A successful career in engineering isn’t only about having strong technical expertise. It also hinges on your ability to communicate clearly, engage and motivate others, demonstrate business acumen, and lead teams effectively. Deficits in any of these skillsets can significantly impair an engineer’s career trajectory.

Strong leadership skills are key to any manager’s or company’s success. Conversely, weakness in this area can undermine that pursuit. For example, a study found that nearly four out of five employees who recently quit their job attributed their decision to a lack of leadership or recognition in their company. Similarly, a Gallup survey of more than one million employees nationwide revealed that 75% of respondents who had quit their jobs did so because of their manager, not the position. The results confirm the old saying that “people leave managers, not companies.”

This reality is especially hard-felt in the engineering community. Many electrical and electronics engineers confirm that all or most of their academic training focused on mastery of STEM-related technical skills, with little to no time spent on developing their leadership, communication, business, or people skills.

More Than Technical Knowledge Needed to Succeed

The fallout of this skills gap has been felt across many tech-related fields. Based on discussions with dozens of executives in tech companies, a recent report identified the top five reasons why advanced-degree scientists and engineers fail in leadership roles – and they don’t relate to their technical knowledge at all. Rather, their failures were attributed to poor communication skills, lack of people skills, lack of strategic thinking, inability to develop talent, and poor time management.

As engineers progress in their careers, their responsibilities often expand beyond just technical expertise. Successive positions up the ladder will require skillsets such as managing projects, engaging and motivating employees, collaborating with other teams, planning and budgeting, demonstrating vision, and employing a range of other business and leadership skills.

This is confirmed by a Harvard Business School study, which identified “leadership” as one of the top business skills that tech and engineering employers seek in their candidates, along with strengths in communication, management, problem-solving, business operations, research, and critical thinking.

Experts agree that without these foundational skills, technical professionals will only go so far. In a recent study, for example, 73% of companies surveyed felt that business, leadership, and cognitive skills were lacking among prospective candidates. This gap will limit the growth and success of organizations and candidates alike.

The good news in all of this?

A recent study cited in Forbes revealed that only 20-30% of leadership skills are actually innate and that some 70% of leadership qualities can be acquired through experience and education. In other words, tech professionals can learn to be strong and effective leaders.

Let the IEEE Professional Development Suite Help You and Your Team Hone Your Business and Leadership Skills

Invest in your professional development and further your goal of moving up the corporate ladder by exploring the IEEE Professional Development Suite. This collection of training programs is specially designed to suit the needs of professionals at any stage of their career.

• IEEE Leading Technical Teams offers learners the essential skills and strategies required to help technical teams achieve their goals. The curriculum features live interactive training, engaging case studies, and practical, real-world exercises. Discover the latest trends and best practices in technical leadership and gain the confidence to navigate complex challenges. Learn more and register for a virtual or in-person sessions! 
• The IEEE | Rutgers Online Mini-MBA for Engineers is specifically designed to help engineers and technology professionals secure the critical business skills that are important for long-term career success. Offered in short, flexible, and engaging modules, learners will receive a foundational overview of key business topics such as accounting, communication, ethics, finance, managerial economics, management, entrepreneurship, marketing, operations, and strategic management as well as practices to help align technical capabilities with business goals. Learn more! 
• The newly launched IEEE | Rutgers Online Mini-MBA: Artificial Intelligence seeks to demystify AI for business managers and leaders. Learn how AI can be used to address business pain points, optimize processes, better serve customer needs, and improve an organization’s bottom line. Get the skills needed to take a strategic, business view of AI and understand its real-world applications within your own department and organization. Learn more!

 

Resources:

Powitzky, Elizabeth. (25 May 2018). Great Leaders Are Made, Not Born: Six Strategies for Becoming a Better Leader. Forbes.

Kizer, Kristin. (29 June 2023). 35+ Powerful Leadership Statistics [2023]: Things All Aspiring Leaders Should Know. Zippia.

Lewis, Greg. (11 August 2022). Industries with the Highest (and Lowest) Turnover Rates. LinkedIn.

Boyles, Michael. (10 January 2023). Leadership in Engineering: What It Is & Why It’s Important. Harvard Business School.

Hyacinth, Brigette. (27 December 2017). Employees Don’t Leave Companies, They Leave Managers. LinkedIn.

Upwork.Adams, Angelique. Top 5 Reasons Advanced-Degree Scientists and Engineers Fail in Leadership Roles. LinkedIn.

Landry, Lauren. (5 January 2023). 6 Business Sills Every Engineer Needs. Harvard Business Review. 

Barnes, Cory. Soft Skills for Engineers: The importance of communication, teamwork, and other non-technical skills in a highly technical field. LinkedIn. 

Studies show that strong business management, leadership, and communication skills are as important as technical skills when it comes to success and advancement in the engineering field.

Engineers are recognized for their innate analytical skills, problem-solving abilities, curiosity, creativity, and flexibility. What may not come as second nature to them, however, are business management and leadership skills. And studies show that these, along with strong technical skills, are all crucial to a successful career in engineering.

While engineers typically focus their time on product development and the delivery of technical solutions and services, experts at The Engineering & Leadership Project contend that engineers are often “never taught to understand financial statements or other critical markers of organizational health”. Those critical markers are all “business engineering” skills that could help them better understand the organizations they work for and drive improved outcomes by their teams and company.

In-Demand Skills

A recent Harvard Business School analysis of job opportunities for engineers concurred. While strong technical, problem-solving, and critical thinking skills were all among the top capabilities sought by leading employers, the study found that these were only part of the equation. Strengths in communication, management, business operations, and leadership rounded out lists of most critical traits for a job candidate and successful engineer.

Across the various engineering job opportunities featured in their survey, the same Harvard Business School study noted that business and leadership skills were more universally requested and in higher demand than some technical competencies. For instance, while demand for computer science skills appeared in 16% of the engineering job postings they analyzed, communication and management skills were required in 34% and 24%, respectively. This suggests that the ability to connect/work with people and effectively manage operations may be more versatile, applicable, and necessary to all engineering fields as well as predictive of success than any one technical skill.

Engineering, Business, and Leadership: A Powerful Link

Interestingly, studies show that many of the skills that engineers naturally possess position them to be strong business leaders. Among them, their ability to manage highly detailed projects and problem-solve enables them to multi-task and meet deadlines, while their technical literacy and strength with numbers provides a leg up in both the use of modern technology and the ability to prepare business plans and analyze financial and other data. As a result, it comes as no surprise that Harvard Business Review’s recent analysis of 100 top-performing CEOs around the globe found that a full 34% of them possess an undergraduate degree in engineering.

Experts from Indeed agree that training in business and leadership skills can be invaluable to an engineer’s professional advancement and career aspirations. According to Indeed, possession of these skills can not only enhance an engineer’s candidacy for a specific job but can more positively position them for successive roles and leadership positions down the line.  These skills can also provide engineers with a strong foundation should they elect to switch jobs during their career or even start their own business.

The bottom line?

Let IEEE Help You Boost Your Business and Leadership Skills

A wealth of experts confirms that the days of operating in field-specific silos are over and that the best and most empowered engineers are those who bring a combination of technical, business management, and leadership skills to the table.

IEEE is here to help engineers fill the gap with its unique IEEE | Rutgers Online Mini-MBA for Engineers.

Offered by IEEE in conjunction with Rutgers Business School and flexible in format, this course is specially designed to help engineers and technical professionals bridge the gap between business and engineering, prepare for professional growth, and obtain the critical business skills needed for well-rounded and long-term career success

Covering such key topics as Business Strategy, Managing New Product Development, Analyzing Financial Statements, Intellectual Property Strategy, Sales and Marketing, Leadership, and more, the convenient and self-paced 12-week Mini-MBA course involves a combination of expert instruction, peer interaction, self-paced video lessons, interactive assessments, live office hours, and a hands-on capstone project experience. This winning program – currently the only online Mini-MBA curriculum specifically designed for engineers and technical professionals — will help participants make more informed business decisions, better align their technical capabilities with proven business strategy, and prepare to meet the market’s growing demand for well-rounded engineers with demonstrated skills in business management and leadership.

Reserve your spot in the IEEE | Rutgers Online Mini-MBA for Engineers course today, either as an individual or as a company! For more information or to explore opportunities to further develop your business management skills, contact us today!

 

Resources

(23 January 2022). Business Engineering: Why Engineers Should Have Business Skills. The Engineering & Leadership Project.

Landry, Lauren. (5 January 2023). 6 Business Skills Every Engineer Needs. Harvard Business School.

Clayton, Ben. (19 March 2023). Why Engineers Make Good Business Leaders. QS Top Universities.

McGregor, Jena. (24 October 2018). More Top CEOs Now Have Engineering Degrees than MBAs. Financial Post.

(26 January 2023). 12 Business Skills for an Engineer Resume. Indeed.

7 Essential Business Skills for Engineers. Canadian Institute of International Business.

Online learning opportunities from IEEE will help you capitalize on the record-high level of investments in technology being made worldwide.

One look at the rapid technological advancements taking place all around us in today’s digital society and the bottom line is clear:  technology doesn’t just fuel business anymore — it is the business.

Such was the conclusion drawn by Deloitte’s 2023 Global Technology Leadership Study, which surveyed nearly 1,200 chief information officers (CIOs), chief technology officers (CTOs), and other senior technology decision-makers worldwide.  While the average technology budget as a percentage of revenue for these companies was 3.64% in 2018, it increased to 5.49% in 2022. Deloitte expects that number to rise to 5.85% in 2024 – an unprecedented 60% increase in just about five years.

Deloitte experts attribute this significant increase in tech investment to pent-up demand for technology during the pandemic. Another factor they identified is the recent dispersion of leadership roles in the corporate tech space, which now authorizes a broader range of leaders beyond just the CIO (such as CTOs, Chief Digital Officers, and Chief Data Officers, to name just a few) to drive tech-related investments. 

A Post-Pandemic Infusion of Funds 

The pandemic, along with its subsequent supply chain issues and shipping delays, served as eye-opening reminders of how dependent many economies were on foreign suppliers for key technologies.  This realization became a major catalyst for the recent spike in tech investment.

In the U.S., for example, The CHIPS (“Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors”) and Science Act, enacted in August 2022, earmarked over US$50 billion for domestic research and manufacturing of semiconductors in America.  It also established a 25% tax credit for capital investments in semiconductor manufacturing.  Since then, the U.S. White House reports that companies have committed over US$231 billion of investments in semiconductor and electronics technology and manufacturing in an effort to boost America’s global competitiveness and make its supply chains more robust and resilient.

The European CHIPS Act, enacted in February 2022, similarly aims to strengthen Europe’s competitiveness and resilience in semiconductors and their various applications.  And there are many more investments as countries around the world consider their own role in the overall semiconductor landscape.

The global rise in tech investments goes way beyond just semiconductors, however.  For instance, through its recent investment in electric vehicle brand Ceer — a joint venture between PIF (the Public Investment Fund, a global sustainable investor), Taiwanese-based Foxconn, and BMW — and its new manufacturing plant in King Abdullah Economic City, Saudi Arabia is hoping to enter the electric vehicle (EV)/renewables space and diversify from oil into what it describes as “the industries of tomorrow.”

All of the aforementioned global tech investments aim to attract top talent and create workforce opportunities.  However, experts warn that it’s a dream which may not be fully realized based on the current state of the talent pool.

“A lack of talent is a top issue constraining growth,” said the authors of the McKinsey Technology Trends Outlook 2023.  This survey of 3.5 million job postings across a variety of tech fields found that there are up to twice as many job postings than qualified applicants for many of the skills in greatest demand.  According to the report, this is especially true in such areas as artificial intelligence (AI), cloud computing, semiconductors, quantum technologies, space technologies, and electrification and renewables.

Invest In Your Company’s Growth and Success

With technology changing rapidly and investments in technology being made at record-high levels around the world, organizations need to fill the talent gap with targeted training in order to position their company and workforce for success in the evolving marketplace.  Among the best and easiest ways to achieve that is through the broad range of online learning opportunities offered by IEEE.

A variety of studies confirm that online learning is cost-effective (often half the cost of traditional classroom training!), efficient, and convenient.  And according to separate studies by the Research Institute of America and the Association for Talent Development, it’s also associated with higher retention rates as well as greater employee engagement and productivity.  Given all of the many advantages of eLearning, there’s never been a better time to invest in your company’s growth and success by participating in these and other online learning opportunities through IEEE.

• The IEEE Learning Network — Access hundreds of educational courses through this online learning platform, which offers the latest continuing education in engineering and technology.  From instruction in 5G, the smart grid, and renewable energy to AI, next-generation IoT, current standards, and much more, the IEEE Learning Network (ILN) can help you advance your career, refresh your skills, or just keep you on top of the latest industry trends.
• The IEEE | Rutgers Online Mini-MBA for Engineers — Offered by IEEE in conjunction with New Jersey’s renowned Rutgers Business School, the IEEE | Rutgers Online Mini-MBA for Engineers is an outstanding and convenient program expressly designed for engineers and technology professionals.  The 12-week program covers key topics such as business strategy, managing new product development, analyzing financial statements, intellectual property strategy, sales and marketing, and leadership.  The course offers a robust combination of expert instruction, peer interaction, self-paced video lessons, interactive assessments, live office hours, and a hands-on capstone project experience.

For more information or to register for any or all of our comprehensive collection of online learning opportunities, visit https://innovate.ieee.org/educational-resources/. 

 

Resources:

(9 August 2023).  “One Year after the CHIPS and Science Act, Biden-⁠Harris Administration Marks Historic Progress in Bringing Semiconductor Supply Chains Home, Supporting Innovation, and Protecting National Security.”  White House Briefing.

“European CHIPS Act.”  European Commission.

(26 July 2023).  “Saudi Arabia Drives Towards an Electric Future.”  Public Investment Fund (PIF) News.

“From Tech Investment to Impact:  Strategies for Allocating Capital and Articulating Value.”  Deloitte Insights.

Chui, Michael, Issler, Mena, Roberts, Roger, and Yee, Lareina.  (20 July 2023).  “McKinsey Technology Trends Outlook 2023.”  McKinsey Digital.

Roshi, Ludjon.  (25 February 2023).  “E-Learning Statistics 2023.”  Codeless.

At the most basic level, digital transformation involves using digital technologies to change a business process to become more efficient or effective. It can involve many things, whether it’s process automation, a new website, improved user experience, or a migration to the cloud. The idea is to use technology not to replicate an existing service in a digital form, but to transform that service into something significantly better. Does your organization have a digital transformation strategy in place?

A recent study by Mordor Intelligence valued digital transformation at US$263 billion, and it is projected to reach US$767 billion by 2026. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, unpredictability has become the new normal in nearly every sector of business. Gartner’s forecasts indicate that IT spending will reach US$4.4 trillion this year. Leveraging digital transformation can help businesses build resilience to accelerate their growth, remain competitive, and take advantage of unique market opportunities.

Broad Culture Shifts for Companies

Changing business processes and corporate culture are just as vital to the success of digital transformation as the technical implementations. Company culture can heavily impact employees’ perception of change, and an unresponsive culture can result in wasted time and money. 

According to an article on ZDNet, there are five skills every company needs to achieve successful transformation: 

1. Digital fluency – Depending on the industry, digital fluency can range from a basic knowledge of Microsoft Suite to an in depth understanding of cloud computing.
2. Data analytics – Data analysis skills are needed to process data and use it in a way that’s both permissible and productive.
3. Digital marketing – Marketing skills are essential in engaging your customer base and ensuring a product’s financial success.
4. Cyber security – Cover potential risk areas by hiring those with cyber security skills
5. Leadership – Company leaders should possess a multitude of “soft” skills, such as expertise in communication, influence, empathy, and strategic thinking.

Digital transformation is about investing in a complete transformation of the business to increase the competitiveness and value of the organization. To increase the growth and ROI of technology investments, companies must be proactive in developing a digital transformation strategy that details the intended transformation of processes, work styles, and more.

Creating a More Sustainable Business

Digital transformation has played a key role in enabling remote working. There is a growing focus on leveraging IoT technologies to drive a seamless experience for the employees while creating carbon-neutral office spaces. Digital transformation has also helped employees to focus less on manual, monotonous activities and instead channel their efforts into more purposeful work thereby enabling a better work-life balance.

Sustainability and digital transformation initiatives impact one another in tandem. A sustainable business model alongside a digital business model makes sense, because transforming business processes to be more data-driven and efficient inevitably improves sustainability. Companies should start by renovating their economic models, work processes, and communication paradigms. 

Start Your Digital Transformation Journey

It’s important to prepare for your organization’s digital transformation journey beforehand. Check out Digital Transformation: Moving Toward a Digital Society, a five-course program from IEEE that provides the background knowledge needed to smartly implement digital tools into organizations.

Contact an IEEE Account Specialist to get organizational access.

Check it out for yourself on the IEEE Learning Network.

Resources

Charpentier, Laurent. (23 August 2022). Decades Into The ‘New’ Millennium, Finance Teams Still Struggle With (Lack Of) Digital Transformation. Forbes.

Ene, Carmen. (25 August 2022). The Next Frontier of Digital: Technology as A Sustainable Business Asset. Forbes.

Ganapathi, Chidambaram. (8 August 2022). Digital transformation is paving the way for a sustainable workplace. The Times of India.

Kenkare, Pallavi. (10 August 2022). Digital transformation: Top 5 skills you need to succeed. ZDNET. 

Ramalho, Tiago. (22 August 2022). Why You Can’t Have Digital Transformation Without Sustainability. Readwrite.

Samuels, Mark. (5 August 2022). What is digital transformation? Everything you need to know about how technology is changing business. ZDNET.

Williams, Daniel. (18 August 2022). How CIOs can approach digital transformation investments to increase value. TechRepublic.

Engineers spend much of their time learning technical skills. However, they may not be as invested in learning the communication and business knowledge needed to ascend to leadership positions. These skills are becoming especially important as digital transformation is forcing traditional workforces to evolve.

While technical certifications can certainly make an impressive addition to your resume, a mix of technical and non-technical certifications is even better. Consider these insightful tips from IT leaders on how to obtain and make the most of professional certifications, originally published in CIO (magazine).

Seven Tips to Help You Grow Professionally

1. Get certified in areas where your skills are lacking:
   Chief Information Officers (CIOs) at big technology organizations tend to have excellent IT skills but often lack good communications skills. CIOs from customer-facing business to business organizations often have the opposite problem, according to Saurabh Chandra, managing director at Boston Consulting Group. “These technology leaders need to get certified in areas that they lack. While CIOs push their team to get certified, they need to come out of their comfort zones and follow suit,” Chandra said.
2. Establish your own way of learning:
   Rather than going along with professional learning trends, you should establish a personalized list of certifications that you can finish within 18 months, advises Puneesh Lamba, CIO of Shahi Exports, an apparel manufacturing company. “The courses should be shortlisted, keeping in mind both the individual’s interest and the organization’s need,” Lamba said.
3. Obtain certifications that expand knowledge of your industry:
   “If I have to remain in the insurance industry, I have to continuously build on my knowledge base,” said Mayank Bhargava, chief technology and data officer at Pramerica Life Insurance.
4. Make sure the certifications you are obtaining are meaningful:
   Look for certifications that will add real value to your skills, advises Sunil Mehta, senior vice president and area systems director for Central Asia at advertising agency WPP. “Getting certified after attending one to two hours of a local online course doesn’t add true value,” Mehta said.
5. Implement your knowledge:
   “At the end of the day, it is the content, faculty, and case studies of a course that cumulatively open the mind,” said Sourabh Chatterjee, president and head of technology, digital sales, and travel at Bajaj Allianz General Insurance. “Without implementing the knowledge thus acquired, a certification will only serve the purpose of self-gratification.”
6. Immerse yourself in projects as if you are a non-manager:
   Sourabh Chatterjee, president and head of technology, digital sales, and travel at Bajaj Allianz General Insurance, said he takes a hands-on approach to projects, whether it is coding, designing, process flow, testing, or architecture. “This not only helps me to put into practice what I learned in a certification course but also enables me to stay relevant by getting insights into crucial aspects of a project such as human behavior, technology, content, and motivation,” said Chatterjee.
7. Match your technical certifications with business certifications 50:50:
   “For every AI and data science certification, I also undertake a business certification that helps in enhancing my behavioral and influencing skills, enables me to build a business case for technology, and aids me in transforming the IT department,” said Lamba.

As an engineer, growing your leadership skills is essential. Do you have the skills necessary to take on a leadership role and compete in a constantly evolving job market?

Show You Have What It Takes to Become a Leader

Whether you’re looking to grow within your current organization or find opportunities elsewhere, start preparing for your next move with continuing education courses specifically designed for engineers and other technical professionals.

IEEE Leading Technical Teams is a training program which recognizes the unique challenges that come with leading technical groups and is designed for team leaders, managers, and directors of engineering and technology teams who have been in their role for a minimum of six months. The program equips technical leaders with the tools they need to flourish in their roles, unlock their professional growth and success, and inspire and motivate their teams to greater heights of innovation. IEEE Leading Technical Teams consists of two components:

• A “360° Leadership Practices Inventory” (LPI), which solicits confidential feedback on both the leader’s areas of strength as well as opportunities for improvement from their team members, peers, and managers/supervisors.
• A 6-hour, in-person training session, where attendees receive the results of their LPI, participate in targeted instructor-led exercises, discuss case studies that highlight the unique challenges faced by technical leaders and subsequent solutions and best practices they can apply to their specific situations, learn the “Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership,” and receive valuable peer coaching.

Learn more about IEEE Leading Technical Teams  and how you can enroll for a future session, with in-person and virtual options available. 

IEEE has partnered with Rutgers Business School to offer the IEEE | Rutgers Online Mini-MBA. Designed specifically for groups of ten or more within an organization, this program operates entirely online. It features topics including business strategy, managing product development, finance, negotiation, managing human capital, intellectual property strategy, and transformational agility.

To learn more about offering the IEEE | Rutgers Online Mini-MBA for your organization in order to help your staff grow into leadership roles, contact an IEEE Account Manager today.

Resources

Singh, Yashvendra. (17 June 2022). 3 certification tips for IT leaders looking to get ahead. CIO.

Since 2020, waves of ransomware attacks have battered both private and government sectors. To combat this, the U.S. government has released a strategy aimed at pushing federal agencies to boost their cyber security efforts. 

According to CNN, the plan aims to integrate a “zero-trust” approach to cyber security, a philosophy which dictates that a network should trust nothing outside its confines. Under this approach, federal employees will have to go through numerous layers of security to sign into agency networks. It will also require organizations to keep a complete inventory of electronic devices on their networks.

The plan, announced in a memo by the Office of Management and Budget at the end of January, comes on the heels of a cyber security executive order signed by U.S. President Joe Biden in May 2021. Agencies will have until the end of 2024 to meet these requirements. 

The U.S. government is also taking steps to secure the country’s water supply, which, according to The Washington Post, spans 150,000 water utilities. As reported by ZDNet, the Industrial Control Systems Cybersecurity Initiative — Water and Wastewater Sector Action Plan will set up a leadership task force from across the water utility industry, launch incident monitoring pilot programs, enhance information sharing, and offer technical support to water systems that need assistance. 

Survey Finds Three Major “Perception” Gaps Between Security-Focused Executives

The private sector is also taking steps to prioritize cyber security. However, according to the Global Cybersecurity Outlook 2022, which surveyed more than 120 global cyber leaders, there are some differences in how security-focused executives perceive cyber security matters within their organizations. According to the World Economic Forum, these “perception gaps” include: 

1. How much cyber security is prioritized in business decisions:
While 92% of surveyed business executives thought cyber security is “integrated into enterprise risk management strategies,” only 55% of security-focused executives agreed.

2. Obtaining cyber security support from leadership:
While 84% of respondents said cyber resilience is seen as a business priority in their organization that is supported and directed by leadership, only 68% saw it as a major component of their risk management. Many leaders charged with cyber security reported they were not being consulted on business decisions. This disconnect could become a problem that could detrimentally affect security. 

3. Recruiting and retaining cyber security professionals:
59% of respondents said it would be challenging to respond to a cyber security incident due to their teams lacking skills. As such, most respondents saw recruiting and maintaining talent as their biggest challenge. However, business executives seemed “less acutely aware” of the gap between the skills possessed by staff and the skills needed. 

Given these findings, executives should take steps to ensure they are incorporating the perspectives of their cyber security leadership in business decisions, and should also ensure they are prioritizing cyber security in all aspects of their decision making. 

Improving Cyber Security in Your Organization

Are you facing perception gaps that are hindering your cyber security practices? What are your cyber security resolutions for the coming year and beyond? Having the proper tools and systems in place can prevent data breaches and cyber crimes. As the world becomes more automated, it’s crucial for your organization to understand available cyber security measures to protect its data and devices. Cyber Security Tools for Today’s Environment, an online 11-course program from IEEE, helps businesses improve their security techniques.

Contact an IEEE Account Specialist today to get access to the course program for your organization.

Interested in learning about getting access to the course for yourself? Visit the IEEE Learning Network to learn more.

Resources

Lyngaas, Sean. (26 January 2022). White House attempts to strengthen federal cybersecurity after major hacks. CNN.

Bissell, Kelly and Pipikaite, Algirde. (18 January 2022). What you need to know about cybersecurity in 2022. World Economic Forum.

The COVID-19 pandemic has created major disruptions for business leaders, including a sudden shift to digital transformation. This change has forced many to rethink how they lead newly established remote and hybrid teams. While this change has been difficult for some, it’s nothing an effective leader can’t handle. According to Benoni Tagoe, the president of Raedio, an “audio everywhere” company, there are six ways to improve leadership in this new environment. Below is a summary of his tips, originally published in Rolling Stone: 

1. Be transparent and listen: Leaders who are implementing new ways to work should take time to understand how this affects their teams. “Spend a few meetings observing and listening to them,” states Tagoe. “You’ll gain more by letting them speak first, before responding to their ideas and opinions.”

2. Establish policies that encourage staff “to protect their space”: To help your employees work better from home, consider budgeting for work-from-home office setups.

3. Check-in with your employees: Take time to get to know your team members and form connections with them beyond the office. This can be done through virtual lunches or other gatherings. “With my team, I sent everyone a gift card for Goldbelly that allowed them to order food from restaurants around the country,” writes Tagoe. “My note was simple: Since we all can’t visit our favorite restaurants, we’re bringing your favorite menu items to you. Then I followed up on a team meeting and asked them what they ordered, which allowed the entire team to bond over their favorite meals.”

4. Establish “rules of engagement” for video calls: You don’t always need to conduct team meetings over video but you should probably use video for client meetings, writes Tagoe. Leaders should also make sure calls on the calendar are absolutely necessary. This will help prevent unneeded calls that could have been emails. 

5. Regularly update your employees on remote policies: Leaders planning a return to physical offices should keep their employees informed with a general timeline. 

6. Keep in mind that most employees want the ability to choose: Staff value being able to choose who they work with, what projects they work on, and how they perform their tasks. “As a leader, your mandate is to make sure you engineer events that create camaraderie and allow fellow team members to create a bond around the work,” Tagoe writes. One way to accomplish this would be to restate company goals, explain decisions made that impact them directly, and make sure they are up-to date with financials and business challenges so that they feel a sense of transparency and can also make informed decisions.  

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to rattle global markets, leaders will continue to face challenges. However, you may find it easier to navigate this new world of remote/hybrid work by following these simple tips. 

Create Leaders in Organization

IEEE has partnered with Rutgers Business School to offer the IEEE | Rutgers Online Mini-MBA. Designed specifically for groups of ten or more within an organization, this program operates entirely online. It features topics including business strategy, managing product development, finance, negotiation, managing human capital, intellectual property strategy, and transformational agility.

Participants will learn how to make organizational decisions with both technical and operational considerations. After developing an understanding of how different functional groups interact to achieve overall goals, they will learn to apply their newly developed business skills to better align their technical capabilities with business strategy.

The program offers the option of a customized capstone project, completely aligned to the needs of your organization. As part of the project, you’ll receive feedback from program professors who have worked as engineering leaders themselves.

To learn more about the IEEE | Rutgers Online Mini-MBA for your organization, contact an IEEE Account Manager today.

Resources

Tagoe, Benoni. (15 November 2021). 6 Tips for Effective Leadership in Uncertain Times. Rolling Stone.

Managers promoted for their technical knowledge sometimes lack the soft skills vital for them to be effective leaders who inspire and foster commitment among their teams. With the right training, these managers can grow to become strong, well rounded leaders.

How Can You Become A Better Leader?

The difference between an effective leader and one who simply holds a management title is that an effective leader is self-reflective and proactively embraces opportunities for growth. According to executive coach Monique Valcour, there are three simple steps you can take to become a better leader.

1) Determine a new leadership skill you want to achieve:

Is there a particular problem you need to solve? Before looking for solutions, figure out how you can improve your performance as a leader to tackle the problem. This will require you to focus on yourself instead of what’s worrying you. To be an effective leader, you need to understand that you cannot “fix” people the same way you would fix a technical issue, and you need to learn to recognize how your own behavior and thinking affects those around you. When things go wrong, do you have a tendency to overreact or criticize others? If so, you could be contributing to the problem in ways you don’t realize. To avoid this, identify what is important to you about achieving your goals and why you want to achieve them. This can help motivate you to learn and grow self-reflectively as a leader.

2) Ask for feedback to improve your understanding of the problem, just as you would if you were attempting to solve a technical issue:

A great way to expand your understanding of a problem is to ask others for their feedback and perspectives. For instance, if you feel as though an employee is acting out or struggling, talk to them about the situation before jumping to conclusions. Understand that criticizing a team member or giving them a poor performance evaluation without understanding the situation from their perspective can be demoralizing and may cause them to mistrust you.

3) Once you’ve developed insight into the situation and how your own behavior may have played a role, take steps to effective change:

Just as leaders give feedback to their employees, they should also seek feedback from their teams about how they can improve their own leadership moving forward (what executive coach Marshall Goldsmith dubs “feedforward”). This process can help build communication, accountability, and trust between yourself and your team.

How Can Organizations Improve Leadership?

Organizations that do not take responsibility for ineffective leadership in their ranks often suffer from low employee morale and performance. Training programs can help new managers understand what actually represents good leadership, as well as what they need to do to become effective leaders. By creating opportunities for growth, organizations can create a culture of effective leadership that benefits everyone.

Develop Effective Leaders Within Your Organization

IEEE has partnered with Rutgers Business School to offer the IEEE | Rutgers Online Mini-MBA for Engineers. Ranked as one of the three best Mini-MBAs by Forbes, the IEEE | Rutgers Online Mini-MBA for Engineers helps corporate employees bridge the gap between business and engineering as they prepare for growth into leadership roles. The program operates entirely online and is designed specifically for groups of ten or more within an organization. It features topics, such as business strategy, managing product development, finance, negotiation, managing human capital, intellectual property strategy, and transformational agility.

Participants learn how to make organizational decisions with both technical and operational considerations. After developing an understanding of how different functional groups interact to achieve overall goals, they learn to apply their newly developed business skills to better align their technical capabilities with business strategy.

The program offers the option of a customized capstone project, completely aligned to the needs of your organization. As part of the project, participants receive feedback from program professors who have worked as engineering leaders themselves.

To learn more about the IEEE | Rutgers Online Mini-MBA for Engineers for your organization, contact an IEEE Account Manager today.

Resources

Valcour, Monique. (24 May 2021). Transform Your Technical Expertise into Leadership. Harvard Business Review. 

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced many organizations around the world to digitize their workforces. As the pandemic continues and remote work becomes the new norm for many organizations, leaders who fail to effectively transition into the digital realm may struggle. However, there are steps they can take to adopt the increasingly digital workspace and become digitally savvy leaders.

Employees Want Digitally Savvy Leaders

According to a newly released report from MIT Sloan Management Review, 93% of employees across regions and industries think digital savviness is necessary to succeed. Having a sense of purpose is also important. 72% of workers surveyed stated that they “strongly agree that it is very important to them to work for an organization with a purpose they believe in,” according to the Leadership’s Digital Transformation report. Additionally, 88% of workers surveyed reported that having leaders who are digitally savvy is critical to their company’s ability to achieve that purpose. 

However, less than half of those surveyed said their organizations have created project teams that are intentionally diverse when it comes to digital savviness. Furthermore, only 31% thought their companies were assessing the digital skills of their managers. Less than 20% thought their companies were ensuring digital know-how among their high ranking managers. 

Focus on Purpose

Your workers can often sense if you aren’t passionate about the organization and its purpose. If you want them to feel more confident in your leadership, you need to regularly communicate the organization’s strategic purposes to your team. It can help to specify how the organization’s purposes align with their productivity and goals.

“Having a compelling mission statement isn’t enough,” the report states. “Serious leaders must appear as genuinely passionate about enterprise purpose as they are about strategy, agility, and customer centricity. The key is to authentically embed and enable purpose as part of the organization’s digital transformation trajectory. Purpose thus has an operational as well as an aspirational rationale that invites new leadership accountability.”

Develop “Digital Situational Awareness”

Since the pandemic began, remote work has blurred the traditional boundaries between work and home. Even when the work day is over, many workers still find themselves fielding emails. Often, they have to choose between work and family obligations. 

Just 28% of workers surveyed said their company had policies on how and when to contact them beyond work hours. Furthermore, only 24% said their company stuck to these policies if they had them. 

For many, gone are the days when workers could simply knock on their manager’s door. Remote employees need clarity around when and how to reach out to their bosses. This means leaders need to establish boundaries and make an effort to respect these guidelines.

“The key to being measurably more effective is becoming measurably more affective,” the report states. “Leaders who want to succeed have no choice but to digitally transform themselves. Leaders who are unwilling or unable to proactively use data and analytics to understand how their leadership is experienced will underperform.”

Take Advantage of “Mutual Mentoring”

One way leaders can digitally transform themselves is through “mutual” or “reverse” mentoring, in which younger employees mentor those who are older. Although 71% of survey respondents thought younger workers were more successful at obtaining value from digital tools at their organizations, just 19% said their organizations engaged in this kind of mentorship.

The pandemic will eventually end, but remote work is here to stay for many people. If leaders want to be successful, they need to adjust to a new way of managing employees, and for many, digital transformation will be key to their success.

Create Leaders in Your Organization

IEEE has partnered with Rutgers Business School to offer the IEEE | Rutgers Online Mini-MBA for Engineers. Designed specifically for groups of ten or more within an organization, this program operates entirely online. It features topics including business strategy, managing product development, finance, negotiation, managing human capital, intellectual property strategy, and transformational agility.

Participants will learn how to make organizational decisions with both technical and operational considerations. After developing an understanding of how different functional groups interact to achieve overall goals, they will learn to apply their newly developed business skills to better align their technical capabilities with business strategy.

The program offers the option of a customized capstone project, completely aligned to the needs of your organization. As part of the project, you’ll receive feedback from program professors who have worked as engineering leaders themselves.

To learn more about the IEEE | Rutgers Online Mini-MBA for Engineers for your organization, contact an IEEE Account Manager today.

Resources

(26 January 2021). Leadership’s Digital Transformation: Leading Purposely in an Era of Context Collapse. MIT Sloan Management Review.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is changing the field of education—particularly continuing education. Learning does not stop following graduation from a formal education program. Many people spend their lives learning new skills or improving on existing ones. Lifelong learning can be accomplished through in-person classes, online courses, or a hybrid of both.

Because people can learn in a variety of ways, AI is able to take learning to the next level by providing the ability to customize the experience to the individual. By tracking facial movements, microexpressions, and other behaviors, AI software can try to identify ways to keep the user engaged.

Benefits of AI in Education

The main benefits of leveraging AI in education include:

• The ability to personalize learning: Everyone is different. AI technology can help people learn in the best format for them. As a result, this can improve learning speeds and success rates. It can can also provide teachers with valuable data on student performance. This information will allow teachers to see when students are struggling. They’ll then be able to intervene early and prevent students from falling behind.
• More time for teachers: A teacher’s work does not end in the classroom. Teachers create tests, check exams and homework, and much more. By using an AI assistant for administrative tasks, a teacher can save time. That time can then be used to improve upon lesson plans and provide guidance to students.
• Remaining current with technology: In order to mitigate the learning curve, employers can make sure their staff is knowledgeable on using AI. This will also make employees feel like they are keeping up with technology rather than being replaced by it.

Drawbacks/Ethical AI Education

While there is no official definition for ethical AI, it is generally interpreted as using AI for the general good of the public.

“We’re seeing AI tools that can take lots of data around career pathways and make recommendations about what students can study. So we’ve got AI informing decisions made by young people,” says Toby Baker of Nesta.

As the use of AI continues to grow and expand into various industries, there will be an increasing number of people who will have to interact with AI without understanding how it arrives at its conclusions and predictions. Baker believes that there needs to be better communication between those who develop the technology and the end-users.

It’s also vital that the users understand how their data is being managed during the machine learning process. It could be concerning to know your facial movements are being monitored without knowing the purpose behind the tracking.

Using Artificial Intelligence Ethically

With growing questions around AI and ethics, there has never been a greater need for practical artificial intelligence and ethics training. IEEE offers continuing education that provides professionals with the knowledge needed to integrate AI within their products and operations.

Artificial Intelligence and Ethics in Design, a two-part online course program, helps organizations apply the theory of ethics to the design and business of AI systems. It also serves as useful supplemental material in academic settings.

Contact an IEEE Content Specialist to learn more about how this program can benefit your organization.

Interested in getting the course for yourself? Visit the IEEE Learning Network (ILN) today!

Resources

Salak, Bill. (8 October 2019). 3 ways AI is changing education right now (and in the future). eSchoolNews

Courtois, Jean-Philippe. (7 October 2019). How AI is transforming education and skills development. Microsoft.

Luckin, Rose; Seldon, Anthony Seldon; Lakhani, Priya. (30 September 2019). The benefits of AI and machine learning. The Guardian.

Frank, Aaron. (24 September 2019). New AI Systems Are Here to Personalize Learning. Singularity Hub.

Freeze, James. (27 September 2019). An AI Education: Overcoming Fear Of The Innovation Cycle. Forbes.