Last week’s poll, run in conjunction with Frazer-Nash Consultancy, focussed on some of the softer skills that engineers need for a successful career in an increasingly cross-disciplinary world.
Earlier this year 34 per cent of respondents to our 2018 Salary Survey considered good communication as the skill most missing from industry today. Perhaps unsurprisingly, 46 per cent of poll respondents also take the view that good communication skills are important for a successful engineering career.
Just over a quarter of respondents (27 per cent) agreed that creative problem solving is an important trait, followed by 16 per cent who value building collaborative relationships.
Of the remainder, six per cent saw business acumen as vital, followed by the final five per cent who value project management as an essential ‘soft’ skill.
For Ananth Sangli, building collaborative relationships is a ‘very crucial skill for an engineer, as most projects involve multi-disciplinary functions, requiring many players to work together.’
Colin Scowen agreed, adding: [collaborative relationships] don’t have to be only technical, they can also encompass some of the other soft skills mentioned, as well as skills that are not necessarily engineering technical or soft.’
Another Steve said: “‘Good’ project management skills should encompass all of the mentioned options: business acumen, building relationships, communications and creative problem solving – as well as a strong technical capability. Therefore, the success of a project depends on its project manager and as such to have a successful career in engineering it’s very important to understand and have good project management skills.”
For Bruce Boucher, the ability to communicate includes verbal and non-verbal attributes. “Without these skills you may just as well forget all other expertise, unless of course you can exist on your own in a very dark room and still deliver the results,” he said.
Paul Reeves added that being a good listener and observer of your colleagues – and customers – is a skill which cuts across the listed options.
“And by listening, I mean really listening – not hearing the bits you want to hear,” he said. Then work out the rationale for the thoughts and ideas you have heard – by asking more questions. In this way engineers and problem solvers may uncover better solutions and products that don’t necessarily only utilise their own ‘hard skills’ and experience.”
The debate is ongoing so let us know your thoughts in Comments below. Please read our guidelines on the contents of comments before submitting your opinion.
So, creative problem solving is a soft skill, is it? It’s a very hard skill to develop and vitally important in any creative discipline including science and engineering. I guess if engineers can’t put a numeric metric on it then they really are lost at sea…lack of creative thinking right there.
Creativity can be learned if one is willing to first understand some brain basics and then, at the individual and group level, at least experiment with thinking tools intended to more fully engage the left and right hemispheres and the conscious and subconscious mind. My book, which describes this “Neuroscience 101” approach, is introduced here: http://www.helpingyouengineeryourfuture.com/managing-leading-books.htm
The ability to communicate is not just verbal but very visual. without these skills you may just as well forget all other expertise, unless of course you can existing on your own in a very dark room and still deliver the results.
My thoughts exactly. However, while I think that creative thinking is also important, I have worked with some academically brilliant engineers who proved totally useless at dealing with people.
You are absolutely correct. Without effective communication the other skills cannot operate at their optimum.
All of them!
Personally, I voted building collaborative relationships, because those don’t have to be only technical, they can also encompass some of the other soft skills mentioned, as well as skills that are not necessarily engineering technical or soft. (It was the closest I could find to an ‘all of them’ choice).
Seeing as we’re coming up to Guy Fawkes and Día de Muertos I’ll toss this into the mix; I think there is sometimes too much “Professionalism” in engineering, sometimes the unknown is too hard to risk asses and we need a few mavericks to push the boundaries of what’s thought possible.
I’d characterise four on the list as traits we all have – to a degree – though some folk have more scope for improvement than others. Project management is a specific, teachable discipline and like – say trigonometry – it’s quite possible to have no knowledge whatsoever of the subject, which isn’t a problem – until ‘Buggins’ is put in charge of the project …
I would suggest that ‘good’ project management skills should encompass all of the mentioned options: business acumen, building relationships, communications and creative problem solving – as well as a strong technical capability. Therefore, the success of a project depends on it’s project manager and as such to have a successful career in engineering it’s very important to understand and have good project management skills.
Building collaborative relationships is a very crucial skill for an Engineer, as most of the projects involve multi-disciplinary functions, requiring many players to work together.
It’s perhaps also worth mentioning practical – LITERALLY hands on – skills, as commented upon recently by the delightfully named Professor Kneebone (in relation the manual dexterity of medical students) https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-46019429
If we are talking about a career as opposed to using your engineering knowledge to solve a specific problem then leadership is most important. If you can persuade others to work as a team following you then your career knows no bounds. The team’s skills and innovation will work for the benefit of all under a natural leader. You don’t need the skills yourself to bring out the best in others. A good leader respects the qualities of the individuals in the team and everyone benefits.
Yogis and Commissars: thinkers and doers: by all means have the Yogis think of what ought to be done: let the commissars cover it in paper, procedures, systems, and actually implement it.
My first boss in ICI was one of the first: but it was well known that left alone he would constantly interfere: his brain children had to be made orphans at birth and brought up by others. He was the classical example of a guy who was constantly pulling up the tender shoots of planting to see if the roots were growing properly! Is that an analogy, simile or metaphor?
Being a good listener and observer of your colleagues (and customers if outward facing) is a skill which cuts across all of the listed options. And by listening, I mean really listening – not hearing the bits you want to hear. Then work out the rationale for the thoughts and ideas you have heard – by asking more questions.
In this way engineers and problem solvers may uncover better solutions and products that don’t necessarily only utilise their own ‘hard skills’ and experience -of the ‘I have a hammer so all problems are solved by hitting it’ school of thought. We’ve all done it. Hopefully older people can communicate this to younger people.
Good communication is the key to a successful career in almost any profession.
Unlike, say, creative problem solving ability, communication skills *can* be taught, and absolutely must be!
I agree. I have had the good fortune to have been on both problem solving and communication courses during my career. It is impossible to quantify their usefulness, but they were valuable.
Creativity probably cannot be taught, but it can be nurtured.
I can’t believe problem solving, even ‘creative problem solving’ (whatever that is) isn’t considered a technical skill? Equally, project management involves the use of some quite advanced tools and techniques, as a little thought experiment, consider why so many projects fail – poor project management, so surely such a critical component in success can’t be considered a ‘soft skill’.
I understand what the article is getting at, mechanical, electrical, knowledge and calculations are the real technical skills in this example. I wonder if that’s why these particular skills are given such poor focus and consequently we have engineers entering the workforce unable to manage their own workload or projects, and unable to effectively communicate within teams.
On the contrary, there are conferences on every area of study, and papers have been presented on this very subject.