Engineering skills that you can apply to a management role

Fresh in management barracks from the engineering ones? Wondering how this or that works? If everything seems strange, stop right there. Because you are probably not looking the right way.

Your engineering background can help you ace vital areas in people management. I made the switch, too, years ago and found four beneficial mantras to ace my new responsibilities hidden in plain sight.

Analytical Thinking

First up, the ability to analyze things can be your best gift from engineering. Analytical thinking prepares you to objectively assess any scenario you encounter.

For a manager, it’s a superpower. With solid analytical abilities, you can understand cause-effect relationships, determine the influences and reasons behind a particular situation, and use all these insights to make better decisions driven by instinct and understanding.

Visualizing Impact

Second, you must have been there at least once: you changed to improve one thing, but the second thing fell over. After doing this enough times, you develop the ability to continuously consider the second-order impact before taking a step. This is, again, a vital skill for team managers and leaders.

When you learn to anticipate unintended consequences, your problem-solving approach becomes more holistic. As a result, most of your plans and strategies will show resilience!

Systems Thinking

The next one is quite similar and effective in the same order. As an engineer, you will garner hands-on experience in working with set processes. Often, this helps us understand inefficiencies and continuously improve the methods that we are using. It’s not just about the upkeep of a set system but enhancing it regularly.

Now, how does this align with your management abilities? You can apply the lessons learned here to streamline workflows better. Have you heard a plan you think has too many loopholes? You know how to get into action.

Design Thinking

Going toward the last one, it’s a favorite because it correlates with my work areas. It’s called design thinking. It refers to an iterative process where the builders and users collaborate to improve products and services. The core lies in taking up users’ real-life behavior and emotions and putting them into the process.

It’s probably the most important thing that engineering experience can teach a manager because it enables effective collaboration with your team. Using design thinking principles, you can consider your team’s opinions, experiences, and insights before making decisions or leading them. As a people manager, this helps you stay in touch with your team members.

These are some areas where I found strong alignment and cross-application. A new role seems like uncharted territory, so it’s helpful to have something known holding your hand.

Obviously, the specific relevance of each skill may vary depending on the industry and the nature of the role. But broadly, there are some insights that you can adapt and reuse to create a leadership brand that conveys your uniqueness and experiences to the fullest.

Did you discover something like this too? Do share it below!