What Makes an Exemplary Engineering Leader? In the Words of Engineers

Abstract

Recent research suggests that engineers can be more inclined to identify leadership in the practices of admired colleagues than recognizing themselves as leaders [1-4]. We believe by asking engineers who they view as exemplary engineering leaders, we can sidestep some engineers’ reluctance to adopt leadership as part of their engineering profession to allow us to better understand the qualities of engineers who lead. This work is based on two survey questions that ask engineers 1) to identify exemplary engineering leaders in their lives, and 2) to describe what makes an exemplary engineering leader. While we set out to analyze the 828 open-ended responses through Engineering Leadership Orientations framework [3], our analysis of the responses revealed 3 perspectives engineers take to define exemplary engineering leadership: an individual’s values, attributes and traits, an individual’s skills, abilities, and behaviours, and lastly, an individual’s impact to community, society, or the profession. This works contributes to the developing definition of engineering leadership by providing the perspective of engineering professionals from industry.