Engineers need to be influential. At all levels of an organisation, engineers should play a significant role in driving innovations that will benefit customers and increase profits. From the earliest stages of their careers, engineers are expected to lead projects and teams, and to bring new ideas to fruition.
Senior-level engineers are expected to lead large and complex projects, to drive innovation and to provide guidance for less-experienced peers. Excellent leadership skills are necessary to effectively execute such responsibilities.
“Earning the respect of all those surrounding the leader is vital to have impact in any organisation and this is achieved through particular behaviours,” said Prof Patrick Gibbons, academic programme director at Smurfit Executive Development and programme director of the three-day Leading for High Impact and Results programme. “Leadership is about nurturing talent and building teams. It’s about inspiring enhanced performance from others, so that the people you lead perform to their best ability on a consistent basis. Great leaders are distinguished by the impact they have on others to perform.”
An effective leader combines qualities that earn the respect of followers, peers and superiors. These qualities tend to revolve around integrity, competence, personal dynamism and an ability to develop those around them. Various leadership styles have been identified and analysed in terms of their effectiveness in this regard. Researchers have looked at authoritarian and more democratic styles of leadership.
The authoritarian leadership style involves an autocratic leader keeping strict, close control over followers by keeping close regulation of policies and procedures given to them. At the other extreme is the collaborative or democratic, where the leader shares the decision-making responsibilities with group members. This style of leadership encompasses discussion, debate and sharing of ideas, and encouragement of people to feel good about their involvement.
Behaviour of a leader
Whatever we believe about style, it is the behaviours of leaders that are critically important. This refers in particular to displaying the behaviours the leader expects of others. “In order for people to commit to achieving objectives, leaders must ensure they are acting with integrity and treat people with respect. If you seek to set high standards for yourself in this way, you can hold others to adhere to high standards. The commitment to performance is linked to a commitment to learning and improvement,” said Professor Gibbons.
Feedback plays an important role. Feedback is a great source of learning, and leaders should be seen as soliciting feedback about their own behaviour and effectiveness. They need to show a personal commitment to learning so that personal performance is continually enhanced.
We tend to think of feedback playing a role only when a problem has occurred. It is in fact vital to provide ongoing feedback after significant events, which have both positive and negative outcomes, to ensure ongoing learning from what is happening around us. It is of course important to learn from mistakes, but equally organisations need to learn systematically from successes, assessing whether the things we think brought them about actually did.
Another increasingly important aspect of being a leader at CEO level is that you need to be attuned to how you are developing the level below you – in other words, paying attention to succession planning. One of the CEO’s key responsibilities is to make sure good succession planning is not just about their own role, but also covers all key positions.
Leading for high impact and results
Leading yourself, leading your team and leading change are core components of a compact three-day
Leading for High Impact & Results programme from Smurfit Executive Development taking place from 19-21 November 2014. It is designed for those who may be moving into leadership roles, or who want to support their existing leadership role with formalised training.
Leading for High Impact and Results has a unique focus on feedback, with full use made of the 360-degree feedback process and assessment instruments to enhance the self-awareness of each participating individual in a meaningful way. The programme combines tools of leadership and change management with interactive workshops, simulation exercises, feedback devices and case studies.
Led and designed by Prof Gibbons, this programme is delivered by a faculty at the forefront of each area of expertise, based on research excellence standards combined with very practical insights formed on the basis of professional experience, consultancy and ongoing engagement with companies and organisations – which complements their academic expertise.
Click here to listen to Prof Patrick Gibbons discuss ‘
Developing Personal Competence in Strategic Leadership’ and another interview on ‘
Leading Adaptable Organisations’.
Engineers Ireland special offer
The cost of this three-day programme is €2,000, but Smurfit Executive Development has a once-off special offer of €1,800 for all Engineers Ireland members. To discuss the programme or request an application form, please contact Charlotte Kemmis on (01) 716 8923 or email charlotte.kemmis@ucd.ie. To download a brochure here, click here.