Leadership in Engineering: Why is that important in Engineering Education?
The National Society of Professional Engineers, through its Licensure and Qualifications for Practice Committee (L&QPC), has been considering what knowledge, skills, and attributes are important in the education and training of professional engineers, focusing on those which currently are not part of the education and training of most engineers. One of those areas of critical importance is leadership.
Leadership is hard to define. It is a quality that I think all of us can relate to, but it is difficult to describe in a broad context in a way that is applicable to all professional engineers at all levels. The NSPE L&QPC has defined it as follows:
“In an engineering context, leadership incorporates a number of capabilities which are critical in order to function at a professional level. These capabilities include the ability to assess risk and take initiative, the willingness to make decisions in the face of uncertainty, a sense of urgency and the will to deliver on time in the face of constraints or obstacles, resourcefulness and flexibility, trust and loyalty in a team setting, and the ability to relate to others. Leadership skills are also important to allow engineers later in their careers to help develop and communicate vision for the future and to help shape public policy. These leadership capabilities are essential for the professional practice of engineering and for the protection of public health, safety and welfare.”
Some of the above language was taken, with permission, from the Gordon-MIT Engineering Leadership Program, which was conceived to counter the decades-long trend resulting in engineers being managed by MBAs, entrepreneurs, and lawyers later in their careers. Leadership skills are indeed important to train engineers who will eventually lead companies and agencies. It is important to note that engineering leadership skills are critical at ALL levels of professional engineering. The engineer inspecting members beneath a bridge critically needs the leadership ability to assess risk and take initiative. All professional engineers, of all disciplines, need to possess the willingness to make decisions in the face of uncertainty, because that is what we do throughout our engineering careers. Whether managing a project, or functioning as a member of a project team, we all need a sense of urgency and the will to deliver on time in the face of constraints or obstacles. And, as projects become more complex, more interdisciplinary, and more subject to public interaction, all professional engineers need enhanced teamwork skills such as resourcefulness and flexibility, trust and loyalty in a team setting, and the ability to relate to others.
And yet, to date, we don’t teach these leadership skills to engineers in their engineering education in the vast majority of engineering programs. The protection of the public health, safety, and welfare will be enhanced if we start teaching these leadership skills. That will be a career-long learning path, but it needs to begin with undergraduate education.
