Chemical Engineering July 2020 - 42

You and Your Job
Owning Your Career:
Taking a Hard Look at 'Soft' Skills
A personal development strategy helps to set engineers up for success in their
personal and professional lives
Garrett Forsythe
Operational Excellence Consultant
A
s chemical engineers, we
have been trained to be
data-driven, fact-based
problem-solvers. This focus
serves us well when we are tackling
difficult technical problems and
developing and executing process
improvements. However, the need
to cover so many technical areas
in a chemical engineering curriculum
often leaves little time for some
of the " liberal arts " side of education,
such as communication, psychology,
writing skills and more. As
chemical engineering students, we
have enough challenges with kinetics,
thermodynamics, fluid dynamics
and process laboratory courses (Figure
1). So many of us enter the work
world with a good technical foundation,
but often with some skill gaps
that we are not fully aware of yet.
After all, awareness and effectiveness
in some of these " soft skills " are
crucial for personal and professional
success. These include additional
topics, like understanding personalities,
identifying one's strengths and
weaknesses, communication skills,
practicing emotional intelligence,
mindsets and behaviors and effective
change management. I consider
these " foundational skills " and have
found that young and mid-career
engineers find this " new " information
fascinating as they navigate their
own personal growth plans. Many
have not taken the time to sit back
and consider that
these skills can
be learned and
improved. The
ones that do can
develop advantages
that help
them both professionally
and
personally.
Rising up
Figure 1. The need to cover so many technical areas in a chemical engineering
curriculum often leaves little time for some of the " liberal arts " side
of education
In my years in
operations, research
and development,
supply
chain and
business leadership,
I have seen
countless new
engineers enter
the workforce.
Some have risen
through the ranks
of the workplace
- distinguishing
themselves as
chemical engiChemiCal
engineering www.Chemengonline.Com July 2020
neering professors, plant managers,
business leaders and even CEOs
of Fortune 500 companies - while
others have failed to live up to their
potential. In fact, some of my former
coworkers have been let go due to
performance, as well as personal
issues. But why? Could this have
been prevented?
To answer this, we must determine
some of the common predictors
of success. In my 40-plus
years of experience, I have concluded
that people who take their
personal development seriously
and have a (documented) plan that
they follow with discipline do have
an edge. Of course, technical competence
is a fundamental element
that must first be in place. Fortunately,
several mentors shared this
with me early in my career and I
am forever indebted to them. It's
something I'm trying to pass on to
the next generation of engineers.
If you work for a large company
or institution, as I did, your human
resources department likely has a
targeted development planning process.
Although these plans are often
effective, they may not fully account
for an individual's holistic development
and growth. The plans are
often generated once per year and
only reviewed occasionally throughout
the year. (Note: many smaller
companies do not have this formal
process, so engineers need to develop
their own development strategies
and elements. Not sure where
to start? Keep reading.).
As a manager of engineers for
most of my career, I was responsible
for helping develop these plans
(for myself and others). They often
focused on broad topics, such as
business expertise, customer relationships
and " getting results. " Al41
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