7 Ways to be an Effective Engineering Manager

Not every great engineer makes a great engineering manager or leader. To lead a team of engineers, you must maintain understanding of a project's details while developing a keen focus on the larger picture. Your teams will work well if you can develop and demonstrate the following traits. Being an Effective Engineering Manager 1. Understand Your Team Your engineering team are not mere cogs in a machine; they are individuals, and each has his or her own strengths and weaknesses. A person may be suited well for one part of the process, but flounder in another area. Part of your job is to direct the right people to the right work in order to best advance a project to completion. 2. Understand Project Details Your engineering knowledge should remain your base. Before you can be an engineering manager, your team members need to know that you understand their jobs. Good engineers are detail-oriented; you need to master the details to earn their respect. As their leader, you not only need to know everyone’s area of expertise, but also know how each one contributes to the overall picture. 3. Have Confidence Not to Micromanage The flip-side of knowing details is to trust your team to navigate those details. This is one of the most difficult aspects of moving into a position of leadership: moving away from doing everything and moving into managing the processes and workflows. 4. Be Flexible No matter how carefully you plan and schedule the way you will run a project, you must be ready to adjust your course. Build in time for contingencies, and be ready to shift resources to ensure your timeline and end product remain feasible in the face of disruption. 5. Keep an Eye on the Big Picture The endpoint should remain at the forefront of your mind on every project. Engineers often do task-oriented work. As an engineering manager, you need to see how each task affects the overall project, and how the project fits into your company's overall goals. When team members' work moves in the wrong direction, it is up to you to bring it back. 6. Communicate Well As an engineering manager, you need to communicate clearly. Your team members need to know what you expect of them. Company management also must understand what you are doing and why. You will deliver oral instructions and written reports, and must learn to clearly and concisely deliver the information everyone in your organization need to know. 7. Manage Up, Down, and Through the Finish Understanding how to succeed begins with defining what outcomes represent success for your project. You need to set reasonable expectations for your managers to hold, and then identify those expectations for your team. Each engineer focuses on individual tasks, but to lead them through to the project's conclusion, you need them to understand not only what each task entails, but for what they are working. Want to Better Understand How to Manage Engineers? %CODE1ENGMGMTWHITEPAPER%

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