Chemical Engineering May 2023 - 43

Managing Skills
TABLE 1. SKILLS NEEDED FOR MANAGING AND LEADING
Leading Skills
my career and multiple roles. Integrity
matters most.
Developing the work and execution plan
Planning, scheduling and assigning work
Delegating work to the right individuals and teams
Coordinating and optimizing (efficiency)
Focusing on structure and systems
Maintaining safety, operations and cost control
Placing most attention on near-term priorities
skillset in both arenas. Table 1 shows
some of the key skills for each.
This certainly is not an exhaustive
list, but it is intended to show
the skillsets needed for roles that
are primarily managing or primarily
leading. One needs to consider
both columns when moving to a
new position and work to understand
what aspects of each will be
key for your success.
My experience is similar with many
other engineers I know. Typically, an
opportunity transitioning from an individual
contributor role leads to one
leading people, but with a smaller
group and scope to start. Depending
on performance after that, roles
with increased responsibility and job
breadth develop. When you are an
individual contributor, your personal
efforts, technical proposals and work
is mostly controlled by you. When
you start leading a team, you are responsible
for the performance and
contribution of the entire group. Influence
and communication skills become
even more important and visible.
Working with individuals with a
wider range of personalities and perspectives
to achieve common goals
becomes your responsibility (and
challenge). Some of your team may
be more relationship-oriented, others
may be more task-focused. Some
will be introverted, others extraverted.
A broader set of skills is going to be
needed to adapt and thrive. Some
will be more big picture oriented, others
will dive into the details. You will
need to learn the challenging lessons
of how to treat people as individuals,
while being fair with equal treatment
in many aspects of managing and
leading. New skills, like how to have
a difficult conversation, become even
more critical.
There are a number of great leadership
and management resources
to help you consider and build new
skills, mindsets and behaviors.
Developing the vision and strategy
Setting goals and key metrics
Ensuring the work team is resourced and capable
Working on the right things (effectiveness)
Focusing on people and positive change
Improving and innovating
Placing most attention on longer-term direction
Some that I have found personally
helpful, and have also been beneficial
to those I coach, are listed in the
box on p.44.
These are just a few of the impactful
books that are available. Additional
resources that I have used while
coaching and mentoring individuals
in their career growth include works
by experts such as Daniel Pink, Daniel
Goleman, Stephen Covey, Ken
Blanchard and Patrick Lencioni. Numerous
podcasts by these people
and others that cover leadership,
management, team development and
more are great for listening to while
exercising, driving or relaxing. There
is much debate on
what makes a successful
leader and
manager. You will
need to develop
your own style and
approach based
on your job scope,
organizational
culture and your
personality. Your
leadership team
should certainly be
supportive if this is
your first supervisory
role. Ideally,
you can also find
a mentor or coach
who can help you
- ideally someone
not directly in your
reporting line. One
foundation that
never changes is
that you will want
to work to build
genuine trust with
your
team
has
(your
supervisor, peers
and direct reports).
This
factor
always
that
been a critical success
I
have seen over
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Transitioning successfully
Taking a purposeful approach to
your transition from a primarily technical
role to a different role is important
to help you get organized and
prepared. When I have worked with
engineers considering a move from
a technical role to a new opportunity,
there is often a combination of emotions
and questions. Some of these
are typically the following:
* What will I need to learn and
know to be successful?
* How do I best get off to an effective
start?
* Will I miss my technical challenges
and comfort zone?
* What if I do not like the new role
- can I return to a technical role
or have I " burned a bridge " ?
* What effect will it have on my
current work-life balance?
* How will I like managing and
leading others as part of a team?
These are all very good questions
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Chemical Engineering May 2023

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Chemical Engineering May 2023
