In this interview, we talk to Ronald and Elaine, author of the book The Engineer’s Guide to Authentic Leadership. We discuss the motivation behind writing the book, the target audience, the most useful aspects of the book, the challenges of writing the book, and advice for other engineers who are considering writing a book.
Ronald J. Bennett, PhD is Founding Dean and Professor Emeritus of the School of Engineering at the University of St. Thomas. Bennett has also served as Executive Director of the Minnesota Center for Engineering and Manufacturing Excellence. He was a founding member of the Engineering Leadership Development Division of ASEE, and has served many roles in ABET. Prior to entering academia, Bennett held leadership positions for three decades in the appliance, electronics, medical device and knowledge engineering industries. With co-author Elaine Millam he published the book ‘Leadership for Engineers: The Magic of Mindset.’ He received a Bachelor’s degree in physics and math from the University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire; Masters and PhD in metallurgical engineering from the University of Minnesota, and MBA from the University of St. Thomas.
1. What was your main motivation behind writing your book?
Our main motivation for writing this book was to help engineers be their best and, by doing so, help them feel a sense of personal fulfilment and contribution, their families and their profession. To help engineers enjoy life more by knowing they are not only skilled engineers, but also can be effective at getting results by being their full selves.
Elaine and I have worked with literally thousands of engineers during our industrial and academic careers. Most of these engineers have been highly qualified technically, but many wanted to enjoy their careers and lives more and know they were adding value to their organizations and society. We knew most could achieve much more if only they had the opportunity and if they just knew how. When we began the Master of Technology Management degree program and were searching for someone to develop a leadership component, Elaine and I were introduced by a mutual friend Clint Larson the corporate vice president of Honeywell where Elaine had been a human resources vice president. He also realized the potential in developing all the skills associated with leadership in the engineering community. The success of the course designed by Elaine for our graduate students motivated us to write a book in 2013 to share those experience more broadly. This new book is an expansion on the first, using interviews with individuals we see as authentic leaders to learn more about their paths to leadership. We chose leaders who came from varied and ordinary backgrounds who are relatable to most of us.
2.Who is the main target audience for your book and what will they appreciate the most about the book?
Elaine and I both have a passion for working adults who want to keep learning. Our main target audience is early career engineers who are growing in responsibility and want to learn more about leading, who want to learn how to deal better with difficult situations and expanding teams, and who want to have more enjoyment and reward in their jobs and lives. It also targets those who are coaches or mentors for engineers, providing a tool to help them and their mentees. This book isn’t limited to engineers. Anyone in business, education, law, medicine, public service, etc., who deals with complex organizations and issues will benefit. We believe what readers will appreciate is that the ideas expressed here represent real people, people they would like to know, and whose experiences they would respect and admire. People who, like most of us, come from ordinary beginnings and who aspire to contribute to society by helping others. The interviews also show that regular people, just like themselves, can become outstanding authentic leaders.
3.What do you see your book being most useful for?
We think that this would be a great book to use for coaching and mentoring, for leadership development sponsored by engineering organizations like the Society for Manufacturing Engineers, National Society for Professional Engineers, Institute for Electrical and Electronic Engineers, American Council of Engineering Companies, etc. for book clubs in organization to discuss, for graduate and undergraduate education in engineering and in fact all professions. There are many corporations and other organizations that have some form of leadership development, coaching or mentoring programs for their employees. I believe the experiences of the people in the book coming from many corporations, large ones like 3M, Boeing, and Honeywell, to smaller organizations will be relevant to readers.
In addition to learning how others have become authentic leaders from their stories, we hope the readers will use the questions from the interviews for their own purposes. For example, these questions would be a great tool for an engineer to interview someone they see as a good leader, who would help in building their network and becoming better known for their initiative. Also, we hope readers will use the various tools provided in the book to develop their own leading and learning plan, and to write their own story.
4.How did you find the writing of the book? Do you have a specific process or are you quite methodical in your writing approach?
We’ve been working in this area for more than a quarter century, so the biggest challenge was narrowing the number of topics and focusing the book on those things. We had so much to say, and limited time and space to say it. So, we outlined the topics we felt of greatest importance, and for which we had the experiences of our graduate students and colleagues, and then divided up the work of writing. I added the interviews that are covered in this book, asking questions and then letting the leader answer in their own way. We believe that hearing their own words, their own voices, would make their stories interesting and relevant.
5.What challenges did you face when writing the book and how did you overcome them?
There were many challenges. Creating the time to think this process through, organizing the material, selecting leaders to interview, capturing the interviews, finding a publisher. How we overcame these challenges was our commitment to help readers see what we have learned, to hopefully remove some obstacles (especially self-doubt) for them, and our perseverance in pursuit of the goal. As someone said, the main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing. Daily life often interfered, but we had enough persistence to see the project through.
6.What advice would you give to other engineers who are considering writing a book?
Focus. Don’t do it expecting to make much money. Think about what you can do to help others. What do you have to say that is new, different, other-focused?
What are you working on next?
A book on intrepreneurism: The history of the development of the School of Engineering at the University of St. Thomas. Intrepreneurism, see Pinchot, is using entrepreneurial approaches and mindset to create change within an existing organization.
Beginning with the formation of the College of St. Thomas in 1885 under the visionary leadership of Bishop John Ireland, building on the goals of his endeavor, many people through intrapreneurial action resulted in the creation of the School of Engineering in 2004. If you want to read a real story of intrepreneurism, stay tuned: how a soldier’s shot in the foot led to a major educational institution.
Learn more about the book on our websites
ARTECH HOUSE USA : The Engineer’s Guide to Authentic Leadership
ARTECH HOUSE U.K.: The Engineer’s Guide to Authentic Leadership
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