Management Skills and Techniques for Engineers

Why Attend

This course offers engineers and technical staff who are making the transition to managerial and supervisory positions an excellent opportunity to understand the differences in mindset between technical and functional thinking. Such transitions are not always successful and many engineers end up leaving their posts or the company altogether because they cannot cope with the new job requirements. This course gives engineers and technical teams the opportunity to make a successful transition from their technical comfort zone to an area that is quite different on many fronts.

Course Methodology

This course utilizes a number of assessments to give participants an opportunity to leverage their strong points and improve their weaknesses in order to ensure a successful transition to new functional and people responsibilities. The course also leverages open discussions around thorny issues to encourage analytical thinking and foster healthy communication. Participants will also get the chance to work in teams as they tackle multiple case studies and exercises revolving around project management and business problems.

Course Objectives

By the end of the course, participants will be able to:

Develop insight into the functions of management
Apply project planning skills from a business perspective
Identify and use the right performance Indicators (KPIs) to manage business performance
Communicate and work with others to achieve the desired goals
Acquire team building techniques to enhance business performance
Employ unbiased problem solving and decision making practices

Target Audience

Technical managers, supervisors and engineers who need to develop their managerial skills.

Target Competencies

People and performance management
Team formation and management
Individual and team motivation
Managing conflicts
Solving problems
Effective communication
Workforce planning and scheduling
Basic financial knowledge

The journey from technical to managerial
- Engineers versus management
  - Typical issues faced by engineers when they become managers
  - The fundamental shift in roles
  - Managing the transition
- Understanding the different functions of management
- Productivity - A management perspective
- Essential skills for engineers
  - Technical
  - Managerial
  - Leadership
- Management mistakes engineers need to avoid
Planning and organizing tools and techniques
- At a personal level
- At a project management level
  - Fundamentals of project management - A quick review
  - Scheduling and organizing
  - Workforce planning
  - Leading projects successfully
- At an organizational level
Managing performance
- Engineers and business performance management
  - Setting performance expectations
  - Working with key performance indicators (KPIs)
  - Developing 'SMART' business objectives
  - Business targets and performance standards
- Management and motivation
Working with others
- Engineers as business influencers
- Barriers to communication
- Developing effective communication
- Managing conflicts
Building successful teams
- Teams and teamwork
- Engineers as team leaders
- Understanding group dynamics
- Building high performance teams
  - Stages of team formation
Problem analysis and decision making
- Engineers as business decision makers
- Kepner Tregoe approach to problem solving
  - Situation appraisal
  - Problem analysis
  - Decision analysis
  - Potential problem analysis

2025 Schedule & Fees

There are no public sessions remaining for the course this year. Please contact us if you wish to have a customized in-house session, or to find out how an additional public session can be scheduled.

Overview