Incentivize the Right Career Paths

Happy Friday,

Engineering companies erroneously signal that the best career path for all employees is leadership. In doing so, they cannibalize their most valuable technical assets and compromise competitiveness.

It's just common practice and unquestioned habits. The org chart, for example, signals the paltry stature of engineers, i.e., important people don’t do engineering, discouraging and diverting top talent from mastering the craft the company relies on.

The company issues press releases announcing new leaders. Titles are awarded. Pictures taken. Friends on LinkedIn tap the pre-written reply, “Congratulations, well deserved!” Prestige and recognition, both human favorites, strongly favor the people manager over the professional engineer.

‘Management’ is usually the job description, a step down in professional expectations. Management is the dumbed-down version of leadership, focusing on oversight, managing processes, and hitting metrics. Unfortunately, intelligent humans don't respond well to being 'managed'.

The real job...the tough job that few who get the title are explicitly expected to do is real leadership. Leadership involves unlocking people’s potential by understanding their strengths, fostering autonomy, motivating, inspiring, and building trust.

Leadership and technical expertise are not readily interchangeable. The common assumption that they are, or that it's even close, is a flawed premise that squanders valuable talent, disappoints and disengages teams, and ultimately compromises company performance.

The original sin is in framing leadership roles as ‘advancements’ and ‘promotions,’ implying that a people manager in an engineering company is somehow superior to a subject matter expert or an accomplished consulting engineer. How could that be when every leader, including the CEO, is employed by the engineering company to support the work of the frontline consultants? The consultants literally are the business that earns the money that pays the leaders a salary to support them. People management isn’t advancement, it’s a pivot that demands the right skillset.

The good news is, these are very capable people. So, set a high bar, provide them a leadership roadmap, and set some actual leadership expectations. That'll help. Given a tough challenge, these people have a history of successfully figuring it out.

Punchline: While some engineers do make excellent leaders, it’s fundamentally counterproductive for engineering organizations to frame leadership as the most important and prestigious career path for all. It's not. It's an engineering business. You can quietly hand-pick the best leaders, but the important thing is to incentivize the career path that maximizes competitiveness and drives the business. And that's whatever path a person loves most and is best at.

Have a greaaat weekend!

Dave

Feedback and blowback are always welcome: dave@goodnewsfriday.com

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