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- Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
- Kategorie: Fachliteratur
- Sprache: Englisch
Teaches scientists and engineers leadership skills and problem solving to facilitate management of team members, faculty, and staff This textbook introduces readers to open-ended problems focused on interactions between technical and nontechnical colleagues, bosses, and subordinates. It does this through mini case studies that illustrate scenarios where simple, clear, or exact solutions are not evident. By offering examples of dilemmas in technical leadership along with selected analyses of possible ways to address or consider such issues, aspiring or current leaders are made aware of the types of problems they may encounter. This situational approach also allows the development of methodologies to address these issues as well as future variations or new issues that may arise. Leadership by Engineers and Scientists guides and facilitates approaches to solving leadership/people problems encountered by technically trained individuals. Students and practicing engineers will learn leadership by being asked to consider specific situations, debate how to deal with these issues, and then make decisions based on what they have learned. Readers will learn technical leadership fundamentals; ethics and professionalism; time management; building trust and credibility; risk taking; leadership through questions; creating a vision; team building and teamwork; running an effective meeting; conflict management and resolution; communication; and presenting difficult messages. * Describes positive traits and characteristics that technically-trained individuals bring to leadership positions, indicates how to use these skills, and describes attitudes and approaches necessary for effectively serving as leaders * Covers negative traits and characteristics that can be detrimental when applied to dealing with others in their role as leaders * Discusses situations and circumstances routinely encountered by new and experienced leaders of small teams * Facilitates successful transitions into leadership and management positions by individuals with technical backgrounds * Indicates how decisions can be reached when constraints of different personalities, time frames, economics, and organization politics and culture inhibit consensus * Augments technical training by building awareness of the criticality of people skills in effective leadership Leadership by Engineers and Scientists is an excellent text for technically trained individuals who are considering, anticipating, or have recently been promoted to formal leadership positions in industry or academia.
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Seitenzahl: 444
Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2018
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Table of Contents
Cover
Title Page
Foreword by C. Judson King
Foreword by Rick Zalesky
Preface
Acknowledgments
Part I: Introduction to Technical Leadership
1 Examples of Routine Problems and Decisions Faced by Technical Leaders
1.1 Possible Approaches to Deal with Representative Leadership Dilemmas
Reference
2 Technical Leadership Fundamentals
2.1 Leaders Versus Managers
2.2 Engineers and Scientists as Leaders
2.3 Leader Attributes/Characteristics
2.4 Ineffective Leadership Traits
2.5 Behaviors or Strategies Used by Effective Leaders
2.6 Practice Makes Perfect
2.7 Listening
2.8 Mentoring or Coaching
2.9 Leadership Styles
2.10 Fixed Versus Growth Mindset
2.11 Servant/Shared Leadership
2.12 Values
2.13 Emotional Intelligence
2.14 Stress
2.15 Summary
References
Homework Questions
3 Ethics and Professionalism
3.1 Ethics
3.2 Professionalism
3.3 Team or Organizational Culture
3.4 Character Ethics and Personality Ethics
3.5 Summary
References
Homework Questions
4 Time Management
4.1 Time Allocation
4.2 Planning and Organization
4.3 Personal Time for Leaders
4.4 Summary
References
Homework Questions
5 Building Trust and Credibility
5.1 Leader Behaviors that Establish (or Lose) Trust and Credibility
5.2 Leader‐Boss or Leader‐Supervisor Trust and Credibility
5.3 Summary
References
Homework Questions
6 Risk‐Taking, Creativity, and Confidence
6.1 Risk‐Taking
6.2 Creativity
6.3 Confidence
6.4 Summary
References
Homework Questions
Part II: Putting Leadership Principles into Practice
7 Leadership Through Questions
7.1 Basis Behind Using Questions in Leadership
7.2 Questions that Encourage Rather than Discourage
7.3 Caution When Asking Questions
7.4 Summary
References
Homework Questions
8 Creating a Vision
8.1 Differences Between Vision and Mission
8.2 Vision Creation
8.3 Summary
References
Homework Questions
9 Team Building and Teamwork
9.1 Hiring or Appointing the Right Team Members
9.2 Leader Approaches to Effective Team Operation
9.3 Cross‐Cultural Teams
9.4 Collegiality
9.5 Motivation
9.6 Summary
References
Homework Questions
10 Running Effective Meetings, Making Decisions, and Managing Change
10.1 Running an Effective Meeting
10.2 Making Decisions
10.3 Managing Change
10.4 Relationship Between Team Building and Change
10.5 Summary
References
Homework Questions
11 Conflict Management and Resolution
11.1 Causes of Conflict
11.2 Approaches to Control/Manage Conflict
11.3 Summary
References
Homework Questions
12 Communication
12.1 Verbal Communication (Presentations)
12.2 Written Communication (Emails, Memos, Reports)
12.3 Communicating with Nontechnical People
12.4 Summary
References
Homework Questions
13 Presenting Difficult Messages
13.1 Positive Approaches to Offering Negative Messages
13.2 Summary
References
Homework Questions
Appendix A: Self Evaluation and Assessment
Appendix B: List of Personal Values
Appendix C: Codes of Ethics
C.1 American Chemical Society (The Chemical Professional’s Code of Conduct)
C.2 American Institute of Chemical Engineers (Code of Ethics)
C.3 American Physical Society (Guidelines for Professional Conduct)
C.4 American Society of Mechanical Engineers (Code of Ethics of Engineers)
C.5 Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (Code of Ethics)
Index
End User License Agreement
List of Tables
Chapter 04
Table 4.1 Generic activity types, examples, and anticipated consequences of each when managing time.
List of Illustrations
Chapter 02
Figure 2.1 Skill set possessed by successful technical leaders.
Figure 2.2 Trade‐off between courage of one’s convictions and consideration for others’ views and opinions.
Chapter 03
Figure 3.1 DuPont Bradley Curve
TM
that was formulated to assist organizations in their efforts to develop an effective safety culture.
Chapter 05
Figure 5.1 Mixture of inherent and learned characteristics of individuals that result in specific ways of interpreting observations and determining leadership and follower skills and approaches.
Chapter 10
Figure 10.1 Sequence and components needed to effectively manage change and ensure accomplishments by a team or organization.
Guide
Cover
Table of Contents
Begin Reading
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Leadership by Engineers and Scientists
Professional Skills Needed to Succeed in a Changing World
Dennis W. Hess
School of Chemical & Biomolecular EngineeringGeorgia Institute of TechnologyAtlanta, GA, USA
Copyright © 2018 by American Institute of Chemical Engineers, Inc. All rights reserved.A Joint Publication of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers and John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.
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The right of Dennis W. Hess to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with law.
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Library of Congress Cataloging‐in‐Publication Data
Names: Hess, Dennis W., author.Title: Leadership by engineers and scientists : professional skills needed to succeed in a changing world / Dennis W. Hess.Description: First edition. | Hoboken, New Jersey : John Wiley & Sons, 2018. | Includes bibliographical references and index. |Identifiers: LCCN 2017056788 (print) | LCCN 2018004834 (ebook) | ISBN 9781119436584 (pdf) | ISBN 9781119436560 (epub) | ISBN 9781119436591 (cloth)Subjects: LCSH: Leadership. | Engineers–Vocational guidance. | Science–Vocational guidance.Classification: LCC HD57.7 (ebook) | LCC HD57.7 .H467 2018 (print) | DDC 658.4/092–dc23LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017056788
Cover design by WileyCover image: © DrHitch/Shutterstock
Foreword by C. Judson King
Engineering is the one major profession for which the primary accredited degree in the United States is still at the bachelor’s level. The result is a crowded curriculum in which there is barely room for anything beyond the required science, mathematics, engineering principles, and capstone design courses. Yet there are other attributes that engineers need to possess in order to be successful throughout their careers.
Communication skills – speaking and writing – have been recognized for decades as vital abilities for engineers. Many universities have instituted special courses or components of courses on these subjects for engineering students at the school, college, or departmental level. Engineering ethics has been similarly recognized, but is a less common component of engineering curricula. In industry, engineers commonly work as part of groups, with other engineers and often with persons from other disciplinary or professional backgrounds. Leadership and teamwork skills are important in structured group work, and become continually more important as an engineer moves along a career and reaches levels of ever greater responsibility. Leadership abilities are keys to success, but they have not traditionally had much place in engineering curricula.
Movie buffs may recall the 1955 film, The Long Gray Line, in which Tyrone Power plays Marty Maher, the long‐time swimming instructor at West Point, the United States Military Academy. As a Signal Corps Army officer, my father was an Instructor of Electricity and Chemistry at West Point during my earliest years, and so it was decided that I should learn swimming from none other than Marty himself. Marty’s rather idiosyncratic instructional technique consisted of placing the pupil in a cork life jacket suspended from a ropes‐and‐pulley apparatus that would be moved from the edge to the center of the pool and then lowered into the water so that the pupil could learn simply by doing what came naturally. In my case, being aged 4 or so at the time, what came naturally seems to have been abject terror and much screaming.
Most engineers first encounter team leadership in the same unprepared fashion of sudden total immersion, but without the life jacket. Doing what comes naturally is often the wrong approach for leadership, and bruises, discouragement, and even sustained hard feelings among colleagues can be the result. Some people are natural leaders, but most are not. And yet, as Dennis Hess demonstrates ably in this book, there are many aspects of leadership that can readily be learned and which will go a long way to help engineers avoid mistakes and succeed in career paths that are necessarily built on leadership skills.
I have known Dennis Hess for forty years, since he arrived at Berkeley as an Assistant Professor following his time with Fairchild Semiconductor. Dennis is himself a capable leader. As Dean, I had the pleasure of starting him off administratively as Assistant Dean in Berkeley’s College of Chemistry, and he has now gone on to such things as being President of the Electrochemical Society and Director of Georgia Tech’s NSF Materials Research Science and Engineering Center for New Electronic Materials. We are fortunate that he has turned the contents of his unique course on technical leadership into this book, which should help its readers to be understanding and effective leaders while minimizing scarring pitfalls as they proceed along their careers.
Berkeley, CA
Foreword by Rick Zalesky
In my 37 years working in the Chevron Downstream business, my first conversation with a new young scientist or engineer always went something like this, “if you are going to be successful in your job, you need to understand why things work the way they work.” Generally they just smiled and said thank you for the tip. More than once however, I received a note, sometimes years later, saying “now I understand what you meant!” When I first started sharing this “wisdom” I was referring to refinery processes and equipment troubleshooting; if they did not understand what was supposed to happen, then they had no chance to diagnose a problem and recommend ways to solve it. Over time, I came to realize this was even more vital in their roles as leaders.
When Dennis first invited me to give a guest lecture for his Georgia Tech chemical engineering class on leadership, I was quite intrigued. In my day nothing like this was part of any science or engineering curriculum. I had to learn it over time; largely through experience and reflection on what seemed to work well and what did not. About a decade into my career, Chevron allowed me to attend a number of excellent leadership trainings courses. What struck me after the lecture was that the students would be starting their careers with a set of skills it took me years to develop.
What Dennis has been providing his students in his leadership course is captured perfectly in this new book. He covers all the critical skills, but even more importantly he shares how to put them into practice.
It is often said that leadership is a team sport. While this is most certainly true, a critical attribute of the sport known as leadership is how leaders support their teams. One of my mentors told be something I never forgot. He said, “Always remember you need the team in order to be successful in your job, however the reverse is rarely true!”
Enjoy!
Atlanta, GA
Preface
This book is intended to promote awareness of and approaches to effective technical leadership by technically trained individuals. Scientists and engineers undergo extensive education and training in the fundamentals associated with their fields. As part of this education, they solve numerous problems using the skills and knowledge they have acquired; in addition, they are given somewhat limited exposure to working in teams. However, virtually no education or insight into effective and ineffective leadership skills are offered within core or even elective courses. After graduation, scientists and engineers work almost solely in teams or groups where a leader is appointed. In this structure, they employ their skills to address technical problems that may or may not have viable solutions or even directions, thereby demanding vision‐generation, goal‐setting, consensus‐building, decision‐making, and communication. Success in these activities and responsibilities begins with the leader.
On teams, the gap between using fundamental knowledge to solve problems and progress toward or completion of a task invariably involves effective leadership that facilitates cooperation, synergy, and creativity within an extremely diverse group of individuals. Although such abilities are typically not developed in formal degree programs, graduates are expected to have the appropriate “soft, professional, or people skills” to successfully lead a team or organization. Many of the limitations and frustrations generally experienced by new leaders are related to the difficulties in inspiring, influencing, and guiding team members to decisions that move projects forward.
Numerous books are available that address leadership theories and studies for use in business degree programs or self‐study; only a few address technical leadership and are written from the viewpoint of technically trained leaders. Rather, nearly all existing books identify and discuss specific leadership traits which must be developed and practiced in order to successfully navigate leadership roles. Examples of well‐known leaders’ approaches to achieving high performance are described to exemplify desired behavior or illustrate poor behavior, although these examples are typically Presidents, CEOs, or other high level administrators who have little or no technical training. Discussion of and the manner by which scientists and engineers might deal with specific leadership scenarios commonly encountered in early to mid‐career positions is lacking in almost every case.
This book was developed to supply assistance to scientists and engineers as they consider or begin their role as technical leaders with small groups or teams. It is an outgrowth of technical leadership courses that I have taught to undergraduate and graduate students in the School of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering (ChBE) at the Georgia Institute of Technology. These courses arose from many years of teaching‐required safety courses to ChBE majors where information on ethics, professionalism, and decision‐making was presented to describe and discuss the causes and implications of various incidents (e.g. Bophal, Flixborough, Piper Alpha, T2). These topics facilitated discussion of the fact that numerous situations occur in science and engineering research, development, and production where no “correct” answer exists, but decisions must be made and directions established with considerably less than complete and generally with conflicting information. This is the domain encompassed by the technical leader and addressed in this book.
The content and topic sequence of the book draw on the analysis and critical thinking skills of engineers/scientists to address specific situational or contextual leadership scenarios that are encountered in small teams, but also at higher managerial levels, where egos, personal biases, and emotions can and do dictate behavior. After some background regarding what a leader is and is not, why engineers and scientists are excellent candidates for leadership positions, and limitations of a technical background insofar as leadership behavior is concerned, ineffective habits or characteristics of “leaders” are described so that readers can identify aspects of their own personality or behavior that detract from their ultimate capabilities. Ethics and professionalism are discussed briefly to describe their critical role in leadership functions. Effective leader behavior and characteristics required to maintain personal sanity and be successful (time management, personal values, development of credibility and trust) are described to place in context a variety of scenarios that will serve as illustrations.
After this prelude to leadership, specific topical areas that relate to responsibilities, professional skills and behaviors, and situations encountered frequently by technical leaders are discussed. Initially, discussion of how to use questions to effectively lead and influence others is described. Questioning is a continuing theme throughout this book, since this type of approach generally leads to open discussions and effective exchange of information. Such outcomes are in stark contrast to the resistance and accompanying cessation of communication that frequently results when orders or statements are offered. Subsequent topics covered in the remaining chapters include developing a vision, building a team, running an effective meeting, decision‐making, managing change, managing conflict, communication, and presenting difficult messages to others.
Within each topical area, numerous homework problems are given; some of these can be used as discussion questions for class or small group meetings. In addition, discussion questions and vignettes (mini case studies) are presented in shaded boxes throughout the text; some of these include suggested approaches that offer ways that the situation might be addressed. These scenarios are presented to develop awareness of and practice dealing with problems that have only better or poorer approaches rather than right or wrong answers.
Problems with no “correct” (or even good) answers are often uncomfortable to technically educated and focused individuals. The questions can be effectively discussed in a group/class setting with pros and cons of possible approaches debated and consequences of specific decisions described. These questions or scenarios can be used for self‐study, homework, class/group discussion either in a separate leadership course, as examples in courses where team projects are employed, or in workshops. Such activities develop critical thinking skills via active learning by using inquiry‐based or problem‐based approaches. In this mode, the instructor serves as a facilitator or a naysayer as needed to supply perspective to open‐ended questions or complex situations where actions must be proposed or conclusions drawn with considerably less than complete information. The variety of scenarios posed offers situational leadership practice for current or aspiring technical leaders; these exercises aid the development of professional skills and thereby help prepare students and early career engineers and scientists for leadership roles.
Acknowledgments
As with any textbook or professional development book, the content has been developed over time from interactions with a large number of colleagues and acquaintances. I owe a great debt to all of them. Unfortunately, there are too many to identify each by name. However, there are a few groups and individuals to whom I owe the most. The students who have been subjected to my attempts to “teach” leadership deserve special thanks. Their discussions, questions, comments, concerns, and enthusiasm have constantly improved my approaches and kept me motivated and humble. I have appreciated the collegiality and professionalism of colleagues at Fairchild Semiconductor, the University of California Berkeley, Lehigh University, and the Georgia Institute of Technology. I would like to thank Professor C. Judson King, who, while Dean of the College of Chemistry at U. C. Berkeley, convinced me to begin administrative roles when I was in the Chemical Engineering Department. Jud was an outstanding role model who made success as Department Chair, Dean, Provost, and ultimately Vice President for Research of the University of California System, look so easy that many of us foolishly thought that we could also do these jobs. I have also benefitted greatly from the lectures that Rick Zalesky has given in the leadership courses that were the precursors to this book. I especially want to thank a number of my colleagues at Georgia Tech, Professors David Sholl, Ron Rousseau, Chris Jones, Chuck Eckert, G. Wayne Clough, Charles Liotta, Pradeep Agrawal, Michael Filler, Julie Champion, and Jacqueline Mohalley‐Snedeker for their extensive encouragement, advice, suggestions, and feedback on content and initial drafts of chapters contained in this book. Their insight and attention to detail and their willingness to serve as sounding boards for this project are sincerely appreciated; the content and quality of the book have been improved substantially by their contributions.
I greatly appreciate the assistance and encouragement of AIChE Executive Director June Wispelwey, who felt that the content of this book would be of value to Society members as well as engineers and scientists in general, and initiated the process of evaluation and approval. Kate McKay, AIChE Books consultant, deserves considerable credit for efficiently shepherding me through the application process. In addition, members of the AIChE New Books Subcommittee supplied many helpful comments on the book proposal that greatly aided effective presentation of leadership approaches.
I have benefitted immensely from the publishing team at Wiley who oversaw this effort, guided me as I undertook and ultimately completed the project, and made certain that the final product met their high standards. In particular, Michael Leventhal, Editor and Assistant, supplied information and assistance on the book title, cover selection, and marketing and ensured that the publication process was organized and coordinated. Beryl Mesiadhas, Project Editor, provided guidance, structure, and answered many questions regarding submission details and permissions. Amudhapriya Sivamurthy, Production Editor, directed me through the final stages of copyediting and page proofs. Her patience and precision in addressing my numerous questions is greatly appreciated.
Finally, I want to thank Patty Hess, my wife of 49 years. Through much patience, guidance, and personal examples, she demonstrated how leaders can display emotional intelligence and empathy. Despite her best attempts, I am still learning these skills; apparently, I am improving! I have learned more from her counsel and example than from numerous books that I have read on these topics. She has put up with and even accepted the many years I have spent sitting in front of a computer screen as a practicing academic, and most recently, formulating this book. I am extremely grateful for her love and support and that she chose to spend her life with me.
Part IIntroduction to Technical Leadership: Why Take Time Away from the Study and Practice of Technical Problem Solving?
Exceptional performance in an engineering or scientific position and career requires detailed knowledge of the fundamentals of the specific field and related areas, and the ability to apply that knowledge to solve problems. However, these capabilities represent necessary but not sufficient conditions for career success. Less than 50% of an engineer’s or scientist’s time in any technical position will generally be spent on science‐ or engineering‐focused tasks. This percentage always decreases with responsibility level and experience; in high level leadership or management positions, less than 20% is typical. Much of the day‐to‐day time invested by practicing engineers or scientists irrespective of their specific vocation, involves interactions with other individuals and groups of individuals within or outside the organization, where directions, goals, and performance are discussed and decisions made. It is therefore critical to develop leadership and decision‐making skills, to communicate decisions and their implications clearly, and to ensure that these tasks are performed in an ethical and professional manner. That is, “… an engineer is hired for his/her technical skills, fired for poor people skills, and promoted for leadership and management skills” [1]. Despite the essential nature of these skills to career success, little emphasis is afforded them in core or even elective courses in science or engineering curricula.
The need for skill development in leadership can be envisioned easily. Below are three examples of situation types encountered frequently by technical leaders for which they have received no training and often have little awareness.
Two of your team members are simply incompatible. They argue about trivial as well as significant issues, make derogatory remarks about each other to other team members, and their behavior is degrading collegiality and team productivity. As team leader, how do you resolve this issue?
One of your team members is rude, arrogant, and disruptive at team meetings. Other team members avoid this individual and refuse to interact. Due to the specific technical background and expertise, the individual is critical to the success of two of your projects. How do you handle this situation?
A decision must be made regarding the purchase of a new spectrometer for use in your analytical department. The department members are split regarding which manufacturer and model should be ordered, and the discussions have become extremely heated and emotional. As team leader, how do you make this decision, and how do you deal with the individuals whose recommendation you did not take?
If these examples make you uncomfortable, wonder how you might address such issues, and begin to question if you want to ever be a team leader, then you need to keep reading.
Technical leadership effectiveness has been described through the relationship among various interpersonal effectiveness traits for engineers [2]; this view has also been applied to science and mathematics backgrounds [3]. The elements of interpersonal effectiveness are defined as [2]:
Ability
to solve problems, make decisions, communicate with and engage others
Awareness
of themselves, others, circumstances
Commitment
to responsibility, ethical behavior
The need for these interpersonal proficiencies are evident from even brief consideration of the situations described above. The importance of developing “soft” or “professional” skills has been the subject of recent articles for scientists [4, 5] and engineers [6], that illustrate what skills are needed; the articles offer brief descriptions of how these skill sets can be developed in students and early career professionals.
Corporations and academic institutions must identify and develop leaders who in addition to having engineering and scientific competency, can establish and promote a vision, build and run teams, make timely and effective decisions, communicate clearly, ensure high performance levels, and manage change. Individuals generally achieve the latter six proficiencies by trial‐and‐error or observation after completion of their degree(s). In their employment environment, they encounter many examples of leadership successes and failures. Being competent engineers/scientists, they analyze these situations either after their own initial success or failure or after observation of others displaying successful or unsuccessful attempts at these efforts; such “data” lead to a realization of how the situation could have been handled better. As Mark Twain, Will Rogers, or Rita Mae Brown (depending upon which search engine is used) noted:
Good judgement is the result of experience and experience the result of bad judgement.
These approaches to developing leadership skills are effective but linear and thus time intensive, since the number of different scenarios that can be encountered is infinite. A situational or contextual leadership approach is taken in this book, where specific situations are posed and/or discussed in light of the uniqueness of that particular scenario. Analogous to solving technical problems, the similarity among certain types of situations should shorten the time frame needed to develop technical leadership awareness and skills through identification, discussion, and recognition of how various commonly encountered situations might be handled. Such knowledge will allow engineers or scientists to progress rapidly up the learning curve in their “new” role of leading others.
Engineering and science students are taught how to address problems while increasing their understanding of the field by solving numerous problem types in homework sets or exams. The methods developed can then be used to attack new problems previously unknown to the students. After graduation, the students are expected to use their problem‐solving skills to address more open‐ended problems with a sufficient number of boundary conditions that an exact solution is unlikely or impossible. Rather, an “approximate or optimum” solution is needed, as experienced in process or product design problems. The intent of this book is to introduce the reader to open‐ended (situational or contextual) problems focused on technical and nontechnical colleagues, boss, or subordinate behavior and interactions that defy simple, clear, or exact solutions. By offering examples of dilemmas in technical leadership along with selected analyses of possible ways to address or consider such issues, aspiring or current leaders can build awareness and develop approaches to address future variations on these themes or new situations. In addition, many decisions must be made with less than adequate data or information, a situation that is not viewed favorably by engineers and scientists. When the situation to be resolved is dependent upon individual or group (personal) reactions and behavior, the resulting responses are often disconcerting to those who expect both system and individual behavior to be reproducible and predictable. Instead of this anticipated, or at least hoped‐for behavior, the approach needed to resolve problems and successfully lead others depends upon the specific people and personalities involved, the culture within the organization, and the time frame within which a decision is required. Because the leader has very limited or no control of these issues, frustration is a frequent outcome. An effective leader recognizes that the problem and frustration encountered may not be due to incompetence or mediocre performance, or to the unpredictable or illogical behavior of others; rather, the issues encountered may be due to the fact that the leader’s and team members’ perceptions of the situation differ because of either misunderstanding or to disparities in values, motivation, experiences, and priorities.
This book is intended for technically trained individuals who (i) are considering, anticipating, or have recently been promoted into formal leadership positions; (ii) wish to have a “snapshot” of the types of issues they will face in such positions; and more importantly, (iii) wish to know how they might deal with common situations encountered that involve personal, social, political, and economic aspects. The starting point in dealing with many leadership situations is for the leader to understand and control himself/herself. As a result, numerous discussion and homework questions focus on introspection to gain knowledge of and insight into who the reader (leader) is. The specific topics or chapters contained in this book will also be helpful to those who are currently struggling to function effectively in leadership positions and to those non‐technically trained individuals who have been given the task of leading or managing engineers and scientists (assuming that is possible). Within each chapter, there are discussion questions and frequently a vignette; these scenarios are set apart from the rest of the text by shaded text boxes. In the case of the vignettes that appear at the beginning of chapters, suggested ways to approach the dilemma described are offered at the end of the chapter.
It is also hoped that the concepts and information contained in this book will make those who are following leaders better “followers” since they will derive improved appreciation for the issues and complexities involved. Such appreciation should improve the behavior displayed when functioning on teams. Finally, since employees with leadership potential and “soft” or professional skills are strongly desired by every organization, it is hoped that the contents of this book will be helpful to individuals who are undergoing interviews and job searches where candidates’ abilities to demonstrate these skills are probed.
References
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1Examples of Routine Problems and Decisions Faced by Technical Leaders
If you have an engineering or science degree(s), you have been trained to apply fundamental principles to solve problems and make decisions based on carefully generated data, calculations, and their interpretation. As you have no doubt learned by this stage in your life and career, people are not data, nor do they appear to function in a well‐defined and idealized manner. During your formal education, you have seen a number of open‐ended technical problems. But, these problems have not incorporated the most diverse situations that you will encounter in your technical career: Those that involve beliefs, values, biases, and emotions of individuals. Such issues are generally far more difficult to resolve due to the personal nature and sometimes seeming unpredictability of the people involved.
Before launching into a discussion of technical leadership fundamentals and the unique viewpoints and characteristics that technically trained individuals bring to leadership positions, it will be helpful to consider a few of the routine or day‐to‐day “sensitive” issues that many leaders face when they are responsible for group members’ actions, productivity, and accomplishments. Ways to think about and approach such undefined “people” problems are presented for five cases in this brief chapter. These cases offer examples that can serve as an orientation to other situations common to technical leadership that are introduced throughout the book. You will gain the most insight and understanding from this chapter if you take a few minutes to think carefully about how you might handle each vignette posed prior to reading “the answer.” I state this as “the answer” because all answers offered are ambiguous and have multiple possible paths to follow. The context within which a leader must function for a specific issue typically determines the most appropriate approach. In fact, the same leadership dilemma may have a different “best approach” when the team or organization changes due to the variation of people, circumstances, culture, and deadlines associated with each team or organization. This is a common characteristic of nearly all leadership situations and decisions, which frequently results in frustration for early career leaders. You will find that most approaches suggested involve asking questions to lead the individual with whom the leader is dealing (or even the leader) through a process that helps them recognize their assumptions/actions/behavior/consequences. This “questioning” approach to leadership promotes interdependence among team members and ensures that everyone feels part of the approaches developed and decision‐making process; further details describing characteristics of a questioning team culture along with approaches to establish and promote this type of culture are offered in Chapter 7. After considering the examples below, you will better appreciate the reasons for the ranking of attributes that employers seek on a candidate’s resume [1]. In order, the top five attributes in 2016 were leadership, ability to work in a team, written communication skills, problem‐solving skills, and verbal communication skills.
As a result of a team leader retirement, you have been given your first leadership/managerial position for a group of engineers and scientists who have been working together successfully and productively for more than 10 years. During the first few months of this new assignment, the attitude of a number of the team members appears to be one of distrust for you and your leadership style. It is apparent that the previous smooth‐running operation is degrading and you have been asked by your boss if there is a problem. How do you respond to your boss and how do you deal with the difficult interactions with your team members?
As a result of your efforts to address issues within your new team, the team members have once again begun functioning effectively and efficiently. Due to a mistake in assessing the number of new technical personnel needed, an additional engineer was hired and has been assigned to your team. Sean is a very impressive new graduate from a highly ranked school. However, you quickly observe that whenever Sean asks a question or offers a dissenting opinion in team meetings, his remarks elicit demeaning and sometimes rude comments from several of the members. The normally collegial group seems to be polarizing into two segments as a result of this behavior. How do you regain group collegiality and professionalism?
Each month your team members are required to present 5‐min synopses of their recent accomplishments and outline their plans for the next month, paying particular attention to current or anticipated concerns. This allows feedback and constructive criticism of the directions taken and the results obtained. Beatrice gives very detailed informative presentations, but the presentation always runs more than 10 min. A number of team members are annoyed by this behavior because, as a result, the meetings run late and more importantly, they feel that Beatrice is receiving more than her fair share of attention, opportunity, and recognition. How can you resolve this issue?
As a recently hired employee, you attend team meetings and participate in the discussion and evaluation of results generated by different team members. On one occasion, one of the highly respected senior team members justifies his opinion on a discussion topic by stating a “fact” that is clearly technically incorrect. How do you as one of the most recent additions to the organization, address this issue?
A senior scientist with an international reputation and high visibility always arrives 10–15 min after your regularly scheduled team meeting has begun. In addition, this person typically spends most of the meeting time checking and responding to email. This behavior disrupts the meeting and morale is suffering because other team members have individually told you that they feel this person is arrogant, not engaged, and receives special treatment. How do you as the team leader, handle this situation?
1.1 Possible Approaches to Deal with Representative Leadership Dilemmas
The following discussions and possible approaches to dealing with the dilemmas posed above are the result of many years of experience (and mistakes made) by the author. My perspective on these representative issues has arisen from a large number of sources: Personal experience in a variety of professional positions; discussions with colleagues regarding their trials and tribulations as leaders; concerns expressed by students or former students who have encountered unexpected behavior from others while performing their professional duties; observations of other leaders’ experiences; and reading accounts of problems that made headlines in industry, academia, national laboratories, and personal interactions. As noted previously, there are no “correct” answers to such situations, but various approaches can be considered; the optimum approach depends upon the specific people, organization, and time available for resolution.
First leadership assignment after previous leader retirement:
First, an unbiased assessment of your leadership style and current team directions is needed. A detailed (soul searched) self‐evaluation regarding how you began this team leadership effort and whether you gave the impression that you were going to, or in fact, did immediately implement changes in culture, priorities, or rewards should be performed. In addition, you should request impressions and pose questions concerning your attitude and actions as you began this position from a trusted mentor or someone else outside the team. If you feel that one of the team members would be willing speak with you frankly one‐on‐one and address your questions so that you can gain insight into the impressions you have given the group, this will be very useful. You also need to determine if your behavior during team or individual meetings would have given the impression that you were closed to considering alternative ways of viewing the tasks your team undertakes and/or have taken a dictatorial approach to leading. You should also consider the possibility that some (or all) members of the team are resistant to change (even if it is for the better) and they have not yet decided if they can trust you or if you have established credibility with them. An additional possibility is that one or more of the team members felt that they should have been selected as group leader; rather, an individual outside the team (you) was selected. With this information in hand, you can decide if you have caused the dysfunction within the team by your actions, if you have not yet proved that you deserve their trust, or if one or more members feel slighted by your appointment. This conclusion will allow you to plan how to proceed. If you have caused the dysfunction, then you need to apologize to the team and indicate how you will rectify the situation. If you have not yet established trust, then you will have to show by your actions both who you are and that you are true to the value/belief system you claim to embrace; this may take some time, so patience is a virtue. If you were selected for the position when others feel that they were more qualified or appropriate, then you will need to prove by your actions and attitude that you are qualified and are a team player in all that you do. You should share your thoughts about what you believe is the problem with your boss and indicate how you will approach a resolution. You will then receive additional input and suggestions from him/her to be factored into how you proceed.
Sean difficulties:
Since there are some team members who appear to interact well with Sean (at least one segment of the team behaves professionally), you should speak with one or more of them to obtain their evaluation of what is taking place in team meetings and why. As the leader, you need to assess from your own observation of behavior whether Sean is giving the impression that he is condescending with his questions/remarks. This may be due to his tone of voice, body language, or attitude. In such cases, you need to speak with Sean one‐on‐one to let him know how he is coming across to the team and ask questions that lead him into ways in which he might display more appropriate behavior. You can then also suggest conduct wherein he can be viewed as more collegial and flexible. Of course, this assumes that he is not aware of the impression he is giving. If he is simply arrogant, then you need to indicate what effect he is having on the morale and collegiality and why it is important for him to develop positive interactions with other team members, to ensure productivity and thus meet team goals/vision. You should monitor his progress to confirm that he is committed to change and that his efforts are effective. If he is not willing to work toward that goal, then you may need to inform him that you will not tolerate such behavior within your team; consequences need to be stated in this case. If neither you nor other team members perceive problems with Sean’s behavior, then you need to discuss the response that is occurring with the team member (or members) who appears to be the primary proponent of deriding Sean. Ask why this type of response has arisen and what he/she intends to accomplish by such behavior. Provided that the response is deemed truthful, this will allow an assessment of the concern eliciting inappropriate conduct and the development of a plan to address these issues. One or both parties may need behavior modification and this will require that they are motivated to change and willing to chart a plan to correct their actions. When all parties are aware that you are making a sincere effort to reconcile the differences, you may get assistance from others to improve the situation. That is, if peer pressure can be brought to bear to alter behavior, this may help resolve the problem.
Beatrice presentations:
In a one‐on‐one meeting, the leader should ask Beatrice why she plans a presentation that is twice the allotted time. If she thinks that the presentation is only 5 min in length, or she does not know how to reduce the length and still present the important results, then her presentation skills need refining and likely your assistance and guidance. If she shows an “attitude” about this, i.e. my work is so significant that I deserve to take more time, then she needs to know the effect her behavior is having on team dynamics and that personal advertisement and kudos is not the purpose of this particular meeting. After this discussion the leader needs to keep track of how the next few presentations go; she may need a reminder and some stated consequences if the situation does not improve. An alternative way of handling this after your discussion is to schedule her presentation last, and when the time for the meeting has expired, the team is dismissed or individuals can leave if they need to do so. Of course, this will only work if all other presenters stay on time. If this type of approach allows Beatrice to continue functioning in a way that is disrespectful to other group members, then this is probably not the way to proceed. However, you may need to try this tact to observe how the plan plays out. If other team members “tune out” when Beatrice begins speaking because they interpret your change in schedule for her presentations to indicate minimal importance of her efforts, then they are acting unprofessional and/or rude which may require clarification for your actions and/or intervention by you.
Senior group member technically incorrect:
The most diplomatic way to handle this is to wait until after the meeting is over and then go to the senior group member’s office and ask for clarification. This one‐on‐one discussion will allow the person to save face within his peer group and hopefully defuse defensive postures. Tell the person that you could not follow their logic and explanation and ask them to help you understand. With any luck, they will see their mistake. If you are not that lucky, then you need to keep asking questions regarding the details of what the senior person is saying to lead them through their misconception or false logic. If a decision is being made at the meeting where the incorrect information is offered, and the decision will change based on this false information, then you should approach the situation in a similar way at that time; this must be done carefully. That is, begin asking questions for clarification that leads the person through the false logic or incorrect “facts” so that they have the opportunity to correct themselves. This is the least threatening way to proceed in order to reduce the likelihood that egos will take over the discussion and eliminate productivity. If the senior individual remains insistent that they are correct either at your individual meeting or the team meeting, then you should point out the facts clearly with detailed justification via previous studies/references. If the incorrect “facts” will have no bearing on anything that the group is doing, it is possible that they may be ignored. However, having incorrect information entered into team members’ memory or minutes to the meeting could be problematic at a later time, so it is best to correct this situation.
Senior scientist late arrival:
Since this is chronic behavior, you need to have a one‐on‐one discussion with the senior scientist where you ask the reason for the constant late arrival at a regularly scheduled meeting. You should point out the effect that this has on the morale and effectiveness of the meetings and the message this sends to younger team (and more experienced) members. You should also ask why this individual feels compelled to spend the meeting time working on email. Point out that it is imperative for maximum productivity toward reaching the goals set that everyone contribute to the results and directions being discussed. You could also indicate that this person’s extensive experience is greatly needed to reach viable conclusions and make decisions (i.e. appeal to his/her ego). Questions regarding why there is an apparent lack of interest in the meeting content and discussion should be posed. Of course, there is no guarantee that this person will “see the light” and change their late arrival practice or stop giving the impression that this is a waste of time. If the behavior is annoying, but there are major contributions to the meeting by the senior scientist, you may wish to play down or ignore this conduct. If this is the approach you choose, you should speak with the team members who have complained to you to let them know where you stand on this issue and encourage them to not be put off by this behavior but to recognize how important the contributions are to the organization. If the senior scientist behavior is sufficiently disruptive that the attitude is poisoning the entire group, then you have a difficult decision to make. The question (but not the answer) is simple: Is the team and/or organization better with or without this individual? These are the types of decisions that an effective leader is expected and paid to make and requires great fortitude and a commitment to do the right thing for their team and organization.
Reference
1
Job outlook 2016. Attributes employers want to see on new college graduates’ resumes, National Association of Colleges and Employers.
2Technical Leadership Fundamentals
The key to successful leadership is influence, not authority
Ken Blanchard
An effective leader will make it a priority to help his or her people produce good results in two ways: making sure people know what their goals are and doing everything possible to support, encourage, and coach them to accomplish those goals
Ken Blanchard
