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Engineering and Leadership Podcast

The Engineering and Leadership Podcast is here to help engineers at any level thrive. Host Pat Sweet discusses management, leadership, productivity, and professional development, specifically as they apply to engineers and engineering teams.
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Engineering and Leadership Podcast
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Now displaying: Category: Leadership
Mar 18, 2022

In this episode, I discuss digital transformation projects with speaker, author, and former football player Tanvir Bhangoo, and why these projects are much less reliant on technology than you might expect.  

See the full show notes at https://www.engineeringandleadership.com/episode49Download our free guide to leadership for engineers - Engineering Leadership 101: Practical Insights for Becoming an Engineering Leader at Any Stage https://www.engineeringandleadership.com/leadership101

Mar 8, 2022
In this age of the Great Resignation, engineering firms everywhere are asking themselves what they need to do to attract and retain the best talent. Maybe you’re an engineering manager asking yourself the same question. Should you give people more money? Better flexibility? Better benefits? As you’ll hear, my guest today believes that the single most important thing you can do is provide a clear path for career growth and to actively support that growth, and he’s got the data to prove it. Anthony Fasano is the President and CEO of the Engineering Management Institute, an organization dedicated to helping engineers develop managerial skills such as communication skills, public speaking, networking, productivity and leadership. Anthony is a professional engineer and a certified professional coach. He holds a Bachelor of Science in civil engineering from Lafayette College and a Master of Science in Civil Engineering from Columbia University. See the full show notes at https://www.engineeringandleadership.com/episode48
Mar 1, 2022
With the world becoming increasingly interconnected and colocation becoming less and less critical to business operations, engineering organizations everywhere are transcending national boundaries. While organizations absolutely benefit from finding talent globally and integrating a diversity of thought and background into their ranks, managing international teams is incredibly difficult. Today’s guest, Pamela Kellert, has made a career out of managing large, global technical teams in a number of industries. In today’s interview, she shares her insights into how to better manage international teams. See the full show notes at https://www.engineeringandleadership.com/episode47
Feb 8, 2022
Dolores Hirschmann believes that clarity of message is critical to effective leadership. A leader’s team can’t buy in to a vision without first understanding it. In today’s episode, Dolores helps engineering leaders understand the importance of clarity of message, how to tell if your messaging is clear, and provides practical steps on how to improve your communications.
Feb 1, 2022
I think we’ve all felt at one time or another that we were living inside a Dilbert cartoon - as though the company we worked for didn’t care much about us or the world around us so long as growth targets were hit. And if you’ve had that experience, you know it can make for a pretty terrible work environment. My guest today wants to make organizations like that a thing of the past. Ralf Specht is just about to release his new book, Building Corporate Soul: Powering Culture and Success with the Soul System, and in the book, he spells out how companies can regain their soul, and makes a strong case for soul being good not only for staff, but for performance as well. Mr. Specht has been called “a visionary business leader” by FastCompany Pressm, and was a founding partner of the startup Spark44, a global marketing communications powerhouse. He consulted for more than 20 years with global companies and brands such as Deutsche Bank, Credit Suisse, General Motors, Nestlé, Coca-Cola, Puma and PWC with McCann Erickson.
Jan 24, 2022

Duncan Oyevaar believes in the power of business engineering. He has seen that organizations can dramatically improve themselves by equipping their engineers with excellent business skills, and he’s got the data to prove it. Today, we talk about why engineers need to understand a business’ financials, value stream mapping, continuous improvement, and the importance of listening to your staff. 

 

See the full show notes at https://www.engineeringandleadership.com/episode44


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Jan 17, 2022

In this special edition, I tease the next episodes of the show and make a major announcement about the future of the Engineering & Leadership project.

See the full show notes at https://www.engineeringandleadership.com/episode43

Subscribe to the free Engineering Leadership Weekly newsletter to learn valuable engineering leadership tools and techniques, get access to special events, discounts, and many other members-only offers. Join a community of thousands of engineering leaders from world-class organizations like NASA, Airbus, BAE Systems, Texas Instruments, John Deere, and the US Navy by subscribing today.

Nov 3, 2021
Download our free guide to leadership for engineers - Engineering Leadership 101: Practical Insights for Becoming an Engineering Leader at Any Stage https://www.engineeringandleadership.com/leadership101
 
See the full show notes at https://www.engineeringandleadership.com/episode42
 
Joseph Seiler has spent his career helping engineers do incredible work by empowering them and stepping back to let them do incredible work - first as the president and CEO of his own company, and today as a Master Certified Coach. Joseph's experience provides incredible lessons learned for engineering managers of all stripes, most especially the value of coaching as an engineering manager.
 
Listen in to hear Joseph's answers to these questions (and more):
  • Can you tell us a bit about your background in engineering and leadership?
  • What prompted you to make the move to coaching?
  • What is coaching? How does it differ from consulting or therapy?
  • Can you tell me a story about a time when you left space for your team  to make its own decisions rather than step in for them?
  • You’ve written that Values drive behaviour, behaviours drive results. Can you expand on that?
  • What concrete things can leaders do to elicit their own values? How do we avoid the trap of things we “should” or “shouldn’t” value?
 
Learn more at https://www.engineeringandleadership.com
Oct 26, 2021
Peter Drucker, the father of modern management thinking once said that "Culture eats strategy for breakfast." That wasn't a knock on how important strategy is, rather, he's emphasizing the importance that culture plays within an organization.
 
Today's guest would share that sentiment. Today, I speak with Dan Langevin, the CTO of Vericred about the role culture plays in a technical organization, and specifically about the importance of both accountability and curiosity for Vericred's engineering team.
 
 
Download our free guide to leadership for engineers - Engineering Leadership 101: Practical Insights for Becoming an Engineering Leader at Any Stage https://www.engineeringandleadership.com/leadership101
Oct 19, 2021
Today, I share my best tips and tricks on how to make your meetings shorter, more productive, and less painful.
 
 
Download our free guide to leadership for engineers - Engineering Leadership 101: Practical Insights for Becoming an Engineering Leader at Any Stage https://www.engineeringandleadership.com/leadership101
Oct 13, 2021
One of the struggles many engineering leaders have is knowing how and when to let go and allow their teams to move forward with their daily work. It can be incredibly difficult to know how to transition from working in the team to working on the team. This leads to micromanagement, impaired performance, and a dearth of leadership and direction.
 
Luckily, Peter Docker addresses this exact problem in his new book, Leading from the Jumpseat: How to create extraordinary opportunities by handing over control. In today's episode, I speak with Peter about his new book, the importance of letting go, and what it takes to be a fantastic engineering leader.
 
See the full show notes at https://www.engineeringandleadership.com/episode39
 
Download our free guide to leadership for engineers - Engineering Leadership 101: Practical Insights for Becoming an Engineering Leader at Any Stage https://www.engineeringandleadership.com/leadership101
Aug 3, 2021
Culture is the glue that holds an organization together. It's the unwritten, ethereal rules of engagement - the collection of "how things work around here". Today, I speak with Mark Kinsella, VP of Engineering at Opendoor about organizational culture: what it is, why it's important to engineering organizations, and how to drive excellence through excellent engineering culture.
 
See the full show notes at https://www.engineeringandleadership.com/episode36
 
Download our free guide to leadership for engineers - Engineering Leadership 101: Practical Insights for Becoming an Engineering Leader at Any Stage https://www.engineeringandleadership.com/leadership101
Jul 19, 2021
Helping Women in Engineering Thrive
 
In today's interview, I speak with Stephanie Slocum, author of She Engineers and founder of Engineers rising about supporting women in engineering through addressing unconscious bias, redefining success at creating a better, more inclusive future.
 
See the full show notes at https://www.engineeringandleadership.com/episode35
 
Download our free guide to leadership for engineers - Engineering Leadership 101: Practical Insights for Becoming an Engineering Leader at Any Stage https://www.engineeringandleadership.com/leadership101
Jul 12, 2021
In many industries around the world, hybrid workplaces are expected to become the norm by the end of the COIVD-19 pandemic. However, despite the obvious benefits to giving workers the flexibility to work outside of the office, there are also real challenges associated with hybrid workplaces that leaders should know about.
 
In this episode of the Engineering & Leadership podcast, I interview psychologist Dr. Robin Rosenberg about the risks posed by hybrid workplaces, how to overcome them, and the future of hybrid work.
 
 
Download our free guide to leadership for engineers - Engineering Leadership 101: Practical Insights for Becoming an Engineering Leader at Any Stage https://www.engineeringandleadership.com/leadership101
Jun 30, 2021
Public speaking is a skill that many engineers never actively develop. It's not emphasized in engineering school, and in many cases isn't viewed as that important anyway.
 
Neil Thompson had exactly that worldview. When he entered the working world, however, all of a sudden he was thrust into a position where regular presentations to company executives were required, meaning he had to improve his public speaking skills fast.
 
Inspired by that experience, Neil launched Teach The Geek dot com, a business dedicated to helping engineers develop their public speaking skills.
 
Today, Neil shares his advice for engineers everywhere on why public speaking is so important for engineers and how to improve as a public speaker.
 
See the full show notes at https://www.engineeringandleadership.com/episode33
 
Download our free guide to leadership for engineers - Engineering Leadership 101: Practical Insights for Becoming an Engineering Leader at Any Stage https://www.engineeringandleadership.com/leadership101
Jun 21, 2021
Today, I speak with Wastefront's CTO, Henrik Selstam, about his company and their mission to address one of the world's most pressing environmental challenges: dealing with end-of-life tires.
 
By some estimates, over 1.5 billion tires are discarded each year. They're notoriously difficult to recycle, and many end up in landfills where they leach toxins into the soil and water.
 
By almost any measure, this is a huge problem, and growing.
 
That's why Wastefront, a startup based in Norway, has been working to develop methods of  recycling old tires to create products that can be used in tire production, mechanical rubber goods or as a filler for plastics.
 
See the full show notes at https://www.engineeringandleadership.com/episode32
 
Download our free guide to leadership for engineers - Engineering Leadership 101: Practical Insights for Becoming an Engineering Leader at Any Stage https://www.engineeringandleadership.com/leadership101
Jun 13, 2021
My guest today believes that language is the most important thing for leaders to get right. In fact, he believes leadership is language.
 
The world we operate in today looks very different than it did 100 years ago. There is more complexity, more uncertainty, and greater competitive pressures than ever before. But, according to David Marquet, there's one thing that hasn't changed much in the last 100 years: how leaders speak to their teams.
 
Today, I speak with David Marquet on the importance of the language we use as leaders, what's wrong with the old way of engaging with our teams, and how to drive performance through what we say.
 
See the full show notes at https://www.engineeringandleadership.com/episode31
 
Download our free guide to leadership for engineers - Engineering Leadership 101: Practical Insights for Becoming an Engineering Leader at Any Stage https://www.engineeringandleadership.com/leadership101
Jun 6, 2021
Whether we realize it or not, we are all leaders. If nothing else, we lead ourselves. We make the big decisions in our lives and careers and follow our own distinct paths.
 
The question is: are you leading yourself with intension?
 
For many of us, we lead ourselves haphazardly. We drift through our careers and make decisions based on the opportunities that present themselves, rather than creating the opportunities we really want.  Luckily, you really do have the power to lead yourself, and help others do the same.
 
In this episode of the Engineering & Leadership podcast, I speak with Dr. Ben Ritter about the importance of leading yourself and how to start if you've never tried.
 
See the full show notes at https://www.engineeringandleadership.com/episode30
 
Download our free guide to leadership for engineers - Engineering Leadership 101: Practical Insights for Becoming an Engineering Leader at Any Stage https://www.engineeringandleadership.com/leadership101
May 24, 2021
For anyone who has lead an engineering project or a technical team before, you know how important it is to manage performance. Whether it's widgets per hour, the percentage of work complete, or the number of requirements derived, knowing your project by the numbers is critical to understanding how things are going.
 
Luckily enough, we as engineers love our numbers. We're more than comfortable making sense of charts and graphs and thinking about the world around us in quantitative terms.
 
And that is why it's so perplexing to me that technical projects have such trouble with their metrics.
 
Regardless of what project I work on, regardless of industry, there is a near universal appetite for metrics, and a nearly matched propensity to misuse and abuse metrics.
 
Today, I'm going to share five common issues I see in professional practice, and how to address them on your projects.
 
See the full show notes at https://www.engineeringandleadership.com/episode29
 
Download our free guide to leadership for engineers - Engineering Leadership 101: Practical Insights for Becoming an Engineering Leader at Any Stage https://www.engineeringandleadership.com/leadership101
May 17, 2021
Many of us dream of going it alone one day - of shedding the 9 to 5 and trading in your cubicle for a desk in a garage. Society lionizes the likes of Steve Jobs and Elon Musk, and it's incredibly tempting to imagine what life might be like as a successful entrepreneur.
 
But what's it really like to be an entrepreneur? How do you even get started? And how do you know you have a good idea in the first place?
 
In today's episode, I speak with Brett Fox, a seasoned high-tech executive and entrepreneur who has made a career of launching successful businesses and turning around foundering ones. He answers all the most important questions about launching a successful startup, and shares particular insight into the importance of having a fantastic founding team, why clarity of thought is critical, and why the COVID-19 pandemic might just be the perfect time to launch a new venture.
 
See the full show notes at https://www.engineeringandleadership.com/episode28
 
Download our free guide to leadership for engineers - Engineering Leadership 101: Practical Insights for Becoming an Engineering Leader at Any Stage https://www.engineeringandleadership.com/leadership101
May 10, 2021

One of the hallmarks of a great leader is the ability to draw people together in the name of something greater than themselves. They establish bold missions for their teams and paint a vivid picture of what a better future could look like if they were to succeed.

For Vivian Shen, CEO and co-founder of Juni Learning, that mission is to provide kids with world-class computer science, math and english eduction no matter where they live. That mission has carried Juni to incredible heights in the past few years, leading to remarkable growth and substantial investments from well-known investors.

In today's episode, Vivian and I discuss the importance of mission in leading a team, why she decided to move on from her "dream job" at McKinsey, how she's successfully building a remote technical team, and what the future holds for Juni.

See the full show notes at https://www.engineeringandleadership.com/episode27

Download our free guide to leadership for engineers - Engineering Leadership 101: Practical Insights for Becoming an Engineering Leader at Any Stage

https://www.engineeringandleadership.com/leadership101

May 3, 2021

Many of us think of our lives in  as though they move between discrete phases. First we get educated, then we work, then we enjoy life in retirement. My guest in today's show turns that notion on its head by combining work, education, and a zest for life all at the same time.

Dr. Lucas Marino is a principal life cycle engineer for the COLUMBIA submarine program,  engineering manager, educator,  small business owner, and family man. In today's episode, we discuss the importance of learning and teaching for practicing engineers, pursuing passions, and keeping it all in balance.

See the full show notes at https://www.engineeringandleadership.com/episode26

Download our free guide to leadership for engineers - Engineering Leadership 101: Practical Insights for Becoming an Engineering Leader at Any Stage

https://www.engineeringandleadership.com/leadership101

Apr 26, 2021

We have all heard that necessity is the mother of invention. If there's any good that has come from the COVID-19 pandemic, it's that it has forced many of us to re-evaluate our lives, take stock of where things stand, and ask some tough questions: Are we living the lives we should be? Are we prioritizing what we value most? If this world we live in really is this fragile, are we taking the opportunity we have to make a difference? It's forced the reinvention of ourselves.

For my guest today, it wasn't a pandemic that drove a reawakening, but the sudden end of his marriage that forced a major reset in his life. Michael Tranmer is a professional engineer, author, and TedX speaker who has chronicled his journey from rock bottom to true happiness in his book Satori Ananda: Awaken to Happiness. We discuss his story, self-discovery, and how to drive change in your own life.

See the full show notes at https://www.engineeringandleadership.com/episode25

Download our free guide to leadership for engineers - Engineering Leadership 101: Practical Insights for Becoming an Engineering Leader at Any Stage

https://www.engineeringandleadership.com/leadership101

Mar 29, 2021

We all go to school expecting to learn the skills we need to succeed in the real world. As engineers, we probably felt  confident that  would end our degrees equipped with everything we needed to build strong careers and climb the ranks. Armed with knowledge of AutoCAD and second-order differential equations, there would be nothing we couldn't handle.

For anyone who's been in the workforce for any length of time knows, however, is just how far that is from the truth. That's why author, engineer, CTO and veteran MIT instructor Mark Herschberg wrote The Career Toolkit: Essential Skills for Success that No One Taught You. After teaching in MIT's Undergraduate Practice Opportunities Program for nearly 20 years, combined with senior leadership experience in startups and fortune 500s, Mark learned exactly what skills engineers needed to thrive and how to teach them.

In today's episode, I interview Mark to learn more about:

  • The essential skills he believes you need to succeed as an engineering leader
  • Why universities don't do a better job of teaching skills beyond the technical necessities
  • What makes management so hard - How to start leading others on the first day of your career

See the full show notes at https://www.engineeringandleadership.com/episode24

Download our free guide to leadership for engineers - Engineering Leadership 101: Practical Insights for Becoming an Engineering Leader at Any Stage

https://www.engineeringandleadership.com/leadership101

Mar 22, 2021

In today's episode, I speak with Andrew Hinkelman, leadership coach and former CTO of Parametric, a fintech startup recently acquired by Morgan Stanley, about leadership and management in the technical world, and how to set yourself up for success as a leader in tech.

See the full show notes at https://www.engineeringandleadership.com/episode23

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