Why Engineers Should Value And Hone Their Interpersonal Skills
Engineers play a vital role in society. Engineers use mathematical and scientific models combined with innovative thinking to solve problems and create new designs that benefit humanity. Engineering by nature involves a lifetime of continuous learning to adapt to the constant changes in society and often involves working in multidisciplinary, multicultural, multisite teams. That’s why, beyond having robust technical skills, it’s essential that young engineers understand the value of and develop strong interpersonal skills.
The training of an engineer is often described as ungainly and highly technical. While it is true that hard skills are prerequisite for the large majority of the engineering jobs, a good engineer must be cognizant that soft skills are equally important for success. It is seldom that an engineer works alone. Individuals can’t complete large engineering projects alone. Instead, they require teams and, by extension, teamwork. Engineering hinges on innovation and the best ideas often result from group efforts.
Despite the prevalence of teamwork, young engineers are prone to overlook the importance of interpersonal skills. From my own experience, most engineering curricular does not involve classes on interpersonal skills – perhaps many new engineers mistakenly believe that technical expertise and experience are the only things that will get them a job. However, this is far from the truth, and in a highly competitive job market an ideal candidate will have good interpersonal skills.
What are interpersonal skills?
Interpersonal skills are every bit as important as technical skills in the workplace. In fact, interpersonal skills are one of the top criteria used by employers to evaluate potential candidates. Interpersonal skills are often defined as an umbrella expression for several soft skills including active listening, social insight, and being able to handle feedback. They are also regarded as emotional intelligence skills and are related to the way you communicate and interact with others. While it may not be possible to have great relationships with colleagues and others in all situations, developing your interpersonal skills will help you, those around you, and the company you work for. Because engineering involves solving problems and mitigating risks, communication skills are important. Learning how to communicate these items, how to communicate risk as well as proposed solutions, to both technical and non-technical audiences is a valuable skill to master for any engineer.
What are the top five interpersonal skills?
Empathy
Empathy is an important skill to have when building and maintaining any professional relationships, whether that’s with a coworker, employee, boss, or client. Seeking to understand another person and their point of view will serve you well when navigating projects, problems, or disagreements. and is essential for long lasting relationships in any work environment.
Listening
Listening is key to all effective communication. While you need to be able to express your own ideas coherently, you also need to thoughtfully listen to the ideas of others. Ultimately, this will help your clients, employers, colleagues, and employees feel like they are respected and valued. When a leader can effectively communicate, others can understand what they are accountable for.
Accountability
Accountable individuals follow through on the things they say they will do. In essence, they keep their promises. If you cultivate the habit of always keeping the promises you make you inadvertently build bridges of trust that span the gaps of understanding between yourself and others. Engineers who develop a high level of personal accountability become resilient, resourceful, and honest. They also tend to keep and maintain a positive attitude over time. When engineers are accountable for their own decisions, work, and results, the effectiveness of an organization or team can increase sharply.
Positivity
Being positive in the workplace is yet another interpersonal skill that has the ability to impact the morale of entire teams. A good engineer continually evokes positive emotions in other people, and help build the capacity of their teams to be successful in their work. Employers want to hire employees who make the office a brighter place. They want people with a welcoming, friendly, and positive demeanor. This does not mean you have to be the most social person in the organization, but you have to be willing to develop some sort of a positive rapport with your colleagues. Engineers who are strong in the positive outlook competency see others positively and help their colleagues recognize the positive in what others might consider a setback. Furthermore, positive outlook helps leaders maintain focus despite the challenges that inevitably accompany growth and change.
Integrity
Whether it is owning up to a mistake or being honest about the difficulties you are facing at work, employers want to hire and work with honest people. Personal integrity generates trust and is the basis of many different kinds of relationships. Moreover, a lack of integrity can undermine almost any other effort to create high trust accounts. People can be positive, accountable, empathetic, and even good listeners, yet still fail to build reserves of trust if they are inwardly duplicitous.
In any work setting, engineers who continually sharpen their interpersonal skills are able to think creatively, consider novel solutions to problems, and take advantage of opportunities that might not be immediately obvious. Every opportunity to improve your interpersonal skills is a good one, it will ensure you are the best candidate and engineer you can be.
