4 IEEE ENGINEERING MANAGEMENT REVIEW, VOL. 37, NO. 3, THIRD QUARTER, SEPTEMBER 2009

Leading Engineers: It’s More ThanTech-Talk!—BRIG. GEN (RET)RALPH V. LOCURCIO, MSE, PE,Florida Institute of Technology

IEEE DOI 10.1109/EMR.2009.2026787

WHEN I left the MilitaryService in 1996, after 30 yearsin the Army Corps of Engineers,I entered private engineeringpractice for several reasons. Firstof all, I wanted to understandthe practice of engineering forprofit, and the world of business,as compared to the practicesof public service engineeringthat had governed my practicefrom the day I left college. Thesecond motive was to see howthe influence of “profit and loss”factors affected engineeringmanagement systems anddecision making, again, ascompared to the public sector.

What I found was interesting,and to a degree, shocking.What was interesting was that Ifound that the basic practice ofengineering planning, organizing,operating and decision makingwas remarkably similar to whatI had experienced in the publicsector, as were the personnel.Engineers were engineers, plainand simple. Scientific methodsand engineering judgments werethe same. On the other hand,what was shocking was thenearly complete lack of goodleadership practices, as appliedto the management of these hardworking engineering personnel.My initial perception was thatthe pressures of “profit and loss”so dominated the thinking ofmanagement that they mostlyignored the considerable impactof their own behavior on the verypersonnel who were responsiblefor their success. Practicessuch as visioning, individualmotivation, communications,planning, and so on, were forthe most part sorely lacking.

Tempers flared when things wentwrong, blame was assigned andpeople were threatened withserious consequences. At first Iwas judgmental and bitter aboutthis perceived lack of concernfor people, but upon reflection Icame to the conclusion that thesemanagers had never been toldthat good leadership was a key,or perhaps “the” key element of asuccessful engineering practice.I began to preach leadership tothe managers in my division, butin the end, I decided that it wastoo little, too late, for them. Andthat the best way to change thesituation was to leave the privatesector to accept an appointmentto teach at Florida Tech, whereI developed a course in “LeadingEngineering Teams” that is nowmandatory for graduating civilengineers and constructionmajors.

The results of this course havebeen extremely gratifying asgraduating engineers have cometo realize that they will need thesevery basic and practical elementsof good leadership immediatelyupon graduation. The overallobjective of the course is to givethe students a background inthree key areas of engineeringleadership, namely:

• Individual Leadership—whatgoverns the behavior ofleaders and subordinates.

• Corporate Leadership—howindividuals behave in acorporate groups, and finally,

• Team Leadership—thepractice of forming andleading small engineeringteams.

LEADING ENGINEERS: IT’S MORE THAN TECH-TALK! 5

I recognize that it is impossibleto develop a qualified leader inthe short span of a five-monthsemester. In fact, the Armybelieves that it takes about 20years of constant education andsupervised practice to developa leader who has the skill,confidence and judgment for“independent” operations. Withthat in mind the purpose ofthe course, and this volume, isto create a sense of leadershipawareness and “responsibility,”with an associated data baseof resources that the emergentor seasoned leader can revisitwhen the situation calls for aparticular leadership behavior.In the college course, studentsare required to develop aleadership notebook whichthey fill with class notes, bookreports, reprinted journal articlesand a final paper titled “MyLeadership Style Going Forward”to serve as their “leadershiplibrary” as they begin theirjourney into engineering practice.Feedback from graduates hasbeen extremely positive andsupportive. They state thatthe course has given them amental “check list” of conceptsto consider when they encounterunfamiliar situations and a database of resource materials torenew their understanding of thekey concepts. In fact, some of thegraduates write back with thesuggestion that their managersattend this course because thestudents know more than theirleaders about how to motivateand lead subordinates in thesuccessful accomplishment ofengineering work.

The goal for this volume, then,is to provide a similar “portablelibrary” of leadership conceptsand resources for those who havenot had the opportunity to takesuch a course. I have divided thejournal into the same three basic

sections as the college course andI will describe the logic for theselection of the articles in each ofthe sections below.

INDIVIDUAL LEADERSHIP

This section is devoted to anunderstanding of self andto an understanding of thefundamental aspects of humanmotivation that govern individualbehavior. It is my strongcontention that most individualsare unaware of the uniquenessof their own personality, theirpreferred reaction to the externalenvironment, and how thesefactors impact their style ofleadership with co-workers andsubordinates. Following froman understanding of self, is acorresponding application ofthese same principles to teammembers and subordinates inseeking to understand, andrespond to, their individualizedneeds and their approach totheir environment. Therefore,it behooves an aspiring leaderto first understand their ownbehavior and then to seek toopen their mind to the needs ofteam members and followers, toeliminate the fog of the unknownand to communicate effectively ifthey ever hope to achieve the goalof optimum team integration.

CORPORATE LEADERSHIP

This section moves forwardfrom the above basics andseeks to explain how individualsbehave when organized intogroups, and in particular,corporations or firms engagedin engineering work. Owingto the Industrial Revolution,most of our organizations arefunctionalized into rigidlystructured “department”organizations. This structureis considered the norm andwe find it everywhere. This

environment creates a wholeseries of dynamics that operateto shape a new set of behaviorsthat stem from the individual’sresponse to this structure andthe resultant “culture” of theirfunctional work groups. Thequestion of suitability of thestructure to the work is, for themost part, overlooked. Any moreimportantly, is it suited to thehigh speed era of knowledgework that these emergentengineers will experience in theirlifetimes. This section seeks toexplain these effects and exploresome organizational methodsthat the leader can employ tominimize the negative effects ofcompartmentization, span thegaps between functional groupsand tailor new organizations tothe work of the future.

TEAM LEADERSHIP

Ultimately, all individuals work inrelatively small groups or teams,be they executive leadershipteams, middle managementteams or technical teams. Inparticular, a new graduate mostcertainly will be assigned to aproject or task team in their firstwork experiences. Consequently,the final section of this journalis devoted an understandingof the formation, developmentand functioning of teams. Theelements of a project team arecovered, followed by the behaviorof individuals as they join andbecome socialized to the teamnorms. Finally, the subjectsection ends with coverage ofrestoring synergy when change,conflict or disruption disturbthe optimal team environmentand jeopardize quality andproductivity.

With this brief introduction, Iinvite the new leader to read theentire volume to gain a sense ofwhat team leadership is all about

6 IEEE ENGINEERING MANAGEMENT REVIEW, VOL. 37, NO. 3, THIRD QUARTER, SEPTEMBER 2009

and what to expect in their firstwork assignment, and I invitethe more experienced leader toperuse the various articles toselect the ones that most suittheir personal situation andneeds. As mentioned before,

this journal is intended toserve as a notebook or portablelibrary of practical materialwhich engineering leaderscan review from time to timeto refresh their memory andrefocus their attention to those

things that motive their ownbehavior, and more importantly,provide insights into whatinfluences the behavior of theirsubordinates or team membersin the accomplishment of theirproject goal.