5 Reasons Accountability Is Needed for Success On The Big Engineering Projects
Accountability is one characteristic that is present every time success is realized on a big engineering project or any project undertaking. Think about the major goals you’ve accomplished in your personal life and your engineering career. University work entails accountability – exams, papers or projects, and semester grades. With the F.E. or P.E. exams, it’s […]
5 Ways to Get Big Picture Thinking
How many times have you heard that you need to get the big picture? Or that you feel like you didn’t have the big picture? I’ve heard this phrase repeated too many times to count and each time I do the thought that runs through my mind is this: what exactly is the big picture […]
The 4 R’s that are Critical to a Successful Engineering Career
Information on the 4Rs for a successful engineering career was sent to me by Anthony Venafro who serves as the Director of Engineering at Smith Engineering in Chantilly, Virginia. I was so impressed with the information; I asked Anthony if I could post it here on the Engineering Management Institute blog. These are four core […]
7 Attributes of an Effective Strategic Plan
When you think “effective leader” what comes to mind immediately? I attended a leadership seminar at local university recently. Within the first fifteen minutes we were given a task to go out and ask three strangers this exact question. What do you think the result was? To be an effective leader you have to be […]
The Power Poses: Blowing Through Anxiety in Your Next Stressful Engagement
Researchers in psychology are uncovering amazing facts about how our brains are wired. The results benefit more than just the research scientists and psychologists. Even us engineers can benefit from this information and put it to good use in our daily lives. The brain is so impressive that it can help you improve your power […]
9 Steps to Get A Project Back On Track
No project lasts first contact with reality, just like no military plan lasts first contact with the enemy. It isn’t because there’s a lack of good engineers and project managers. No, it’s because these good engineers and project managers didn’t properly assess risk during the planning, design and execution phases. Yesterday on Engineering.com I wrote […]
An Engineer’s Guide to Mindfulness Meditation
This post is an overview of Chade-Meng Tan’s book, Search Inside Yourself: The Unexpected Path to Achieving Success, Happiness (and World Peace) If you enjoyed reading this review and think I need to provide others (I consume, on average, a book a week); let me know through the comments below. My journey in developing a mindfulness […]
5 Things I Learned About Learning in 2014
My ultimate goal with Engineering Management Institute website, podcast and other resources is to inspire as many engineers as possible to create extraordinary careers and lives. In order for engineers to create the careers and lives they desire, they will most likely need to learn new things. Based on many one-on-one coaching sessions, seminars (above […]
Leadership Doesn’t Come From Skills, It Comes from Caring
For the longest time I saw leadership as a conglomeration of skills a person developed over time. I knew there was more to it than just skills, the “special sauce”. But I didn’t spend any time trying to decipher what it might be and instead bore down on building up my skills through reading, observing […]
This Year Has Taught Me to Be Thankful for One Thing: Time
Thanksgiving is a special day, and while I believe we should be thankful for what we have every day, I still like that this day really reinforces gratitude among us. This for me was an especially gratifying year that taught me something very important. My daughter and I wrote the first 2 books in a […]