Engineering Management Institute

Kyle Cheerangie

The Essential Competencies of an Effective Engineering Leader

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This is a guest blog by Kyle K. Cheerangie, P.E.

As a young engineer, I knew early on that I wanted to be a leader. However, I didn’t know the basics of leading others, nor, therefore, how those might fit in with my personality. Certain aspects of leadership came naturally to me: I was a natural at simplifying complex tasks and listening to others. However, two skills eluded me: I often let my ego get involved in the task and I found it difficult to communicate in groups. Since then, I have learned, on-the job, the four competencies an effective engineering leader needs to have:

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Good Engineers Practice: Skills to Advance Your Career

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This is a guest post by Kyle K. Cheerangie, P.E.
Practice

As a younger engineer I occasionally spent time doing the wrong things. My eagerness caused me to accept tasks and work with unconfirmed assumptions. This lead to repeat work and disappointment from my mangers. My focus was on activity, not results.

Keeping a journal helped me learned that I was spending much of my time doing tasks that did not contribute to my team. The best engineers perform the necessary tasks and delegate or eliminate the unnecessary.

Practice

For example, spending weeks to create a report with multiple iterations for comments and changes, when a simple technical memorandum would suffice. Young engineers typically experience challenges like this one and most managers don’t have the heart to say, “No! This is not what I want.”

Learn and practice these skills to improve: 

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