The Role of Engineers and Technical Officers as Business Influencers and Managers Course

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 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

Course Outlines

• 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
• Proactivity - 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
• KepnerTregoe approach to problem solving
• Situation appraisal 
• Problem analysis
• Decision analysis
• Potential problem analysis

Who Should Attend?

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

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.