January/February 2014

IN FOCUS: LEADERSHIP
Taking the Lead

Leadership development opportunities are available and valuable to professional engineers.

By Matthew McLaughlin

Even for those to whom leadership comes naturally, taking charge for the first time can be challenging, as Joseph Plunk, P.E., found out after receiving a promotion from the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet in 2008.

Previously a highway design engineer, he was given a branch manager position that year. “In that previous position I was in a cubicle, at a desk, working on highway plans,” Plunk says. “Even though I coordinated with a lot of people, I had my superiors and other project managers who led the group or led the project. So, when I was promoted to the [branch manager] position, I had a lot to learn.”

Adding to the challenge Plunk faced with the new position was its location at an entirely different KTC district office, where his team was made up of people he did not know and had no experience working with. “I felt like I really needed to enhance my ability to lead the group,” he says. “I have 27 people in my branch that I manage.”

Plunk’s experience is not unique, especially among professional engineers who frequently find themselves in leadership roles at some point in their careers. Unfortunately, many PEs also discover they lack the valuable education, training, and skills that would help them in such roles.

“Our engineering schools in this country do a great job on honing technical competence, but how you translate that competence to the engineering team and create a product or create a process is a whole different ballgame,” says Tim Schaffer, executive director of the Ohio Society of Professional Engineers.

—Joseph Plunk, P.E.

“There’s a lot in engineering school we go over, but there’s not really a lot of emphasis on the soft skills,” adds NSPE member Devon Seal, P.E. “Eventually, as we move through our careers, we often find ourselves in positions of leadership. Whether we have any training or any skills in that area, we’re in a leadership position.”

Additionally, increased emphasis is being placed on leadership skills across numerous professions and industries. A 2011 HCM Advisory Group study of leadership development and executive education found 44% of the companies that took part in the study planned to increase leadership development spending in 2012.

“I don’t know that leadership is becoming more important,” says Lamar Reinsch, professor of management at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business and academic director of the school’s executive master’s in leadership program. “I would say its importance is being more widely recognized and the kind of leadership that is needed is different.”

“There was a time when lots of problems could be solved by one very smart man or woman who could see what should be done and then direct and motivate and recruit the rest of us,” he continues. “Lots of the problems we deal with now are so complex that they are solved by a team, if they’re solved at all, and that changes the dynamics of problem solving and it changes the dynamics of getting people to deal with problems, so it changes the dynamics of leadership.”

Society Leadership
Learning on the job has its advantages, but it need not be the only recourse for PEs whose undergraduate education focused primarily on the technical aspects of the engineering profession. There are, in fact, a number of ways PEs can increase their understanding of leadership and hopefully become more effective leaders themselves, and after two years of trial-by-fire learning on the job, Plunk did just that.

In 2010, he applied for and was accepted to Leadership PE, a leadership development program designed specifically for the engineering profession by the Kentucky Society of Professional Engineers, the American Council of Engineering Companies of Kentucky, and the Kentuckiana Post of the Society of American Military Engineers.

The program doesn’t address the technical side of engineering jobs, says Derek Guthrie, P.E., executive director of KSPE. “It’s for all the other things that are needed for an individual to be successful.”

“I thought it would be a challenge,” Plunk says. “It turned out to be a challenge that I needed in order to enhance [my] leadership abilities.”

Leadership PE also helped Plunk realize his own personality does not disqualify him from being a great leader. “I’ve always sort of seen myself as being a bit of an introvert, quiet you know, and that I guess in my own mind made me think I could never lead a large group and I would never be able to do those things I’ve seen my supervisors and other leaders do, but … you can be a leader no matter what your personality style,” he says. “It gave me some confidence that, no matter what, introverts can be a leader and can be effective.”

—Derek Guthrie, P.E

“I personally have sent folks to this in the past,” Guthrie says. “Without fail the biggest [change] that I saw in every one of them coming through the program was their confidence level. It’s almost like a switch got flipped somehow or another.”

The eight-session program is completed over the course of eight months. On average each session covers two days. Some of the topics covered during those sessions include communications, team dynamics, and personal management.

“Leadership PE is one of our flagship programs,” Guthrie says. “We’re very proud of it. We’ve put a lot of effort into it.”

The Engineers Foundation of Ohio, the educational arm of the Ohio Society of Professional Engineers, also provides a leadership development program designed for the engineering profession. While only a two-day program, the Engineers Leadership Institute is regarded as a premiere program by both OSPE leaders and attendees, many of whom are both.

“It’s a really great program,” says Seal, who participated in the program in 2008 and is now serving as treasurer of KSPE. “It builds leadership skills for your professional life as well as for leadership roles in the society.”

Instruction in the Engineers Leadership Institute program is provided by James Dalton, a former deputy executive director of NSPE and management consultant specializing in leadership development, strategic planning, governance, and customer research, but unlike management consultants one might find elsewhere, Dalton also specializes in engineering leadership.

“He does an excellent job,” says Howard Jones, P.E., F.NSPE, who participated in the program and serves as president of the Engineers Foundation of Ohio. “It gave me some insights into things I probably needed to improve on.”

“It’s leadership training, not just in general, but specifically for engineers and the typical mindset and typical skills that engineers have,” Seal adds.

Alternative Styles
There are obvious benefits to leadership development programs designed for the engineering community by the engineering community, not the least of which are that they are considerate of the way engineers think and provide valuable networking opportunities within that community.

For those engineers whose state societies do not offer leadership development programs, there are many alternatives. Among these alternative opportunities are community, corporate, and university programs, each of which has its own benefits.

The benefits of community leadership development programs include their availability and their broader networking opportunities. Community programs can be found across the country, sponsored by local chambers of commerce, rotary clubs, and other business organizations. For engineers interested in connecting with possible clients, the chance to network with the broad range of participants in a community program and the sponsoring organization may be beneficial.

Typically, community programs function much the same as KSPE’s Leadership PE, which is not surprising since Leadership PE was based on community programs. Leadership Cumberland, for example, a community program in central Pennsylvania’s Cumberland County, is a 10-session program completed over the course of 10 months.

Also familiar is that program empowers participants, regardless of their personality, to become leaders. “No personality style is good or bad; that’s the first thing you have to assure people of,” says Executive Director of Leadership Cumberland M. Elizabeth McManus. “A personality style is just how you would normally prefer to handle things.”

“It’s educational, in that you have to have some facts and figures in order to understand the context of leadership, and on the other hand, it’s a very introspective journey, understanding better who you are, and then putting those two together,” she continues. “We are all leaders.”

Engineers who work for large companies may find they have the opportunity to participate in internal corporate programs as well. These can be general leadership development programs or specific to engineers, but unlike the programs of state societies, community organizations, and universities, they are typically only available to those just starting their careers.

An example of one of these programs is Lockheed Martin’s Engineering Leadership Development Program, which is open to the entry-level engineers or those with just a few years of experience. The program takes three years to complete and includes three to four rotational assignments within the company.

As part of the program, Lockheed Martin pays for participants to complete a technical master’s degree and provides mentoring services. Participants are strongly encouraged to take full advantage of both offers, as the company wants to maintain an environment where employees perform their best.

Mina Evans-Alston, corporate program manager for Lockheed Martin’s leadership development programs, recommends participants have at least three mentors. “My recommendation is always about three people,” she says. “What you want is someone who is similar to you, someone who is different from you, and a person whose style you just really have an appreciation for. Through that they’ll start to develop who they want to be as leaders.”

For an engineer interested in climbing the ladder of a major company, taking advantage of an internal leadership development program provides the required networking opportunities and ensures learning the leadership skills most important to that company.“Engineers are very astute technically, but we need employees who exhibit leadership behavior,” Evans-Alston says. “No matter how smart you are, if you’re not able to collaborate and create a great team dynamic—to really be able to communicate with impact—then that can create roadblocks to success for delivering to our customers. So it is just as critical that we have people that are technically astute as well as have people that have the leadership competencies that we’re looking for.”

Higher Learning
Engineers with a desire to enroll in the most comprehensive and in-depth leadership development programs available and who are willing to put in the time and effort may find a graduate degree the best choice when selecting a leadership development program. Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business offers one such degree.

A combination of course work, residencies, and a capstone project provides the framework for the school’s executive master’s in leadership program, which integrates practical management skills and advanced leadership theory throughout a full year of course work. One-on-one coaching is also provided by certified business leaders.

—Lamar Reinsch

“The program is designed to help experienced, midcareer professionals develop their personal abilities and prepare for the remainder of their career,” says Lamar Reinsch, professor of management at the McDonough School of Business and academic director of the executive master’s in leadership program. “There’s a good deal of what’s passing for leadership training … that amounts to the presentation of ideas that are good, but they are far from comprehensive and they are not research based—they are based on someone’s experience. So this is an attempt to harness the tools of academic research and bring them to bear in an academic program.”

“This program is designed to provide a broader, deeper understanding of the leadership process,” he adds. “So while there is some attention to skills and abilities, this is an educational program, not a training program.”

The commitment required to obtain a graduate degree in leadership is great. Classes for the executive master’s in leadership program at Georgetown are held on Fridays and Saturdays, but classes at a college or university don’t typically come cheap and students in the program report devoting an average of 12 to 15 hours a week on coursework outside of the classroom. For those who can make the sacrifice though, the rewards of such a program are great as well.

“It is, at the end of the day, a graduate degree from a very fine university,” Reinsch says, but completing the program not only nets students a master’s degree, it also grants them access to the alumni networks of Georgetown and the McDonough School of Business. “Our alumni network—and this is not just true of our [executive master’s in leadership program] but of all of our graduate programs, and it would also be true of lots of good university programs—our alumni network is very active and very helpful.”

Some colleges and universities also offer certificate programs in leadership that lack some of the benefits of a graduate degree but many might find easier to complete. It’s up to the individual engineer to decide what the best leadership development opportunity is for them. There is no right or wrong choice, except maybe never making one.