What should be the responsibilities of an Engineering Manager to those reporting to him?
What should be the responsibilities of an Engineering Manager to those reporting to him?
(OP)
What do you feel the responsibilities and duties of an engineering manager should be to the people reporting to him, and to the company he works for, for that matter? It seem there are lots of people in engineering management who aren't engineers. How do you know if the people you manage are doing a good job and following best practices, never mind offer direction, if you know nothing about what they do? They can explain it to you, but you don't know if that's the right or best way to do it.
Edited to add: Conversely, how would the manager know when his workers are overload, or have unrealistic project time frames?
Edited to add: Conversely, how would the manager know when his workers are overload, or have unrealistic project time frames?
RE: What should be the responsibilities of an Engineering Manager to those reporting to him?
It isn't mandatory that engineers manage engineers, but it sure helps. If they have some trusted senior engineers that they can lean on to bounce technical items off of or estimate effort, that's ideal. Once again, like a coach, you don't have to have been a player, but it helps, especially with credibility.
Personally, I've always worked for engineers. Some are good managers, a lot aren't. Tt never stopped any of them from overloading me. Now I'm a supervisor of a small group and sometimes you need to push people. There's just more work than people to do it.
RE: What should be the responsibilities of an Engineering Manager to those reporting to him?
RE: What should be the responsibilities of an Engineering Manager to those reporting to him?
RE: What should be the responsibilities of an Engineering Manager to those reporting to him?
In my opinion my manager should be an interface to the rest of the company, providing resources, allocating projects, and helping to solve organisational roadblocks. The organisation also has requirements of the manager, involving performance management, timesheets, budgets and other such eye glazing topics.
Cheers
Greg Locock
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RE: What should be the responsibilities of an Engineering Manager to those reporting to him?
TTFN (ta ta for now)
I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKorP55Aqvg
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RE: What should be the responsibilities of an Engineering Manager to those reporting to him?
I took that to heart and still do, as I am a manager myself now. It takes on a slightly different meaning for each person - a big part of being a manager is getting to know your team and understanding their strengths and weaknesses individually, then doing what you can to help them be successful. Some people see management as a position of power and privilege; however, I believe a manager should be working just as hard or harder for the people they are managing (not just the other way around).
I have not been managed by someone who was not an engineer, but have worked with others in that situation. I believe the key is to understand what you can, but be honest with everyone - it's better to let your team know you don't understand something and have them bring you up to speed than to make assumptions. You need the right information to make the right decisions, as well as to keep those above you properly informed (and as Ron said, out of everyone's hair, haha).
RE: What should be the responsibilities of an Engineering Manager to those reporting to him?
You clear the snow out of the way so that other people can drive.
Who is right doesn't matter. What is right is all that matters.
RE: What should be the responsibilities of an Engineering Manager to those reporting to him?
It seems a lot of this can only come from experience in the engineering field.
RE: What should be the responsibilities of an Engineering Manager to those reporting to him?
It is the responsibility of the engineers to be able to provide those answers to the manager when they don't know it themselves. This is why its often desirable to have mid-senior level engineers providing peer checks/oversight over the less experienced.
Of course, none of this is to say that it's not preferable to have a good manager with some engineering background. But, if I had a choice between a good manager with no engineering background, or a bad manager with an engineering background, I'd take the former every time.
RE: What should be the responsibilities of an Engineering Manager to those reporting to him?
I am an engineer (and I believe a good one) in the same discipline as my department, but I can tell you that you don't have to be an expert in a task to be able to effectively manage it. Just think about a land developer building a subdivision. He/She doesn't need to know how to swing a hammer, crimp a fitting, finish concrete, etc., to be able to understand (obviously with some experience) how long it takes to do these things under various circumstances. And for that matter, most managers will have staffers that are better at the individual contribution part than the manager, even if the manager is trained and experienced in the same tasks. That's okay. I think it does help to have direct task experience, but it is certainly not necessary.
RE: What should be the responsibilities of an Engineering Manager to those reporting to him?
RE: What should be the responsibilities of an Engineering Manager to those reporting to him?
Pamela K. Quillin, P.E.
Quillin Engineering, LLC
NSPE-CO, Central Chapter
Dinner program: http://nspe-co.org/events.php
RE: What should be the responsibilities of an Engineering Manager to those reporting to him?
** Important exception is a manager who is effective at facilitating the solution of technical problems. If you're going to switch fields or companies, this would be an important factor.
The most popular managers from the point of view of higher-ups are the ones who don't get bogged in solving technical problems and talk only in business-speak. Or they pretend to be experts and make broad reaching decisions on a selected nugget of subject knowledge they use to justify the direction. They manage through metrics and OTD and don't really understand when these approaches are altering behavior in undesirable ways. They hire and fire without hesitation because it's easier than working with the people or understanding their problems.
The unicorn is the engineering manager who can navigate both sides and serve both roles.
RE: What should be the responsibilities of an Engineering Manager to those reporting to him?
Collaboration with an engineering manager can simplify a problem or open up new considerations. If an engineer is solving the wrong problem or assuming too many details that may not matter, an engineering manager can be a fantastic coach and collaborator towards efficiency. If the problem and delivering with business sense is a priority, then engineering managers have that daunting responsibility of managing delivery and cost.
Don Dalrymple
Principal
Meadows Analysis & Design
RE: What should be the responsibilities of an Engineering Manager to those reporting to him?
RE: What should be the responsibilities of an Engineering Manager to those reporting to him?
RE: What should be the responsibilities of an Engineering Manager to those reporting to him?
That's completely unrealistic beyond the lowest level of management. I also believe it's untrue. My current boss is an electrical guy and our company has all mechanical engineering work. He does very well by asking the right questions, listening, and relying on the people who know.
The trick is finding managers who can check their ego and ambition long enough to do those last 3 things.
David
RE: What should be the responsibilities of an Engineering Manager to those reporting to him?
RE: What should be the responsibilities of an Engineering Manager to those reporting to him?
No. I don't agree with that statement at all.
Managing people is completely different. As hokey as I think sports analogies are, sports has it dead right when it concerns people management. Getting people in positions where they can be successful and can grow, developing employees, keeping conflict to minimum, getting everyone on the same page, reducing their player's focus to just preparing for and playing games. It is a nightmare when you have a manager that couldn't manage a 7th grade basketball team. They got it all worked in sports, I believe, just because the results are so glaringly obvious. You did well or you didn't and if you didn't did you under perform with the players you had. What benchmarks are their for managers in large companies? Maybe, if you did better or worst than the guy before or after you?
RE: What should be the responsibilities of an Engineering Manager to those reporting to him?
RE: What should be the responsibilities of an Engineering Manager to those reporting to him?
Agree that this is a major problem.
I believe this is unrealistic. It's a helpful trait, and in technical situations, very important, but not the answer to the problem above.
Bigger picture, the sports analogy is perfect because not all former players fit in with a new role. Yet in business, some people expect to be promoted upward when the position above them opens up. In a high performing organization, the reality is that the personality, skills, and experience must match the position. Executives must be willing to compete, innovate, and develop new opportunities, and it must be in their blood. Middle managers must gravitate toward handling their people, building seamless processes within their team and among the other teams. "Do'ers" such as Engineers must naturally focus on the task of Engineering. These people must speak each others language on some level to convey what their perspective means to the organization. If you're wondering where you fit in, consider the work matters that roll through your mind in the car or in the shower. This is an indication.
On a related note, there are countless small technical companies run by Engineers or machinists who grew up in the business. These are the companies that just continue to exist without growth or realignment until the market dies and they go with it. A company that doesn't want to die at the hands of inevitable market change has to see past the value of their one or two technical solutions and look to find new ways to help their customers. Great companies collect customers, not technical solutions.
The answer, for me, about the know-it-all manager is to remove them. Organizations with 360 reviews for example help expose this problem. A key person quitting and giving the reason as their manager, helps expose this problem. Whether the company then takes the necessary steps is a test of the company culture. Those topics are bigger than this thread.