In this episode, I will give you some of the key takeaways from our recent Engineering Career Summit which was held in Louisiana.
Engineering Success quotes:
Here are the Key Takeaways of some of the sessions and panels we had:
- Building Your Engineering Career Flywheel by Will Schnier, PE
Will Schnier is the Chief Executive Officer of BIG RED DOG Engineering & Consulting, an Engineering News Record Top 100 Design Firm, a Zweig Group Hot Firm, and a Business Journals Fast 50 company.
- Concept of a flywheel – you have to push it constantly and over time it will run on its own.
- Consistency and intentionality are two things you have to focus on in your engineering career.
- Create strategic, long term vendor relationships enabling a virtuous cycle of value, selection, & convenience.
- More relationships = more opportunities = a larger network
- Must give something of value and a means for them to come back to ask for more.
- The combination of this flywheel plus the 80/20 rule could really be all you need to design and grow your engineering career.
- Intergenerational Teamwork and Effective Leadership by Deborah Keller, PE
Deborah D. Keller is a Louisiana licensed professional engineer with over 35 years of experience in planning and engineering projects, of which 27 years included engineering positions held at the Port of New Orleans.
- This session was about how each generation of people show up, how they communicate and what their tendencies are. It is important to know these tendencies to improve your communication skills.
- Learn how to draw upon the experience of the different generations and leveraging all their experiences.
- Gender and generation influences communication. You have to know how your boss/clients want to be communicated to.
- With older generations you have to earn their respect.
3. Leadership Panel with Croft Edwards Deborah Keller,Kristi Hoke Mirambell and Philip M. Zimmerman.
- Create metrics for your team.
- Be clear on the results you want to have.
- Empower people to own their work.
- Truth / Trust / Integrity / Honesty / Confidence / Empowerment / Alignment
- Understand the personal profile of each team member.
- Use Strengthsfinder (book) to work with these individuals based on their strengths.
- Ask yourself, what do I care about as an employee, what are your needs?
- Compliance vs. Commitment.
- Clearly define your goals for yourself and then you can let them know your goals for the team.
- You need to know where you’re leading them to.
- People don’t quit their job, they quit their boss.
- If you don’t have the inspiration from the top of your company, look down and see where your company is making a difference in the world and also look around.
- We always have choices in our engineering career as leaders.
- Recognize that you’re dealing with something much bigger than yourself.
4. Business Development Panel with Carl Herrick, Perryn Olson,Jim Rogers and Kristi Hoke Mirambell.
- Group clients A, B, C. Think about how they will affect you financially.
Croft Edwards - It’s okay to fire clients.
- Understand the competency of people and develop them.
- Try to think: what is the client’s perspective?
- Becoming a visible expert is of great importance.
- Challenge yourself on what you can do that can complement your current company.
- If you are in a sales and/or business development role, you should only be talking 30 percent of the time.
- Don’t burn bridges.
- 3 requirements for signing on a new client:
- They have to be able to afford you
- They have to have pain or pleasure
- They have to have the authority to make a buying decision
- You must know what makes you unique.
- You have to know if you’re a painkiller or a vitamin.
- Think about asking for referrals.
- Relationship versus commodity.
5. Path to Partnership Panel – Will Schnier, Jim Hance and Deborah Keller.
- Partnership is not Management.
- You need to bring in more to the firm than you are taking out.
- Always anticipate where you’re going next.
- Understand the financial and operational education of being a partner
- Be the best at what you do in your position
- Express that you want that opportunity.
- Being an owner is not a way to get rich especially in the first few years. There are up cycles and down cycles.
More in this episode…
In the Take Action Today segment of the show, I give you some tips on how to implement these points that was discussed in your life.
“There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self.” ―Ernest Hemingway
Books mentioned in this episode include:
The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon
Resources and links mentioned in this session include:
Big Red Dog
TECC 86: Building Your Engineering Career Flywheel with the Two Engineering Executives
TCEP 024: Starting a Civil Engineering Company with the Support of Your Previous Employer: A True Story
http://strenghtsfinder.com/
TECC 53: The Engineering Career Coach Podcast – The Importance of Becoming a Visible Expert as an Engineer
The Engineering Mastermind
This episode is brought to you by PPI, the leader of FE, PE, or SE exam preparations. Use promo code COACH for 20% discount at PPI2Pass.com/coach.
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