Q: What are you most looking forward to by leading your workshop at Essential Management Skills 2019?
Eddie Winton (EW) Interacting with and inspiring the participants to go and find out more about the topic and thereby continue their personal development.
Liz Bennett (LB): Meeting the delegates, hearing their perspectives and challenges, sharing knowledge and networking with them.
Andy Webber (AW) I always enjoy meeting and working with engineers who are looking to progress their careers and discussing the challenges of management with them.
Q: What transferable skills will delegates gain by attending your workshop at Essential Management Skills 2019?
EW: The problem solving session I am running will allow engineers to use their natural leaning towards process and order and combine it with some structured techniques which, paradoxically, generate possible solutions from different perspectives back in their everyday roles.
LB: We are each of us responsible for our own careers. No longer can we expect our organisations to offer us a career – sure our organisations and our managers should help us with the process but we are ultimately responsible and accountable. Planning begins with knowing who we are, what we want and what we can offer. This is our personal brand. I hope that each session will help people think this through. After all, if you don’t know where you are going, how will you decide which paths to take?
AW: Communication skills are fundamental to working effectively in any organisation. As engineers we need to be able to influence and persuade others and as we take on roles in leadership this need grows further. By exploring the idea of perspective I hope attendees will see communication in a slightly different light and, as a consequence, be able to adapt their communication in order to achieve more successful outcomes. Similarly we all experience conflict from time to time, by attending the workshop participants will develop their understanding of their own reactions to conflict and consider how best to deal with it when it arises.
Q: How can we mitigate the engineering skills gap?
EW: Gender issues aside, I feel by making engineering a separate subject from an early age in all schools and also providing government grants (or other assisted means) to encourage more people to study engineering at University or College.
LB: By focussing on it – get it on the agenda, talk about it, invest in it, spend time in schools, have role models, promote engineering and what engineers contribute through advertising and events at local and national level.
AW: This is a complicated question! In my view one of the most crucial things that need to be done is to understand better how young people (in particular girls to address the gender imbalance) perceive the engineering profession and then take steps to making it a more attractive proposition. (Easier said than done – clearly).
Q: How important are management skills for the career development of engineers?
EW: No matter whether an engineer is a manager or not the soft skills covered under the term ‘management skills’ are key for anyone who has to work with other people. In various ways such skills as influencing, negotiating, communicating, inspiring, trust building and so on all lead to more cohesive and productive teams of engineers.
LB: Very! Whether you want to be in a managerial position or not, we all need the skills associated with “management and leadership” e.g. interpersonal skills, organisation skills, team skills, big picture thinking skills etc.
AW: All engineers can benefit from developing their management skills whether planning for a role in management or focusing on a ‘technical’ career path. Developing our ability to work better with others – providing leadership, communicating, motivating, influencing – enhances our contribution whatever role we are in.
Q: What do you think is the biggest challenge for engineers keen to go into management and how can this be overcome?
EW: Remembering that once they have management responsibilities their role is much less about technical/engineering issues and more about people issues. They need to learn to step back from ‘getting their hands dirty’ tasks some – although not all – of the time. Working on their ability to delegate and being clear about what makes a manager effective are the keys.
LB: Moving from being part of a team to leading a team (and often your first management position is to manage the team you were once part of). This transition can be hard to make but it can be overcome by being aware of it, planning, knowing what to expect, reflecting, focussing on the skills you need to develop – through a combination of formal training, coaching or mentoring.
AW: As engineers we focus on things: machines, computers, systems and how to improve them or solve problems. As a manager our focus shifts to people and getting the best from them. Machines and systems are predictable (even if they are complex) while people are endlessly unpredictable: emotions get in the way of logic and personal viewpoints and interests impact on how we see things and consequent responses in different situations. Often the biggest challenge is accepting that with people things are rarely black and white (as they are with engineering). Being an effective manager means learning to accept and deal with different shades of grey.
Essential Management Skills 2019 takes place on 3-5 April 2019 at the University of Warwick in Coventry. Join this event to:
- Learn best practice in engineering management through workshops and plenary speaker sessions
- Support your Chartership application with the Institution of Mechanical Engineers
- Visit the UK premises of a leading engineering firm and see first-hand how they operate
- Discover what underpins effective team performance during our ‘Engineering Challenge’ event
- Network with leaders in engineering and other aspiring managers
To book your place, please visit www.imeche.org/ems.