Engineering Management Institute

Jeff Perry

Developing an Entrepreneurial Mindset

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This is a blog by Jeff Perry, MBA

Entrepreneurs

“If you don’t take control of your career development, it’s highly unlikely that anyone else will!”
~ Derric Yuh Ndim

Whether you are an entrepreneur, business owner, leader, or individual contributor/employee, there are lessons you can take from how entrepreneurs successfully operate so you can build a great life and career.

Entrepreneurs are known for being visionary, risk takers, and innovators. Often they go “all-in” on an idea to try and make it happen.

Does that mean you have to put it “all on the line” and “risk it all”? No, not necessarily. But you can take smart risks that seem difficult or uncomfortable right now that will lead to personal and professional growth.

Why Mindset?

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Changing Your Mindset Is the Key to Change Management

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This is a blog by Jeff Perry, MBA

Over the last year, virtually every company and firm has had to undergo significant shifts to adapt to the new realities created by the worldwide pandemic. As leaders, it’s critical that we move through these shifts by helping our teams not only adjust to the “new normal” of changed work processes and behaviors, but also by improving our mindset to improve our performance.

Take this quote from a study done by McKinsey Research:

… if companies can identify and address pervasive mind-sets at the outset, they are four times more likely to succeed in organizational-change efforts than are companies that overlook this stage.”

Key Principle: Mindsets can result in a 4X chance of success! Interested in learning more? Read on.

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Being a Good Communicator Isn’t as Hard as You Think

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This is a guest blog by Jeff Perry, MBA

Good Communicator“Engineers don’t have good communication skills.” I hear this all the time, and it is a myth. While it may be true for some engineers, we cannot put it out as a blanket truth that applies to all of them. And most importantly, if someone is not a great communicator now, they can develop those skills, just like anyone else. Often this myth pairs itself with the expectation that most engineers are introverts, which some people think leads to bad communication.

The truth is, both introverts and extroverts can be fantastic communicators, as these skills can be learned and developed over time. The natural behavioral types of introvert vs extrovert have nothing to do with actual ability to communicate, but rather identify how people gain energy from interpersonal interaction (and where they exist on the spectrum). Humans are naturally social beings, and we feel purpose as we develop connections with others. Thus, developing an array of communication skills is necessary for everyone to be happy and healthy.

To assist, I’d love to share some ideas and activities to help you level-up your communication skills:

Practice Listening

Developing communication skills is a broad idea that covers a lot of ground. To start, engineers can develop their own communication abilities by focusing on the skill of listening. I love this quote by Stephen R. Covey:

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Meet Jeff Perry, MBA – the New Host of the Engineering Career Coach Podcast

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The Engineering Management Institute is thrilled to have Jeff Perry, MBA, leadership coach and founder of More Than Engineering as the new host of The Engineering Career Coach Podcast –  a podcast dedicated to helping engineers create extraordinary careers and lives.

Jeff decided to transition in his engineering career towards coaching and training because he saw the amazing difference it makes in the lives of individuals and teams. He finds more joy in helping others be their best selves by developing people, rather than developing projects and services.

His advice to engineers is to not buy into classic engineering stereotypes that can sometimes limit your beliefs about yourself.

“Engineering is a key component to economic growth and world-wide innovation.”
~ Jeff Perry, MBA

Jeff’s goal as host of The Engineering Career Coach Podcast is to bring engineers the latest in personal development ideas from experts all over the world to allow them to improve their personal lives and careers.

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5 Keys to Career Clarity for Engineers

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This is a guest blog by Jeff Perry, MBA

Clarity

“Your vision will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.” ~Carl Jung

Vision, clarity, making a plan, taking action — trying to achieve these things can be extremely difficult and even anxiety-inducing in the face of great uncertainty.

Sometimes we look to other sources for guidance on what we should do next in our career and lives. Certainly mentors, guides, and coaches can be partners in this process. But in the end, the responsibility for getting clarity and living the life you want is up to you and no one else.

No one understands you better than you understand yourself. Only you have lived through every single one of your life experiences so far.

clarity

The person who has the greatest ability to unlock clarity in your life is no one other than you.

If you do as Carl Jung suggests and look inside, you can uncover some amazing truths about what you believe and what you are working to become. Clarity involves not foretelling the future, but seeing clearly our past and present circumstances, and deciding what kind of life we want to create.

Here are 5 Keys to Career Clarity for Engineers

1. Adjust Your Mindset

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TECC 231: Mindsets Fuel Behavior, and Behavior Fuels Results

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In this episode, I am very excited to share some BIG NEWS with you. The Engineering Career Coach Podcast will have a new host. Many of you might have heard of him on some of our previous episodes or read some of his articles. He is no other than Jeff Perry, MBA, the founder of More than Engineering. In this episode, Jeff talks about how mindsets fuel behavior and how they are the key to career and personal growth. He also shares his goal as a new host of The Engineering Career Coach Podcast.

“Everyone is a mixture of fixed and growth mindsets. You could have a predominant growth mindset in an area, but there can still be things that trigger you into a fixed mindset trait.”
~ Carol S. Dweck

Engineering Quotes:

Here Are Some of the Key Points Discussed About How Mindsets Fuel Behavior:

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To Negotiate Better, Seek to Understand More

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This is a guest blog by Jeff Perry

Negotiate

To negotiate is a fact of life. We cannot avoid it. Whether we are negotiating compensation for a new job, the price of something we are trying to buy, a large corporate agreement, or even what to eat for dinner, we are constantly negotiating.

Always Look for Negotiation Opportunities

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Take Action Despite Uncertainty

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This is a guest blog by Jeff Perry

Take Action

“Treat mistakes as learning, not failure” ~ Dan Sullivan 
“Test fast, fail fast, adjust fast” ~ Tom Peters  
“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” ~ Thomas Edison 
“Success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.” ~ Winston Churchill 

These quotes, and others like them, seem to be preached more and more, all of the time. Viewing failure in this way is actually quite important; it allows us to move through uncertainty, even though that uncertainty can be a source of great fear. But believing in the principle doesn’t mean it’s automatically easy to actually do it. So how do we deal with fear, move through uncertainty, and take action anyway? Here are four ideas:

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Scientific Laws of Leadership

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This is a guest blog by Jeff Perry
Scientific Laws

As engineers, we learn massive amounts of equations, corollaries, theorems, and laws. These typically apply to mathematics or scientific laws that must be understood in order to make appropriate engineering designs and calculations. However, have you ever wondered if these scientific laws that the natural world follows have applications to our personal growth, development, and leadership? In my opinion, the answer is a clear “Yes!”

In this post, I’ll take examples from some of the most commonly known scientific laws of physics — Newton’s Laws of Motion. I’ll show you how these fundamental laws apply to the movement and progress of people and teams, not just physical objects. Then, I’ll provide suggestions actions, or “motions,” you can take in your own leadership. 

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