dweck has shown the mindset with which a person operates will determine […]
Don’t Leave Anything for Chance When Engineering Your Workflow Routine
I spent a very long time, writing down the tasks I wanted to do each day in a notebook as the main part of my workflow routine for a long time. I finally realized a few things one day that made me question my approach. I would forget to do things that I have to […]
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 […]
To Move Ahead In Your Engineering Career You’ll Need To Travel
A lot of members of the Engineering Career Community love to travel, both for work and for play. They understand that to grow in their careers and as individuals, they have to get out into the world and mix it up. Experience life, experience developing relationships, and yes – experience being uncomfortable. This last point […]
5 Things You Can Do To Increase Focus in Your Engineering Career
One of the challenges I hear about from a lot of engineers is how to stay focused when there are so many distractions vying for their bandwidth. I can relate, the same problem exists for me! I think that any engineering professional today is going to have to come up with ways to protect their […]
Why Working Less on Your Projects Can Improve Engineering and Project Management Efforts
There is a stereotype in the engineering world that I would like to disprove and that is, to be successful in your engineering and project management efforts you have to work a TON of hours. I think this is totally false, and I think that this stereotype is causing a lot of engineering and project […]
Boost Your Engineering Focus By Eating A Frog Every Day
“If it’s your job to eat a frog, it’s best to do it first thing in the morning. And If it’s your job to eat two frogs, it’s best to eat the biggest one first.” ~ Mark Twain Normally I end my articles with a quote, but this time I’m starting with one instead. We’re […]
The Worst Action You Can Take In Your Engineering Career Is Inaction
I am planning to take the PE exam in the future…. I am thinking about getting a master’s degree…. I am considering taking some core skills courses…. I may read this great book I heard about…. Have you said these things before or made other promises to yourself or others related to your engineering career […]