Chapter 4 - Leading

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Chapter 4 - LeadingDr. C. M. Chang

Only to be used by instructors who adopt the text:C. M. Chang, “Engineering Management: Challenges inthe New Millennium,” Pearson Prentice Hall (2005)

Copyright © 2005 by Dr. Carl Chang



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Table of Contents

• Leading - Deciding, Communicating,

Motivating, Selecting and Developing

• Deciding - Rational Decision Making,

Kepnor-Tregoe Method, Gut Instinct,

Group Decisions

• Communicating - Asking, Telling, Listeningand Understanding



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Contents (Cont’d)

• Motivating - Inspire, Encourage, Impel

Need-based strategy (Maslow Model)

• Selecting – Focus on hard and soft Skills

• Developing - Performance correction and

personal growth

• Special Topics on Leading - Lead Changes, New Leader Strategy, Superior Leadership



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Leadership Style

• 1 - Nice Guy

• 2 - Loser

• 3 - Compromiser

• 4 - Task Master

• 5 - Ideal Manager

Task

4

2 1

3

5

People



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Use of Leadership Style

• No single style fits all situations

• A person’s dominant style is determined by

personality traits• Different leadership styles can be effective with

different people at different times

• Advice to engineering managers: Vary style flexibly

according to situation at hand in order to be effective



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Question # 4.1

• The company’s product promised to a major customer is running late

and there was intense pressure on the production team to deliver the

product. The Direction of Production was eventually told by the

company President to “deliver or else.” The Director thereforedecided to ship the product, even though it had not gone through all

its testing procedures. Members on the product team were angry by

the uncertainty in the functionality and reliability of the shipped

product. The Director however insisted: “We will just have to take

that chance.” As the Director of Production, how would you actdifferently?



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The Function of Leading

Communicating

Deciding

Motivating

Selecting People

Developing People



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Deciding

• To arrive at

conclusions and

judgements

• To assure that the

quality of decisions

made remains high



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Types of Decisions

• Spontaneous Decisions - Intuitive, hunch or gut

instinct based

• Reasoned Decisions - Based on systematicstudies and logical analyses (to the extend

possible): (1) Assess facts and evaluate

alternatives, (2) Use full mental resources, (3)

Emphasize creative problem-solving, (4)

Think consistently, (5) Minimize the probability

of errors (downside risks)



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Who is to Make What Decision?

• Staff

• Staff and Manager

• Manager



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Rational Decision Making

Process

Assess

Problem

Collect

Facts

Define Real

Problem

Develop

Alternatives

Select

Solution

Implement

Solution



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Question # 4.3

• You have been socially pretty active while in college. You know a few people over

the years. Among many friends, the following three stand out. Liza majors in

literature, is very sociable and communicative, and has an average appearance.

She does not hate homemaking. Julie, on the other hand, majors in computer

engineering, has a very sharp intellect, and is rather strong willed. She isreasonably sociable and has a passable appearance. Homemaking is not her cup of

tea. Debbie is the high school sweetheart, very adaptable and lovely, easy going,

comfortable to be with, and has a superb appearance. Her social skills are so so.

She likes homemaking which is a tradition of her family and she does it well. Your

grandfather is getting old and your mother has been bugging you to make up your

mind to get married. Time is running out and you need to make a choice. Howwould you go about deciding for one of these three candidates as a prospective

mate.



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CRITERIA WEIGHTFACTOR

LISA JULIE DEBBIE

Physical Appearance

Intellect/Knowledge

Adaptability/CompatibilityFuture Earning Power

Perceived HomemakingCapability

Social Ability

Total Weighted Score



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LISA JULIE DEBBIE

Physical Appearance 9

Intellect/Knowledge 5

Adaptability/Compatibility 9Future Earning Power 10


8

Social Ability 10




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LISA JULIE DEBBIE

Physical Appearance 9 5 8 10

Intellect/Knowledge 5

Adaptability/Compatibility 9Future Earning Power 10


8

Social Ability 10




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LISA JULIE DEBBIE

Physical Appearance 9 5 8 10

Intellect/Knowledge 5 8 10 5

Adaptability/Compatibility 9 8 5 10Future Earning Power 10 8 10 5


8 8 5 10

Social Ability 10 10 8 5

Total Weighted Score 401 387 385





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Decision Making by

Gut Instinct• Spontaneous Decisions - Intuitive solution

for complex and ambiguous problems

defying systematic analyses (No data)• Brain Activities - Left-side (logical, rational

and conscious) versus right-side (intuitive,

subconscious); Innovative ideas surfaceunexpectedly, due to accumulated “patterns

and rules” derived from past experience



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Decision Making by

Gut Instinct• Intuitive decisions can be wrong from time

to time, feedback from trusted sources is

needed to “recalibrate” patterns and rulesfrequently

• If repeated, feedback-based learning tends

to improve quality of intuitive decisionsmade in the future



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Decision Making in Teams

• Group dynamics

• Conflict,

consideration,

closure

• Criteria for goodgroup decisions



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Decision Making in Teams

• Group dynamics - New dimensions to

decision making: (1) Coalitions/alliances

among team members - position-basedadvocacy, (2) Conflicts of interests, (3)

Personality clash (fighting words, selective

seeing, interruptions, personal friction)• Leadership Role: (1) Managing conflict,

(2) Consideration and (3) Closure



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How to Communicate?

Telling

Asking

Listening

Understanding



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Asking

• Asking open-ended insightful

questions to gain knowledge

and to improve understandingof the situation at hand

• Quality of questions is an

clear indication of thequestioner’s grasp of the

situation at hand



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Telling

• Offer information to keep people (peers,

employees, bosses, supply chain partners,

customers) informed about matters of concern tothem

• Judgement is needed as to what to tell and what not

(“Need to Know” paradigm), seek balance between

(1) trust-creation and no surprise versus (2) controlover information



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Listening

• Remain focused in listening to the subtext

and true meaning of the exchange

• Maintain eye contact

• Exercise self-discipline to control own urge

to talk and avoid interrupting others



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Understanding

• To hear by the head and to feel by the heart

• Assess the degree of sincerity - verbal

intonation, facial expression, body language

• Recognize shared meaning (emotional and

logical)



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Common Barriers to

Communications

• Semantics

• Selective Seeing

• Selective Listening

• Emotional Barriers



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Common Barriers to

Communications• Interpretation of Semantics (words/terms may have

multiple meanings)

• Selective Seeing - See only what one wants to see

• Selective Listening - Hear only what one wants to hear

(screen out ideas divergent to own opinion or self-interest)

• Emotional Barriers (strong attitude and feelings, personal

biases)



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Motivating

• To motivate is to

apply a force that

excites and drives

an individual to

act, in ways

preferred by the

manager/leader.



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How to Motivate

Encourage

Inspire

Impel

• Inspire - Infuse a spirit of

willingness (By work

done, leadership traits,examples set)

• Encourage - Stimulate

through praise, approval

and help

• Impel - Force (Coercion,

compulsion, punishments)



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Selecting

• By selecting people, managers

gain staff with right skills,

dedication, value systems,

personality, and win their loyalty over time

• Associate themselves with the

right mentors and leaders



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Standard Procedure of

Employee Selection Process

• Define needs

• Define qualifications• Get applicants

• Review and pre-screen applicants

• Conduct interviews - Asking good questions

• Decide on job candidates



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Challenges of Selecting

• Managers are not trained to assess soft skills

- major sources of job-related problems and

key factors for career failures• Candidates are polished to “Talk the talk and

walk the walk,” masking their true long-term

personal behavior • Selecting people remains a major challenge

to all managers



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Developing

• Purpose: To improve knowledge, attitude and

skills of employees

• Knowledge: Cognizance of facts, truths andother information

• Attitude: Customary dispositions toward

people, things, situations and information• Skills: Ability to perform specialized work

with recognized competence



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How to Develop People

SetPersonalExample

Coach onthe Job

JobRotation

Courses &

Seminars

TeamAssignments



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Advice for New Leaders

• New Leaders - Sailing through dense fog in

first 6 months (short visibility ahead)

• Seven-rule strategy to follow:• (1) Leverage the time before entry - Study the

new situation (SWOT analysis), prepare

questions• (2) Organize to learn - Technical, cultural and

political arenas



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Advice for New Leaders

(Cont’d)• (3) Secure early wins - Get some wins in first 6

months

• (4) Lay foundation for major improvements -Initiate pilot programs to try out new technology

tools, Change ways to measure performance,

Introduce new ways of operating and viewing

business, Promote positive examples, andEnvision new mechanism to do business



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Guidelines for Superior

Leadership• (1) Maintain absolute integrity

• (2) Be Knowledgeable

• (3) Declare expectations

• (4) Show uncommon commitment

• (5) Get out in front

• (6) Expect Positive results

• (7) Take care of people

• (8) Put duty before self-interests



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Conclusions

• Engineering Managers should pay attention to: (1)

Making decisions under uncertainty (not suffering

from paralysis by analysis), (2) Motivating other engineers with proper motivators, (3)

Communicating by proactive asking and intensive

listening, (4) Selecting to focus on soft skills, (5)

Developing people using personal examples.



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Question # 4.8

• What are some of the important

characteristics of effective leaders? Which

of these characteristics are more difficultthan others for engineers to acquire?



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Question # 4.10

• The project was running late and the Section Manager thought, it was time for a pep-

talk with his staff. He realized that he was considered to be somewhat of an autocrat

by his staff, but this time he thought that he would show them that he was one of the

members on the team and that they would work together as one team in order to

succeed.The Section Manager thought he made quite a good speech. He pointed out

the project is running late and that, if they failed, the customer could cancel the

contract. He explained further that as manager, he was responsible for the success of

the project and so everyone would be equally to blame for the failure of the project.

Unexpectedly, a group of staff came in to see him a few days later, seeking to clarify if

they were all under threat of unemployment, should it turn out in the future that they

were late and the contract was cancelled by the customer. What went wrong? How

would you do differently?

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Chapter 4 - Leading