Jason Kent

Featured Guest Blogger: Jason Kent, P.E.

“I want to be a leader, but I’m so new here.”

Many young professionals find it frustrating to feel that they can’t lead or advance because of their youth or short tenure in their organization. The qualities of being relatively young or new to an organization may be obstacles to leadership, but they certainly do not prevent a young professional from being a leader.

There are four easy steps you can follow to cultivate and exercise your leadership skills without having positional power. Do a few of these, and you are well on your way to being a leader.

Do good work. It is an old cliché, but it most definitely holds true in the engineering field – lead by example. Try to exceed all expectations. Winners are seen as leaders.

Get a mentor. As a protégé, you learn from the experience of your more experienced mentor, while your mentor also grows and benefits from your fresh perspective and knowledge of new processes and technologies. If your organization does not have a structure for pairing young professionals with mentors, take the initiative to get one or more mentors on your own.

Take on an initiative or side project. Being a leader of a committee or subgroup in your organization can increase your exposure to leaders and management. Professional organizations also provide great opportunities for leadership, networking, and marketing.

Speak or write about your work. Nothing can establish you as a trusted expert on a subject faster than speaking or writing about it. Speak at a conference or a trade show on your favorite topic. In the office, schedule a “brown bag” presentation over the lunch hour. You can also show your expert status by writing articles for your industry trade journal, alumni magazine, or company newsletter.

If you follow these four steps to leadership for a young professional, you may quickly find your colleagues responding to you as a leader. And don’t forget these tips as you move up the leadership chain – pass them on to your coworkers and other young professionals. After all, successful leaders are committed to the success of the people around them.

Jason Kent is a professional water resources engineer and manager with a large engineering consulting firm in Portland, Oregon. In his 11-year career, Jason has tackled engineering problems such as dam removal, bridge scour, flood waves, and stream restoration design, and management issues including hiring, training, and marketing. He is also a public speaker on topics including engineering career development and volunteerism, and has contributed to multiple blogs and magazines.  Jason may be reached at jason.kent@yahoo.com or on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=36868691

Anthony Fasano

From my experience in the engineering industry, and really the corporate environment in general, I realized that there are two types of managers, I refer to them as managers and LEADERS.  There are leaders who care about their co-workers and staff and there are managers who really don’t.  Let me explain further.

The leaders, who care about their staff, take the time to express gratitude for the things that their staff does for the company as often as possible.  They encourage continuous learning and career development.  They go out of their way to be a mentor not just a “manager.”  These people are generally very well respected by their staff and others, and their leadership fosters a real TEAM mentality.  Their team always seems to be totally engaged and WANTS to work for them.  Conflict within their department is usually rare or non-existent.

On the other hand, there are managers who often care only about themselves and the bottom line of the company.  Managers say the words ‘Thank You,’ once a week if their employees are lucky.  They fail to recognize when their employees go the extra mile, causing a feeling of under-appreciation to permeate through their department.  They are constantly putting themselves before the team.  They fail to delegate or give their staff opportunities to broaden their horizons, usually due to lack of trust.  When one of their staff deserves a raise or promotion, whether the manager thinks they do or not, they fail to “go to bat” for their employee within the company, again thinking how it might affect them.

The difference between managers and leaders may not be as cut and dry as I have described, however if you find yourself doing any of those things I mentioned when describing a manager, start making some changes TODAY!  Here are some simple things you can do to start gaining respect from your staff and start to become a leader not just a manager:

• Express gratitude when appropriate by simply saying ‘Thank You’ to your staff on a regular basis, not just when they do something extra-ordinary,
• Similar to the line above, say “Thank You” when your staff finishes a successful project on-time, maybe even take them out to lunch,
• Challenge your staff and help them to broaden their horizons by delegating tasks to them such as client correspondence and meeting attendance.  If you don’t trust them yet, or feel you can’t based on past performance, start by giving them smaller tasks so they can gain your trust back.
• Promote as much career development and advancement among your staff while being sensitive to the company’s budget.  Promote continued education, certifications, and additional technical training.  Your staff will appreciate this and it will foster a sense of loyalty towards you and the organization.
• Fight for your employees within the company when you feel they deserve a raise or promotion.  Put them FIRST!

If you start doing some of these things this week, you WILL see a change in the way your TEAM responds to you. If you don’t see a change, DO MORE!  It’s time to be the leader that you know you are!

Please feel free to share your experiences with both managers and leaders or share your story on how you crossed over from “manager” to LEADER.

Bruce defines leadership as how you interact with everyone, including yourself.  Leaders are quite visible within small and large businesses.  We tend to think of them as business owners, CEO’s, and managers at all levels.  Traditionally, leadership also extends into politics and other global affairs.  However, parents, therapists and health care providers, solopreneurs, sports coaches, consultants, mentors, partners in relationship, teachers, authors, and others who interact with people on a regular basis are all leaders.  Everyone is a leader either by choice or by default.  If you don’t think of yourself as a leader, then you’re limited in your thinking.  Leading is the way we help people into action, including ourselves.  The question is not whether you are a leader, but how well you lead.

Your attitude and energy are very much related to the type of leader that you are.  Maintaining a positive attitude and looking for opportunity in every situation are often characteristics of great leaders.  Often times you will interact with people that have negative energy or attitudes.  How you react to these people will make all the difference in your personal and professional lives.  By maintaining your energy at a high level you will have the ability to raise the energy levels of those around you and inspire them to reach their potential.

One of the biggest blocks that professionals have with leadership is TRUST.  If you as a leader cannot trust your team to handle certain tasks, you will compromise your ability as a leader.  You CAN’T DO EVERYTHING!  Effective leaders do what they choose to do in order to be as effective as possible.  Leaders that try to be deeply involved in many facets of the business typically don’t lead well.

By trusting your team, you will earn their respect and there will be more of a “team” attitude rather than a “you versus me” mentality.  This can make all the difference between good and great leaders, departments, organizations, projects, etc.

How do you define a leader?

Anthony Fasano, P.E., LEED AP, CPESC, CPSWQ, CPC

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