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From Engineer to Leader: How do you get there?
- 1. 858-385-7834 (San Diego, CA) 360-718-2573 (Vancouver, WA) 650-300-6310 (Sunnyvale, CA) www.simplexitypd.com info@simplexitypd.com From Engineer to Leader: How Do You Get There? For the Columbia River Section of the Society of Women Engineers Dorota Shortell March 21, 2017
- 2. www.simplexitypd.comwww.simplexitypd.com BSME – ‘98 MSME – ‘00 Engineer 2
- 3. www.simplexitypd.comwww.simplexitypd.com Typical Traits of Engineers? 3
- 4. www.simplexitypd.comwww.simplexitypd.com Dorota’s Traits as an Engineer 1. Attention to detail 2. Analytical & logical 3. Creative problem solver 4. A good listener 5. Perseverance & meeting commitments 6. Willingness to ask for help 7. Connecting to people 8. Communication skills 9. Ambitious 10. Confident 4
- 5. www.simplexitypd.comwww.simplexitypd.com First Job Mechanical Engineer at Product Design Group 5 Leadership Lesson 1: Communicate what you’re doing, even when you don’t have to Leadership Lesson 2: Stick to your commitments
- 6. www.simplexitypd.comwww.simplexitypd.com Dorota’s Traits as an Engineer 1. Attention to detail 2. Analytical & logical 3. Creative problem solver 4. A good listener 5. Perseverance & meeting commitments 6. Willingness to ask for help 7. Connecting to people 8. Communication skills 9. Ambitious 10. Confident 6
- 7. www.simplexitypd.comwww.simplexitypd.com 2-4 years into career Sr. Mechanical Engineer & Project Manager 7 Leadership Lesson 3: How you present yourself can be as important as your technical skills Leadership Lesson 4: Tell people your career goals & aspirations Leadership Lesson 5: Ask for help
- 8. www.simplexitypd.comwww.simplexitypd.com Dorota’s Traits as an Engineer 1. Attention to detail 2. Analytical & logical 3. Creative problem solver 4. A good listener 5. Perseverance & meeting commitments 6. Willingness to ask for help 7. Connecting to people 8. Communication skills 9. Ambitious 10. Confident 8
- 9. www.simplexitypd.comwww.simplexitypd.com 5 years into career Opportunity to manage large program with 25+ engineers, including international team 9 Leadership Lesson 6: Listen first to understand the needs Leadership Lesson 7: Develop ways of presenting complex data in a simple way
- 10. www.simplexitypd.comwww.simplexitypd.com Dorota’s Traits as a Project Manager 1. Attention to detail 2. Analytical & logical 3. Creative problem solver 4. A good listener 5. Perseverance & meeting commitments 6. Willingness to ask for help 7. Connecting to people 8. Communication skills 9. Ambitious 10. Confident 10
- 11. www.simplexitypd.comwww.simplexitypd.com Director of Vancouver, WA office of PDG/Simplexity 8.5 years into career 11 Leadership Lesson 8: Who you know can be more important than what you know
- 12. www.simplexitypd.comwww.simplexitypd.com Original Traits 1. Attention to detail 2. Analytical & logical 3. Creative problem solver 4. A good listener 5. Perseverance & meeting commitments 6. Willingness to ask for help 7. Connecting to people 8. Communication skills 9. Ambitious 10. Confident 12 New Skills 1. Networking 2. Business knowledge
- 13. www.simplexitypd.comwww.simplexitypd.com CEO of Simplexity 10.5 years into career to present 13 Leadership Lesson 9: Practice ownership thinking Leadership Lesson 10: Sign up for new opportunities even if you’re not 100% sure you can do them Leadership Lesson 11: Your effectiveness as a leader is not defined by what you get done personally, but by what results your team achieves
- 14. www.simplexitypd.comwww.simplexitypd.com Original Traits 1. Attention to detail 2. Analytical & logical 3. Creative problem solver 4. A good listener 5. Perseverance & meeting commitments 6. Willingness to ask for help 7. Connecting to people 8. Communication skills 9. Ambitious 10. Confident 14 New Skills 1. Networking 2. Business knowledge 3. Delegation 4. Public speaking 5. Make faster decisions, without full consensus 6. Not shying away from conflict
- 15. www.simplexitypd.comwww.simplexitypd.com Leadership Do’s & Don’ts Do: 1. Self-advocate 2. Take initiative 3. Trust others 4. Strive for excellence 5. Be open-minded 6. Seek the big picture 7. Prioritize 8. Be decisive 9. Develop your people 10.Keep learning 15 Don’t: 1. Make excuses 2. Miss commitments 3. Complain 4. Overcommit 5. Get too caught up in the details 6. Strive for perfection 7. Forget to think of how others feel 8. Take things personally 9. Blame others 10.Do it all yourself
- 16. www.simplexitypd.comwww.simplexitypd.com Which traits/skills do you need to work on most? 16 Circle the ONE that would make the biggest difference in moving from where you are to where you want to go. What is one thing you can do about it in the next week?
- 17. www.simplexitypd.comwww.simplexitypd.com17 - Sheryl Sandberg, author of Lean In
Editor's Notes
- Thank you to SWE ad to POA –mostly cover engineers, also typical attributes of women engineers. How many in the audience are engineers? How many of you are currently in a leadership role? How many of you want to be? Volunteer to scribe. What are you hoping to get out of this talk?
- Growing up, I didn’t know what an engineer was. Liked math & physics. Advice. Perfect fit. Mini baja. Became and engineer. Great decision.
- Ask for a volunteer. Have people list typical traits of engineers and write them on the board.
- As preparing for this talk, reflecting on what my traits were as an engineer. Compare to the typical ones. Do any of these surprise you?
- Story of one of first projects designing a tester for a component in a printer. Realized that client didn’t know work being done, so asked if could write status report at the end of every week. Client was happy and at end of project heard that he told my boss and asked if I could work on his next project. Difference was communication. Key was that I asked permission to not go over his head. Don’t assume your boss knows everything you’re doing. Get credit for your accomplishments – even keep a list. She’s busy too. Commitment – once started, couldn’t stop.
- Communication skills will set you apart. Don’t overcommit, so you can make commitments. Learn to say No. “I would be happy to do that. Could you help me prioritize the other tasks I’m also responsible for to make sure I finish the most important ones first?” Example of engineer who overcommitted and got himself in trouble. Traits that were noticed by others.
- Story of why I was promoted to Sr. ME while another engineer with basically the same resume was not. Professionalism above and beyond getting the job done. Make sure your manager knows what you are doing. Self-promotion without bragging. In performance review told my boss that wanted to become a project manager. Mistake: how to manage engineers in a different discipline – should have asked for more help, but everyone was busy – advocate. Could have asked for options.
- Not just presented myself as confident, but was confident. Men “tend to” vs women “tend to”. Confidence – 80% of the way there, just say you can do it. “Fake it til you make it”. Share your plans to be given the opportunities. Asking for help on my own stuff easier (i.e. tolerance on drawings). Harder when it came to judging other people’s opinions. Do so in a non-judgemental way – ask what other options & pros/cons.
- Pivotal project in my career. First took the time to understand the most important need (schedule, quality, price). Came up with a simple way of displaying the information for all the engineers to see. Went to each of them one-by-one to make sure they understood the goals and if they were on track. When presenting data as a leader, know your audience and don’t get stuck in the details.
- Listening – not only when you’re dealing directly with customers, but in any job role. Listen to what other groups need. Listen to your employees. But not listen to respond, but listen to understand. One of the advantages of being an engineer is we know how to solve problems. Once you progress in management, you’re just solving different types of problems. This is why engineers can make good leaders – we like to get problems out of the way.
- Mention that took a couple years off to have kids. Story of HP shutdown, economic downturn and only reason that the office stayed afloat is because I reached out to others in the area. Had always been pretty good about connecting to others within my organization, but not outside. Example of how this applies to large organizations with internal stakeholders. In a downturn, how do you advocate for your people and your team. Didn’t know how to network, but knew I had to get out of my comfort zone and learn new skills. Understand P&L, financials, profitability…
- Connecting to people, networking – what you can do for others. Have to be genuine. Like making friends. Example of mistake of networking. Business knowledge not if just running a small company, but in large organizations. Understand there are budgets and business cycles. Those that understand the business side will get tapped for leadership first.
- Asked by founder to take over actually a year before this, but didn’t for personal (raising kids) reasons. One of the other owners was not surprised since I was telling him what to do before I was an owner. Act like an owner before I was one. Difficult conversations – gentle, but firm. Didn’t know how to be a CEO. Over the past 6+ years I had to learn a ton. Move from doer to delegator. Hard to delegate those things good at and that you like. Delegate office management, accounting, engineering tasks, PM, people management…
- Continue to work on getting out of details. Example of how I like to make decisions (matrix, research, pros/cons, consensus), but now make more decisions based on gut & partial data. More comfortable with healthy conflict (first need trust – 5 dysfunctions of a team). Also joined business groups to learn from others.
- Always a good excuse – doesn’t matter. Don’t miss commitments, including meetings. Learn to say no. Your actions affect others – need to think about that. Don’t take criticism personally – opportunity for improvement. Don’t get defensive! Criticize privately, praise publicly. Delegate! Self-advocate without bragging. Volunteer for opportunities. Trust others even if they would do the task differently than you (delegate). Learn from others. Strive for excellent work. Open minded: others who do things differently than you, aren’t necessarily wrong. Open-minded to other ideas/ approaches – you do not have to be always right. Prioritize. Decide. If already a manager, develop your team. Always keep learning.
- Hand out index cards & pens. Write down main skills that you need to work on. Circle the one that would make the biggest difference in moving from where you are to the role you would like. What is one thing you can do about it in the next week? Get in groups of 3 or 4, share & give others suggestions. Constructive, do not get defensive. Exchange contact info. Promise to follow up in one week (or date you can stick with) with whether or not you did it and what’s the next thing you can do.
- Women need to shift from thinking "I'm not ready to do that" to thinking "I want to do that- and I'll learn by doing it.