4 Secrets to Managing Engineers
Posted September 26th, 2014
Good managers are able to get engineers to meet deadlines and production quotas. Great managers are able to get engineers to finish early and under budget while encouraging a spirit of collaboration and innovation. If you want to get the very best out of your team, these four secrets can help.
Think Like an Introvert
Success in management often depends upon being extroverted, gregarious, and outgoing. Success in engineering often depends on being introverted, focused, and solitary. That creates a natural tension that negatively affects both parties. If you want to get the most out of your engineers, don’t expect them to mirror your personality, but instead create the kind of environments where they naturally thrive. Avoid holding hours-long group brainstorming sessions, moving to open office spaces, or trying to engage your engineers with shallow team-building activities. Ultimately, this only holds them back.
Rely on Flexible Scheduling
Engineering is filled with uncertainties. Unforeseen problems arise out of nowhere, progress often creates setbacks, and innovation is impossible to force or plan for. As a manager, you naturally want to rely on strict time tables and deadlines, but the very nature of engineering resists this kind of rigid predictability. Instead of creating stress for your engineers and dooming your project to failure, try to rely on goals and benchmarks more than deadlines and schedules.
Broaden Your Definition of the Work Place
Unlike some other professions, engineers don’t always, or even often, do their best work while they are sitting at their desks. There may be some weeks where it is necessary for your team to spend 60+ hours in the office, and others where expecting them to follow a standard nine-to-five schedule simply wastes time and creates stress. Give your engineers the freedom to work flexible schedules, work from home, and to take leave when they need it, and you give them the freedom and space they need to innovate.
Recruit Smarter
Managers often recruit engineers based on their skills rather than their personality. And while it is nice to have expertise in the office, success in engineering often depends less on knowing exactly what to do, and more on discovering how much could be done. When you are hiring engineers, look for soft skills like ambition, creativity, versatility, and collaborative spirit. It is these candidates that will be the best addition to your team, and in time they could deliver the elusive breakthrough you’ve been searching for.
Push your team to excel by relying on the resources of Bayside Solutions. Our dedicated tech-staffing firm can help you evolve and advance your workforce in exciting ways. Contact one of our recruitment-specialists today to learn more about what we can offer.
