Chapter 4 - Leading

Dr. C. M. Chang

Only to be used by instructors who adopt the text:

C. M. Chang, “Engineering Management: Challenges in
the New Millennium,” Pearson Prentice Hall (2005)
Copyright © 2005 by Dr. Carl Chang
 Table of Contents
• Leading - Deciding, Communicating,
Motivating, Selecting and Developing
• Deciding - Rational Decision Making,
Kepnor-Tregoe Method, Gut Instinct,
Group Decisions
• Communicating - Asking, Telling, Listening
and Understanding

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 Contents (Cont’d)
• Motivating - Inspire, Encourage, Impel
Need-based strategy (Maslow Model)
• Selecting – Focus on hard and soft Skills
• Developing - Performance correction and
personal growth
• Special Topics on Leading - Lead Changes,
New Leader Strategy, Superior Leadership

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 Leadership Style
• 1 - Nice Guy Task

• 2 - Loser 4 5
• 3 - Compromiser
3
• 4 - Task Master
2 1
• 5 - Ideal Manager
People

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 Use of Leadership Style
• No single style fits all situations
• A person’s dominant style is determined by
personality traits
• Different leadership styles can be effective with
different people at different times
• Advice to engineering managers: Vary style flexibly
according to situation at hand in order to be effective

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 Question # 4.1
• The company’s product promised to a major customer is running late
and there was intense pressure on the production team to deliver the
product. The Direction of Production was eventually told by the
company President to “deliver or else.” The Director therefore
decided to ship the product, even though it had not gone through all
its testing procedures. Members on the product team were angry by
the uncertainty in the functionality and reliability of the shipped
product. The Director however insisted: “We will just have to take
that chance.” As the Director of Production, how would you act
differently?

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The Function of Leading

Deciding

Communicating

Motivating

SelectingPeople

DevelopingPeople

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Deciding
• To arrive at
conclusions and
judgements
• To assure that the
quality of decisions
made remains high

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 Types of Decisions
• Spontaneous Decisions - Intuitive, hunch or gut
instinct based
• Reasoned Decisions - Based on systematic
studies and logical analyses (to the extend
possible): (1) Assess facts and evaluate
alternatives, (2) Use full mental resources, (3)
Emphasize creative problem-solving, (4)
Think consistently, (5) Minimize the probability
of errors (downside risks)
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Who is to Make What Decision?
• Staff
• Staff and Manager
• Manager

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 Rational Decision Making
Process

Collect Develop Implement

Facts Alternatives Solution

Assess Define Real Select

Problem Problem Solution

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 Question # 4.3
• You have been socially pretty active while in college. You know a few people over
the years. Among many friends, the following three stand out. Liza majors in
literature, is very sociable and communicative, and has an average appearance.
She does not hate homemaking. Julie, on the other hand, majors in computer
engineering, has a very sharp intellect, and is rather strong willed. She is
reasonably sociable and has a passable appearance. Homemaking is not her cup of
tea. Debbie is the high school sweetheart, very adaptable and lovely, easy going,
comfortable to be with, and has a superb appearance. Her social skills are so so.
She likes homemaking which is a tradition of her family and she does it well. Your
grandfather is getting old and your mother has been bugging you to make up your
mind to get married. Time is running out and you need to make a choice. How
would you go about deciding for one of these three candidates as a prospective
mate.

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CRITERIA WEIGHT LISA JULIE DEBBIE
FACTOR

Physical Appearance
Intellect/Knowledge
Adaptability/Compatibility
Future Earning Power
Perceived Homemaking
Capability
Social Ability

Total Weighted Score

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CRITERIA WEIGHT LISA JULIE DEBBIE
FACTOR

Physical Appearance 9
Intellect/Knowledge 5
Adaptability/Compatibility 9
Future Earning Power 10
Perceived Homemaking 8
Capability
Social Ability 10

Total Weighted Score

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CRITERIA WEIGHT LISA JULIE DEBBIE
FACTOR

Physical Appearance 9 5 8 10
Intellect/Knowledge 5
Adaptability/Compatibility 9
Future Earning Power 10
Perceived Homemaking 8
Capability
Social Ability 10

Total Weighted Score

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CRITERIA WEIGHT LISA JULIE DEBBIE
FACTOR

Physical Appearance 9 5 8 10
Intellect/Knowledge 5 8 10 5
Adaptability/Compatibility 9 8 5 10
Future Earning Power 10 8 10 5
Perceived Homemaking 8 8 5 10
Capability
Social Ability 10 10 8 5

Total Weighted Score 401 387 385

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 Other Decision Support Tools
• Forecasting (exponential smoothing, time
series)
• Regression Analysis (single-variable,
multi variables)
• Risk Analysis (Monte Carlo)
• What -if Solver
• Simulation Modeling
• Decision Trees
• Optimization (linear programming,
integer/dynamic programming)

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 Decision Making by
Gut Instinct
• Spontaneous Decisions - Intuitive solution
for complex and ambiguous problems
defying systematic analyses (No data)
• Brain Activities - Left-side (logical, rational
and conscious) versus right-side (intuitive,
subconscious); Innovative ideas surface
unexpectedly, due to accumulated “patterns
and rules” derived from past experience
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 Decision Making by
Gut Instinct
• Intuitive decisions can be wrong from time
to time, feedback from trusted sources is
needed to “recalibrate” patterns and rules
frequently
• If repeated, feedback-based learning tends
to improve quality of intuitive decisions
made in the future

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Decision Making in Teams
• Group dynamics
• Conflict,
consideration,
closure
• Criteria for good
group decisions

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 Decision Making in Teams
• Group dynamics - New dimensions to
decision making: (1) Coalitions/alliances
among team members - position-based
advocacy, (2) Conflicts of interests, (3)
Personality clash (fighting words, selective
seeing, interruptions, personal friction)
• Leadership Role: (1) Managing conflict,
(2) Consideration and (3) Closure
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How to Communicate?

Asking

Telling

Listening

Understanding

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 Asking
• Asking open-ended insightful
questions to gain knowledge
and to improve understanding
of the situation at hand
• Quality of questions is an
clear indication of the
questioner’s grasp of the
situation at hand

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 Telling
• Offer information to keep people (peers,
employees, bosses, supply chain partners,
customers) informed about matters of concern to
them
• Judgement is needed as to what to tell and what not
(“Need to Know” paradigm), seek balance between
(1) trust-creation and no surprise versus (2) control
over information

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 Listening
• Remain focused in listening to the subtext
and true meaning of the exchange
• Maintain eye contact
• Exercise self-discipline to control own urge
to talk and avoid interrupting others

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 Understanding
• To hear by the head and to feel by the heart
• Assess the degree of sincerity - verbal
intonation, facial expression, body language
• Recognize shared meaning (emotional and
logical)

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Common Barriers to
Communications

• Semantics
• Selective Seeing
• Selective Listening
• Emotional Barriers

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 Common Barriers to
Communications
• Interpretation of Semantics (words/terms may have
multiple meanings)
• Selective Seeing - See only what one wants to see
• Selective Listening - Hear only what one wants to hear
(screen out ideas divergent to own opinion or self-interest)
• Emotional Barriers (strong attitude and feelings, personal
biases)

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Motivating
• To motivate is to
apply a force that
excites and drives
an individual to
act, in ways
preferred by the
manager/leader.
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 How to Motivate
• Inspire - Infuse a spirit of
willingness (By work
Inspire done, leadership traits,
Encourage
examples set)
• Encourage - Stimulate
Impel
through praise, approval
and help
• Impel - Force (Coercion,
compulsion, punishments)
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Selecting
• By selecting people, managers
gain staff with right skills,
dedication, value systems,
personality, and win their
loyalty over time
• Associate themselves with the
right mentors and leaders

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 Standard Procedure of
Employee Selection Process
• Define needs
• Define qualifications
• Get applicants
• Review and pre-screen applicants
• Conduct interviews - Asking good questions
• Decide on job candidates

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 Challenges of Selecting
• Managers are not trained to assess soft skills
- major sources of job-related problems and
key factors for career failures
• Candidates are polished to “Talk the talk and
walk the walk,” masking their true long-term
personal behavior
• Selecting people remains a major challenge
to all managers
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 Developing
• Purpose: To improve knowledge, attitude and
skills of employees
• Knowledge: Cognizance of facts, truths and
other information
• Attitude: Customary dispositions toward
people, things, situations and information
• Skills: Ability to perform specialized work
with recognized competence
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 How to Develop People
Team
Assignments
Courses &
Seminars
Job
Rotation
Coach on
the Job
Set
Personal
Example

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 Advice for New Leaders
• New Leaders - Sailing through dense fog in
first 6 months (short visibility ahead)
• Seven-rule strategy to follow:
• (1) Leverage the time before entry - Study the
new situation (SWOT analysis), prepare
questions
• (2) Organize to learn - Technical, cultural and
political arenas
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 Advice for New Leaders
(Cont’d)
• (3) Secure early wins - Get some wins in first 6
months
• (4) Lay foundation for major improvements -
Initiate pilot programs to try out new technology
tools, Change ways to measure performance,
Introduce new ways of operating and viewing
business, Promote positive examples, and
Envision new mechanism to do business

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 Guidelines for Superior
Leadership
• (1) Maintain absolute integrity
• (2) Be Knowledgeable
• (3) Declare expectations
• (4) Show uncommon commitment
• (5) Get out in front
• (6) Expect Positive results
• (7) Take care of people
• (8) Put duty before self-interests

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 Conclusions
• Engineering Managers should pay attention to: (1)
Making decisions under uncertainty (not suffering
from paralysis by analysis), (2) Motivating other
engineers with proper motivators, (3)
Communicating by proactive asking and intensive
listening, (4) Selecting to focus on soft skills, (5)
Developing people using personal examples.

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 Question # 4.8
• What are some of the important
characteristics of effective leaders? Which
of these characteristics are more difficult
than others for engineers to acquire?

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 Question # 4.10
• The project was running late and the Section Manager thought, it was time for a pep-
talk with his staff. He realized that he was considered to be somewhat of an autocrat
by his staff, but this time he thought that he would show them that he was one of the
members on the team and that they would work together as one team in order to
succeed.The Section Manager thought he made quite a good speech. He pointed out
the project is running late and that, if they failed, the customer could cancel the
contract. He explained further that as manager, he was responsible for the success of
the project and so everyone would be equally to blame for the failure of the project.
Unexpectedly, a group of staff came in to see him a few days later, seeking to clarify if
they were all under threat of unemployment, should it turn out in the future that they
were late and the contract was cancelled by the customer. What went wrong? How
would you do differently?

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