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MANAGEMENT SKILLS FOR A PROJECT ENGINEER

Let’s take a moment to consider how a project engineer should apply this information. It’s useful to keep the functions of management in mind as a checklist to ensure you’re accounting for the whole spectrum of management considerations. To ensure you’ve covered everything as you approach a task, think over: plan, organize, delegate, control, integrate, measure, and improve. Occasionally take a moment to reflect and ask yourself some questions regarding your relationships with people and how the work is going.

People-related Questions
Since your formal authority as a project engineer is limited, you’ll have to rely on your interpersonal skills to influence your team and others. (There’s more on this in Chapter 6.) Ask yourself:

• Am I balancing my emphasis between the task and the people, especially during difficult or stressful situations?
• Do I motivate the team members by recognizing their accomplishments, giving credit where credit is due, assigning challenging work, and promoting a team spirit?
• Do we work as a team and take time to do teambuilding?
• Do we evaluate our performance as a team?
• Do I take steps to develop the people on my team?
• Am I keeping my boss informed?

Task-related Questions
While you’re leading the team in their day to day tasks, remember Mintzberg’s perspective that management is challenging, hectic, and chaotic. But don’t let that deter you from performing the leadership functions that a project engineer must do. Set priorities so that your team concentrates on the important tasks, and again ask yourself some questions:

Plan

• Do we have the right plan and are we sticking to it?
• Are we working on our top priorities?

• Does my team have the necessary full- and part-time skills?
• Have I clearly established and communicated the responsibilities to the team?
• Do they understand their responsibilities?

• Am I taking the time to delegate?
• Am I prioritizing the tasks that need to be delegated and handling those first?
• Am I allocating work to the whole team?

• Are we controlling, safety, quality, cost, and schedule?
• Do we use sound, ethical business practices?

• Am I linking the team with management, my peers, and the rest of the project?
• Do I facilitate communication and information flow between our area and others?

• Are we recording the necessary information to facilitate control and fulfill our reporting requirements?
• Do I have enough information to make decisions?

• Do we occasionally take time to learn from our successes and mistakes?
• Are we putting those lessons into practice?

Remember that you’re the leader and have total area responsibility. That gives you a mandate to coordinate all that goes on within the boundaries of your area. Look to your role models for guidance and example, then think and act like a manager... even if you’re not one quite yet.