This is a guest post by Patrick Sweet, P.Eng., MBA, PMP, CSEP
Over at my Engineering and Leadership blog, I tend to talk quite a bit about how business skills can be applied to the daily work of an engineer so thatengineers can be more productive, more purpose-driven, and more satisfied in their roles.
Today, I wanted to share one of these concepts I’ve borrowed from the world of business and show you why it might be the single most important thing you need to develop this year.
Harvard Business Review’s Top 10
My wife gifted me an excellent little book recently. It’s a collection of Harvard Business Review’s all-time top ten articles on leadership. It features some of the greatest business minds of all time, like Peter Drucker and Jim Collins.
I was struck by an article written by Daniel Goleman called “What makes a leader?” Goleman argues that, once people makes it to the executive level of a company, what distinguishes a successful person from an unsuccessful one is their emotional intelligence, not their technical skill or cognitive ability.
Basically what he’s arguing is that by the time you make it to some corner office, you’re “smart enough” to be there. Being twice as smart as the guy in the office next door won’t make you twice as effective in your role, if any more effective at all. Having more technical skill in your field won’t differentiate you as a leader.
At the very top, it’s emotional intelligence that makes you a winner.
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Emotional Intelligence
So what the heck is emotional intelligence anyway? In short, it’s the ability to read and react to others’ emotions and to identify and control your own emotions. You can’t necessarily control how you feel at any given time, but you sure can control how you react to those feelings.
Self-help guru Steven Covey wrote in his book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People that one of the greatest powers we have as people is the ability to voluntarily choose our reaction to a stimulus. He says that between stimulus and response, there is a gap, and we can use that gap to make decisions about our reaction. In my mind, emotional intelligence is the ability to make intelligent use of that gap.
So Why Should Engineers Give a Hoot?
I think there’s a huge lesson to be learned here for engineers. For us, technical skills are definitely critical—the better you are technically, the better an engineer you are. That being said, I believe strongly that emotional intelligence can be the difference between a good engineer and a truly great engineer.
Engineers have to work with others. They have to pitch ideas and defend them. They have to work with people outside of their field. Communication is absolutely critical for engineers. Having a strong ability to read the emotions of others and being aware of your own emotions is key to your success.
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How to Develop Emotional Intelligence
So how does an engineer go about developing emotional intelligence? The single best way to do that is to know yourself.
Goleman suggests that there are some serious benefits to knowing who you are deep down—your strengths, weaknesses, preferences, values and emotions. Knowing yourself is the first step necessary to know how your actions might affect those you work with. It also helps you sort out how you should work such that you’re the best team member you can be. Work best under pressure? Ask for lots to do to keep yourself motivated to work hard. Can’t stand ambiguity? Look to clarify your tasks as much as possible. If you can zero in on these things, you’ll avoid being that stressed-out jerk that nobody wants to work with.
One way you can go about getting to know yourself a bit better is to read StrengthsFinder 2.0 by Tom Rath, or What Color is Your Parachute? by Richard Bolles. You might also consider hiring a coach, like Anthony, to help you with some self-discovery.
How else would you suggest developing emotional intelligence? Give us your ideas in the comments section below!
About Pat Sweet
Pat Sweet is a Professional Engineer working in Ontario, Canada. He’s a full-time vehicle engineer focusing on commuter train electrical subsystems and the author behind the Engineering and Leadership blog, where he shares his thoughts and experiences on leadership, productivity and career advice for engineers. Go to Pat’s blog now to get your free copy of his free career guide – The 7 Habits of a Highly Ineffective Engineer.
Photo credit: Flickr/ royblumenthal
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Author: Patrick Sweet P.Eng., MBA, PMP, CSEP
I am 17 years old and not an engineer. I’m sure most of you will stop reading right there. However, for those of you willing to open your mind and accept these words from a silly teenage girl with no experience in anything of real significance, maybe I can help. Those I’ve encountered in the psychology profession call me brilliant for my emotional intelligence. I’m not a fan of school though I do acceptably, and I am not popular in my school. I have social anxiety and it makes it difficult to relax in social situations, yet somehow I almost always know exactly what to say to people to make them fond of me and accept me into their lives. I always have the thought in the back of my mind about what’s the best way to stay in a person’s favor. That’s the trouble with social anxiety; it causes me to overthink my every action. Perhaps it isn’t all bad though. Because the thought always stays with my unconsciously, I am hyper-aware of other people’s emotions and how they relate to my own. Even those who I anger I can typically talk my way back into their hearts. I care for other people, but I can manipulate others quite easily. I try not to, but sometimes I do it by accident. It’s really to bad I have no desire for stardom or to be president or a CEO or something like that. I am positive i could if I wanted to and tried.
I also write a great deal and to improve my characters, I research psychology articles of human interaction with different personalities and how to make two polar opposites come together in a realistic believable way. I recently came across something called The Benjamin Franklin Effect. It told the story of a man who loathed Franklin and how by Franklin asking for a favor, to borrow a rare book of the man’s, he caused his enemy to turn from foe to friend. Look it up, it really works. I had already figured this technique out myself but it was nice to see it written down and explained, and it could help a great deal in getting and maintaining connections in the engineering business. So make sure to really get to know how the human mind works and you will be far more capable of getting your ideas across and being well liked by all your co-workers and basically everyone you talk to.
Ally thanks for sharing all of this personal information with us. I commend you on being totally in touch with who you are 🙂
I absolutely love the idea of the Benjamin Franklin effect! Thanks again.
I just discovered this incredible article. I am an Executive Coach with a specialization in coaching “disruptive physicians” as well as physician leaders. I was recently asked to provide as assessment and coaching for 12 engineers in the U.S., UK, Romania and China.
These engineers were all Chief Operating Officers at their respective workplace sites. I found these engineers to be appreciative of the opportunity to learn more about themselves as well as practical emotional leadership skills.