Leadership Skills for Technical Professionals

Leadership Skills for Technical Professionals

Society of Women Engineers ‘14 National Conference23 October 2014 - Los Angeles

Jill Almaguer, PE, MBA, PMPCarla Fair-Wright, PMP, MCTS, CSQEMarie Laplante, SWE Fellow

Disclaimer

OPINIONS EXPRESSED ARE SOLELY MY OWN AND DO NOT EXPRESS THE VIEWS OR OPINIONS OF MY EMPLOYER.

What I learned from Business SchoolJ ILL ALMAGUER, PE, MBA, PMP

PROGRAM MANAGER

TEXAS HEART INSTITUTE

Key Management Concepts Matrix: people focus vs task focus

Interviewing: Will do vs can do

Management Theory: X vs Y

Management By Wandering Around (MBWA)

Conflict Resolution Modes

Avoiding (or Withdrawing) Someone who uses Passive communication style may tend to avoid or withdraw from conflict

Avoidance does not resolve conflict

Conflict will recur again and again

Passive aggressive behavior may occur if conflict is not resolved

Avoidance could be used short term to buy time to prepare a long term resolution

Forcing Competing

Being uncooperative

Being assertive

Can be result of escalation of conflict to higher levels

Win-lose outcome

Smoothing (or Accommodating) Reduces emotion involved

Emphasizes areas of agreement

Keeps parties engaged in finding resolution

Creates good will

Confronting (or Collaborating) Face to face meeting between conflicting parties

Also called Problem Solving according to PMBOK, 4th Edition, pg 240

Examine alternatives

Requires give-and-take attitude and open dialog

Collaborate and integrate for a win-win

Compromising Could be win-win or lose-lose outcome

Orange example

May be result of confronting

Solution should have some degree of satisfaction for all parties per PMBOK p 240

What I learned from school of hard knocks

HIRE THE BEST PEOPLE

DEVELOP THEM

GIVE THEM AN ENVIRONMENT TO DO THEIR BEST WORK (ENGAGEMENT)

4 PERSONALITY TYPES

Analytical

Expressive

Amiable

Driver

Leading teams Team building activities

Shared vision

Shared plans

Modify your style to communicate

Each team member has different motivation

Stages of group dynamics

Adult learning techniques (3Ps)

What I learned from SWE Leadership Coaching Committee

3 styles of management◦ Authoritarian◦ Participative◦ Laisez Faire

Orange example of a win-win

Summary Key takeaways

Storms are inevitableConflicts unresolved = loss of productivityLeaders need to connect individually to engage a diverse teamPreparation + Practice = Performance

Contact information

References A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide) 4th Edition, published by Project Management Institute (PMI), pg. 240

Projects, Programs, and Project Teams, Advanced Program Management, Edited by Hiegel, James and Cesario, published by Wiley Custom Services for Keller Graduate School of Management, pgs. 354-355

Organizational Behavior and Performance, 4th Edition, Szilagyi (UH) and Wallace (Univ. KY)

Lead with Heart, Transformational Leadership for the 21st Century by Mark Crowley

Jill Almaguer, PE, MBA, PMP

Registered Professional Engineer in Texas for over 20 years (B.S. in Bioengineering from TAMU)

Managed large project teams at HP, Agilent Technologies, Texas Medical Center, Harris Health System, SWE

Experience in healthcare, IT, telecom, semi-conductors, education, energy

Adjunct Faculty, DeVry University

Certified Project Management Professional, member PMI

Program Manager, Texas Heart Institute

Biomedical Engineering Society Houston Industry Chapter Co-Chair

Biomedical Engineering Dept. Industry Advisory Board, Texas A&M Univ.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

LEARN TO BUILD AND NURTURE RELATIONSHIPSIn a cold world you need your friends to keep you warm

MARIE LAPLANTE

CTE UTILITIES, KBR PROCESS ENGINEERING

SWE FELLOW

BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS Meet people – the right people

Do your homework

Set yourself up in the right environment

Be prepared – have your “elevator speech” or short introduction ready

Elevator Speech:- Name- What you do- Value Proposition

NURTURING AND GROWING RELATIONSHIPS

Follow-up

Remember important things about your new colleague

Fill the (emotional) bank account

Make the effort to reconnect occasionally

Ask how you can help

MANAGER, MENTOR, SPONSOR, COACH…WHAT DO I REALLY NEED?

Manager – your boss. Need to keep happy.

Mentor – offers guidance, but has no authority to help you

Sponsor – ally and person of influence

Coach – paid help to identify and improve skills

NEVER EAT ALONE - THE SWE VERSION

Get away from your work and office

Connect in person

Use time to conduct SWE work, get work advice, just be friends

These are your real allies and mentors. They are not your work neighbors.

SUMMARY Identify and meet the right people

Stay connected

Get out of the office

Grow your network

Develop your personal board of directors

ABOUT THE SPEAKERMarie Laplante earned her B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and is a certified City of Houston First Grade Stationary Engineer and Six Sigma Green Belt. She is employed in KBR’s Process Engineering group as Chief Technology Engineer, Utilities. Her early career was focused in operations and project management in chemical manufacturing. Moving to the business side, she sold environmental technologies and helped American customers reduce emissions in the refining, petrochemical, and power generation sectors. She also worked in project management leading product development programs for coal gasification. She has been very active in the Society of Women Engineers and has served at the local, regional and national levels for more than 20 years. She is currently SWE’s national ethics committee chair, serves on the audit committee, and is a section representative. She also serves as CFO for Global Institute for Technology and Engineering (GIFTE) and is a member of the Education Foundation of Harris County. Marie has also been a judge with For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (F.I.R.S.T.) robotics for 15 years at regional and championship competitions. She is also a longtime member of MentorNet and enjoys working with young women who aspire to enter the science and engineering professions. She has been recognized for contributions as an engineer, as a leader in the community, and mentor to younger engineers with awards from her university and SWE.

Managing your Directs

CARLA FAIR-WRIGHT, PMP, MCTS, CSQE

PROJECT MANAGER

CHEVRON

Contents• Learning Objectives

• Introductions

• The role of a Manager

• Working with your reports One-On-Ones Feedback & Coaching Delegation

•Summary

• Q & A

• Speaker Evaluations

Learning Objectives To understand core management competencies To gain a greater understanding of the psychology of leadership Help participants become better managers To understand what emotional triggers make men and women

strong or weak as leaders.

The Role of the Manager

To create a supportive work environment where people can function at their highest

potential to advance the mission of the organization

To provide leadership for the team and manage the

performance and responsibilities of everyone

in the group.

To nurture a strong sense of common

commitment to shared goals.

Family vs. Career

Define what “having it all” means to you

Family

Partner Children

Career

Roadmap

Building Your TeamCommunications is key

One-on-Ones

Teams are built on trust - trust is developed through communication

Regularly, weekly, 30 minutes meeting

• 10 minutes for your direct• 10 minutes for you• 10 minutes to talk about future

One-On-One Rules of Engagement

Must be scheduled• Signals to your direct that you are available• Says you are valuable to me

Rules of Engagement• No taking control• No putting agenda above the purpose• Let them talk

º

Feedback & CoachingReal

Safe &

Effective

Emotionally Neutral

Feedback Model

Future Change

Outcome

PermissionBehavior

May I give you some feedback?

When you get the reports done early(Behavior)

We have more time to review (Outcome)

Thank you(I want this to continue!)

Delegating

Match the job to the talent. Assignment should not be based

on availability

Level of expected performance should

be communicated

Difficulty in delegating work is a common pitfall for a manager, especially a new manager

Delegating - ContinuedDelegate Don’t Abdicate

Train and instruct.

Validate and give feedback.

Be very clear on what you expect.

Keep the lines of communication open.

Report should understand how to handle problems that arise, safe work practices, and proper use of any Personal Protective Equipment needed.

Set up deadlines and reporting dates. Don't accept incomplete work.

Communicate what level of performance is acceptable, and what rate of improvement is expected.

Give help and suggestions as needed.

Summary

The Most Important Skill Is Knowing How to Build a Team

Communication is key to building trust

Feedback on behavior only

Delegate based on individual strengths and weaknesses

Magazines and Websites on Leadership and Management

There are many magazines and journals on topics related to management such as Forbes, Harvard Business Review, Fortune.

Below are magazines that carry articles related to leadership:

Business & LeadershipFast CompanyInc.

Leadership ExcellenceMcKinsey QuarterlyMIT Sloan Management ReviewManagement Today Magazine

INSEAD - Institut Européen d'Administration des Affaires Management Today - South-Africa's leading Business Journal

Wharton – Knowledge@Wharton Vistage - World’s foremost chief executive leadership organization.

ABOUT THE SPEAKERCarla Fair-Wright, PMP, CSQE, MCTS is a software engineer with over 17 years of experience in the IT industry. She is an IT Project Manager for Chevron, currently working in Global Power.

Carla is the chapter author of two books, 'Encyclopedia of Energy Engineering and Technology' and 'Case Studies and Applications of Web Based Energy Information and Control Systems.' She has been featured in the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) magazine, Maintenance Technology, and CODE Magazine.

Questions