Technical Excellence Is Not Enough
Do engineers need leadership skills?
Do engineers need to be leaders?
Yes!
Do you want others to accept and adopt your design? Agree with your recommendation? Follow your product development path?
Of course you do. That requires leadership skills, even in purely technical roles.
Any time you want others to follow your path, you are leading.
Even when the data seem perfectly clear (to you). And how often are the data perfectly clear? If the problem were anything other than simple, the data probably don’t get you all the way to a decision.
That’s where engineering leadership begins.
Leadership in Engineering is About Influence
Say the design team is going down a path—a path that will meet the goal with a fantastic product—but it will cost twice the budget to build.
You may have to influence the designers to choose the path that will meet requirements but may not be as fun, capable, and expensive to design and deliver.
You might also want to propose a V2 product that meets a different market, one that supports the more capable and more costly design.
Or maybe you are that design team (or that individual), and you think going straight to V2 is the better path to market—if only you could get a bigger budget.
This is technical leadership. This is leadership without authority.
Engineering Leadership is Also About Timing and Venue
Here’s another scenario.
Perhaps you become aware that someone is going to raise a specific concern in a specific venue—and in that context, the project will come to a standstill.
You know a way to air that concern and get it addressed through a different venue that avoids a total stoppage.
You must influence that individual to use the other path.
The flip side of this: maybe you are the one with the concern. You want to raise it in an effective and non-destructive way. Knowing your options and choosing a healthy one requires both professionalism and engineering leadership skills.
What Engineering Leadership Actually Is
Both scenarios above are leadership situations:
• Changing direction
• Changing timing or venue
Sorting through these paths—and influencing which one is chosen—is leadership.
Some engineers might say, “Here are the options. Tell me what to do. I don’t care.”
But is that healthy?
No. Not for the individual. Not for the organization.
If that’s you, you’re not in a healthy situation—and I can help.
If you’re a leader with people on your team who feel this way you should foster a better attitude —and I can help.