This book covers the administrative and organizational dynamics of engineering that you aren’t taught in school. When I read it, I was finishing up 3 years of work at Murphy Co/M360 and looking into the future. Reading this book gave me something to reflect upon the last 3 years’ experiences and also something to strive towards in future jobs/walks of life. It seems like a good gift for recent grads or new hires.
* Asterisk means when I read it I thought I could use some improvement
What beginners need to learn at once:
- Give menial/trivial tasks your best effort
- Show the knack to get things done using:
- Initiative – get things started and keep them moving
- Resourcefulness
- Persistence in spite of difficulties
- Do not wait passively for anyone, always keep after them (learned the hard way!)
- *When traveling to job sites, always follow up when you get home
- Refrain from stating an opinion until you have had a reasonable opportunity to study the facts
- “The quiet, timid individual that says nothing is usually credited with having nothing to say” – seen this in action
- Strive for conciseness and clarity
- When the possibility of drawing something out is in the air, try saying your main point first and then expanding or providing more detail after
- Be extremely careful of the accuracy of your statements
On Supervisors:
- Every manager must know what goes on in his/her domain
- Keep your manager informed of all significant developments – this can be a fine line
- When problems arise, think about possible solutions before bringing them up to the manager
- Whenever you are asked to do something and agree, you have two options:
- Do exactly as requested
- Talk about it more or ask questions
- Don’t be too anxious to defer to managers instructions – again this is a fine line but it’s better to take the initiative and mess up. The manager has delegated a task he just needs it done.
On Outsiders:
- Cultivate the habit of seeking the recommendations of others – this has proven to be very helpful. You can cut to the chase a lot faster and learn something in the process. Always ask questions.
- Estimates and schedules are part of business
- Make complaints directly to the person responsible
On Managing
- Know your domain
- Delegate
- “Load them up with all they can carry without danger of serious embarrassment.”
- Put the important things first and delegate the rest. Especially in large organizations with lots of experts, don’t try to excel in more than a few talents.
- Cultivate the habit of simplifying matters – integrate, condense, summarize, simplify
- This habit can be especially effective in meetings: “well, it all boils down to this…” or “Can’t we all agree that the basic point is this…”
- Keep your feet on the ground in “emergencies”
On Meetings:
- Count any meeting a failure that does not end up with a definite understanding of:
- What’s going to be done
- Who’s going to do it
- When are they going to do it by
On Making Mistakes
- Anyone can make decisions with all facts at hand – good managers make judgment calls with inadequate facts and end up with the same result
- Judgment can be facilitated by living by principles/code such as this book
- You don’t always have to be right all the time
- You can’t keep everyone happy.
On Managing Yourself
- Learn project management skills
- Define objectives
- Plan it out
- Concrete steps
- Resources needed
- Definite schedule
- Execute
- Monitor progress
- Finish on time
- Don’t be afraid to sell/use the minimum viable product
- An engineering project is not really finished until it has been summarized, recorded, and filed
What all managers owe
- Never misrepresent performance
- Make it unquestionably clear what is expected of subordinates
- Promote employees personal and professional interests
- Always keep them properly informed
- Don’t criticize in front of others
- Never miss a chance to commend someone
- Always accept full responsibility
- Pay raises are earned by
- Outstanding work
- Greater responsibility
- Increased value
Professional and Personal Considerations
- Technical capabilities are nothing without emotional capabilities
- Cultivate the ability to get along with all kinds of people
- Appreciate good qualities in people
- “do not give vent to annoyance on slight provocation”
- No grudges – “one of the most time consuming things is to have an enemy” E.B. White
- Consider everyone’s FEELINGS
- *Don’t become too preoccupied with your own selfish interests
- *Don’t take yourself too seriously
- *Be genuinely cordial in greeting
- *give the benefit of the doubt
- “regard your personal integrity as one of your most important assets.”
- “If a man hasn’t discovered what he will die for then he isn’t fit to live” – MLK Jr. , but “A thing is not necessarily true if a man dies for it” – Oscar Wilde