Engineering Design Management 11

[teaaddict]

I am just about to start my first move into Engineering Design Management. I will be managing a team of probably 4 Staff plus additional contractors. Over the years I have supervised design teams but I have never been the Boss.

Do you have any useful tips that you may share?

 

[GregLamberson]

teaaddict

Here's my 2 cents.

Communicate would be the big one. Make sure everyone knows exactly what his role is and excatly what your expectations are and then make sure they have all of the informaiton and tools to do their job.

I have a hate-hate relationship with meetings, but understand their benefits IF they are effective meetings. A formal weekly meeting, held to a minimu may be in order, you can decide if it's needed. It may be that if you work close enough (physicially) you will do all of the coordiantion needed on a day to day basis or can huddle around a desk regularly.

You need to provide the overall priorities and let each one know what the schedule is and when the deliverables are needed. From that point, I personally prefer to let everyone then take care of how they meet the requirements until proven that freedom/responsibility will not work with the individual.

Make sure your door is always open figurativly speaking. Some folks approach management as "they'll do what I tell em", my approach is more that I'm there to coordinate, support, and assist them in getting their job done so the project requirements are met on schedule. This means going to bat for them if resources are needed or un-attainable tasks are asigned.

Your job is to keep management and the day to day politics and crap off their back so they can focus on their job. That menas running interference with HR for them if there is a problem, signing time sheets and expense reports now, not this afternoon or tomorrow. Sorting out whatever issues that may take focus away from the job they are hired to do.

At the same time there needs to be some guidlines, discipline, rules, whatever you want to call it - that's where your communicated, very clear expectations come into play.

Greg Lamberson, BS, MBA
Consultant - Upstream Energy
Website:

http://www.oil-gas-consulting.com

 

[PSE]

Well said Greg. A star for you. My only additions might be to celebrate with your employees for a job well done and that management by walking around can be useful. It gets you "out of your office", provides for a "feel" of what is going on and reduces perceived "ivory tower syndrome".

Regards

 

[zcp]

1. Give them the big picture and get out of the way.
2. Trust your team and don't micromanage.
3. Don't try to be friends. Being the manager comes first. Then you can be friends. (This is especially tough if you were working WITH you staff and now they are working FOR you.)
4. Read.
5. Learn to walk the razor's edge of 'everyone must be treated the same' and 'everyone is motivated differently'.
6. Be humble. Your accomplishments and skills may have gotten you to manager, but it is your team's accomplishments and skills that will take you farther.

ZCP

http://www.phoenix-engineer.com

 

[kchayfie]

Let your team do their job. A colleague has just moved from my department into design management and too often I find he's answering questions that should be directed to me (because process engineering is in his comfort zone) and not finding out the info he should in his new role because that's outside his comfort zone. Don't let yourself fall into the same trap.

 

[Noway2]

Just to follow up on the concept of meetings. I too have a hate-hate relationship with them. Most of the meetings I have been to are pretty much a waste of time and it becomes a chore just to stay awake.

In my first engineering position, every morning the staff would get together at 8:15am for about 10-15 minutes. We would take turns, giving a 1 minute update on where we stood with our portion of the project(s). This way, everyone in the department was up to speed on what was happening, and management was quickly made aware of any problem areas and could assign help if needed.

If and when I get into management this very brief, daily, morning meeting concept is one thing that I plan to implement.

 

[MadMango]

Greg has pretty much said it all. Great post!

Get to understand the strengths and weaknesses of your people, they will all be different. Help to improve their deficiencies by making resources available to them. Assigning the right task to the right person will yield a successful outcome every time, just don't turn specific people into mules that carry the load for your team while others are only given mundane tasks.

As Greg has said, communication is paramount. I hate attending a meeting when everything that has been said could have been covered in an email. Email can be your friend as long as you keep them short, simple, and to the point.

Remember that its easy to condemn someone for a poor job, and hard to praise someone for doing their job correctly. You don't have to smother your team with praise, but a quick "Good job." every now and then can go a long way.

Everyone enjoys their scheduled breaks and lunch time, this is their time. Don't schedule meetings or hand out tasks 5 minutes before a break, and try not to consume that time will a long meeting. You hated that when you were in their shoes, times haven't changed.

Good luck to you.

"Art without engineering is dreaming; Engineering without art is calculating."

Have you read faq731-376 to make the best use of Eng-Tips Forums?

 

[Comcokid]

Leading engineers has been compared to herding cats. However:

1) You can't herd cats. However, if you can get the cat's attention focused on a string or bird, you only need to stand back and let the cat do it's thing. Engineers also are very independent. Engineers need to be pointed in the right direction and given information needed to reach the goal. Then stand back and don't micromanage.

2) The simple sound of a can-opener will make cats do amazing acrobatic feats to get to the source of the sound. For engineers, recognizing them, meeting their basic needs for tools, and protecting them from politics will allow them to perform amazing design feats.

3) Cats may bring you a dead bird or mouse and lay it at your feet. This is a sign of respect and acknowledging you as the master. Engineers may occasionally bring you a thorny problem and ask for your help or resources. This is a sign of respect and acknowledgement of your position. Don’t throw the problem back into their face. Taking charge of a problem handed you by an engineer is not making you subservient to the engineer, it is freeing them up to focus better on other technical issues.

4) If you hiss at a cat, it will hiss back. If you then try to reach out to it, be prepared to go to the doctor. If you hiss at a cat often enough, it will avoid you or disappear for elsewhere. Don't yell or be-little your technical people - it is demotivating, not motivating. If you do loose your cool, quickly eat some humble pie and apologize or they may go elsewhere.

5) Cats sleep a lot - it's the nature of the cat. However, when you're asleep or not looking, cats will be on the prowl. It may seem that technical people are sometimes goofing off, but design engineering is not a production line. Technical people will read technical articles, may follow up a thought by searching the web, or may try to peruse an unrelated technical idea. It may not look like work, but creativity and keeping-up technically is part of the technical career. It pays dividends in the details of the design that you will probably never notice. Engineers tend to keep mentally working even when they are not at work. If you want to hiss at them about this, well, see #4.

 

[Comcokid]

Add to my previous post:

1A) A cat playing with a string may quickly get board and loose interest. If engineers are kept at the same repetitive tasks, they may also quickly get board and loose effectiveness. Be sure to provide changing challenges to your engineers. Make sure they are satisfying challenges and not impossible Herculean tasks.

 

[rcooper]

About 18 months ago I was given a management role over around 4 people. I was totally unprepared for this, but learn loads.

1) Everyone is different. If you try and treat everyone equally, they won't be happy. You need to find out what motivates the individual, not what motivates you.

2) Show each member of the team respect, but they will need to be shown respect differently.

3) Effective communication is unbelievably difficult

4) Getting someone to change how they do something is impossible. Show them how the change will improve their work/working environment and they will change themselves.

5) This one surpised me, I was expecting to find it harder to lead the more senior, experienced engineers, twice my age. I found they were all very supportive of me. What I did find was that a peer, my age, resented me being promoted above them and made my life hard. I have heard this can be common - when you are young your own peer group don't like to see someone moving ahead of them.

 

[SylvestreW]

nice post comcokid, but what if we're dog people

 

[csd72]

Good point SyvestreW,

Get rid of the cats and replace them with dogs, dogs are more loyal and can actually be your friend at the same time.

Just kidding.

Some good points here.

csd

 

[Ashereng]

When I have to manage people, I try to think back to the great bosses/managers that I had, and to remember what it was about them that I liked. Then, I look to see if those "things", whatever they nmay be, can be applied to my current situation.

"Do not worry about your problems with mathematics, I assure you mine are far greater."
Albert Einstein
Have you read FAQ731-376 to make the best use of Eng-Tips Forums?

 

[Comcokid]

Add to my previous post:

6) Cats require flea collars, litter boxes, scratching posts, vet care, etc. If you want to do without some of these the cat may not be at maximum health. Engineers also require accessories - tools, computers, software, equipment, etc. In many companies, capital equipment is a nasty word. But just like an old flea collar or old litter box, old equipment may not do the job, or may be just plain nasty. No equipment creates even a bigger mess.

OK - maybe I've taken this analogy far enough! I started out to post a quick remark about how managing engineers was like herding cats for teaaddict, and it grew from there.

Dogs don't work well when comparing them to Engineers. Dogs are too loyal - you can mistreat a dog to the point of killing it, and it will still look up to you. Too many dysfunctional companies want to hire dogs. Good engineers are more like cats - they won't put up with mistreatment for long before they leave.

I'm actually not a cat person. My sister had one when I was a small kid but today I'm allergic to 'em.

 

[ewh]

Dogs like the military.

 

[rjgoebel]

"5) Cats sleep a lot - it's the nature of the cat. However, when you're asleep or not looking, cats will be on the prowl. It may seem that technical people are sometimes goofing off, but design engineering is not a production line. Technical people will read technical articles, may follow up a thought by searching the web, or may try to peruse an unrelated technical idea. It may not look like work, but creativity and keeping-up technically is part of the technical career. It pays dividends in the details of the design that you will probably never notice. Engineers tend to keep mentally working even when they are not at work. If you want to hiss at them about this, well, see #4."

This quote is very telling and I can't agree more. The problem is that with some people it is hard to distinguish between when they are busting their butt and still valuing that added time to stay current and read up on other things, and when someone's productivity is just lower. I am an entry level engineer, and I know at this point one of my short term weaknesses is that I go on tangents and want to learn everything there is to know about everything, right now. I also in some ways fear specializing so much... I think these qualities in the big picture are real assets to the engineer, and to a company, but sometimes it's hard to balance the long term positives with the more short term financial outlook of a manager.

Sometimes I feel that consulting engineering is TOO much of an assembly line. In some way or another I want to apply some sort of new knowledge to advance the state or current art of something, and exploit a new market. Consulting engineering is all built around existing standards and codes, with a couple exceptions. It's not cutting edge enough.

 

[lz5pl]

Some time ago I found books of former US NAVY SEAL Richard Marchinko - Roggue Warrior. I was impressed how much some of his main principles of leading a team of special operation soldiers corresponds to the principles I have used in my professional life. Please see some of them:
The Ten Commandments of Spec War

1. I will always lead you from the front, not the rear.
3. Thou shalt do nothing I will not do first
7. Thou shalt Keep it Simple, Stupid.
8. Thou shalt never assume.


(Full list at

http://www.roguewarrior.net/TenCommandments.php)

It is difficult to imagine more different people than me and that guy (even in the army I have fired less than 20 bullets!), but we have came to same conclusions.
I have managed teams up to 10 people in various places - in my country and abroad, highly educated engineers and near to illiterate helpers, but this principles - and pay attention first to 1 and 3 - always work!


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It may be like this in theory and practice, but in real life it is completely different.
The favourite sentence of my army sergeant

 

[lz5pl]

And in more normal language it's Leadership Code is here:
* I will test my theories on myself first.
I will be my own guinea pig.
* I will be totally committed to what I believe,
and I will risk all that I have for these beliefs.
* I will back my subordinates all the way
when they take reasonable risks
to help me achieve my goals.
* I will not punish my people for making mistakes.
I'll only punish them for not learning from their mistakes.
* I will not be afraid to take action,
because I know that almost any action is better than inaction.
And I know that sometimes not acting is the boldest action of all.
* I will always make it crystal clear
where I stand and what I believe.
* I will always be easy to find:
I will be at the center of the battle.
(

http://www.roguewarrior.net/)

I think that most of successful industry managers will sign-up under this Code too.

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It may be like this in theory and practice, but in real life it is completely different.
The favourite sentence of my army sergeant