BY any standards, Alan Tweedie has had a remarkable career. Some of the civil-engineering projects he has worked on have become icons. He set up the Frankfurt office of Arup that built the Commerzbank Tower, which was the tallest building in Europe on its completion in 1997. He project managed the Berlin velodrome and swimming-pool complex, which is covered by one of Europe’s largest steel roofs. And on his return to Britain in 1997, he took a lead role in the engineering of the controversial Scottish parliament building.
“I got good at delivering projects and I built my career round that,” said Tweedie, 44, who comes from Perth.
There was something lacking, though. Tweedie wanted to do more than lead projects. The challenge was to leave the technical environment, with which he was comfortable, and move into leadership, where the focus was more on people. So he embarked on a four-year distance-learning MBA at Henley Management College.
Tweedie already had enormous experience with budgets, staff, planning and other nontechnical skills.
The Scottish parliament building was more than a feat of engineering – “not a straight line in it” – but also a highly political project with a changing brief under the scrutiny of a critical media amid delays and mushrooming costs.
Tweedie was satisfied with the way he dealt with the challenges. Nevertheless, he felt that an MBA would help him to become a true leader. “It gave me the additional knowledge and the confidence that I was capable of developing beyond the technical silo I was in,” he said.
He is now a director of Ramboll Whitbybird, running the engineering company’s 35-strong Edinburgh office and responsible for structural engineering across Scotland.
For Tweedie, becoming a leader meant developing and empowering his staff, a philosophy that underpins Ramboll Whitbybird’s leadership-development programmes.
“There is far more to running a business than just delivering projects,” he said. “In our business, it’s all about knowledge and people.”
Developing into an effective leader is a challenge for every ambitious professional, but for those in engineering – like other technical fields – it can be especially difficult. Their credibility as engineers has been built on their technical expertise. If they want to become effective leaders, they have to rebuild that credibility on a different basis.
The Royal Academy of Engineering has invested heavily in leadership development. Matthew Harrison, director of its education programmes, said: “The biggest problem we face as engineers in Britain is that while we are good with the technology, we are not necessarily so good with the people round us,” he said.
“You will fail as an engineering leader if you cannot attract others to work for your enterprise and then harness their energy and enthusiasm. Geeks and nerds are going to struggle with this.”
Harrison said the best leaders were born to inspire and lead but everyone could improve skills. The Royal Academy of Engineering’s programmes, which deal with undergraduates as well as established professionals, focus on a select few.
Amy Elliott gained a place on the academy’s engineering leadership award scheme while in the second year of a chemical engineering degree course at Imperial College, London.
Through the scheme’s seminars, courses and exercises, she became aware of her motivations, strengths and weaknesses, enabling her to plan her route forward. “It gave me a lot more assertiveness to make sure that the training I subsequently got led me more towards leadership,” she said.
For almost six years, Elliott, 29, from Cheshire, worked in a technical role with Ineos Fluor, the chemical company. During this time she won a place on the academy’s executive engineers programme to continue her leadership development. This provided her with expert coaching as well as the opportunity to discuss issues with colleagues – and there were seminars, training and contact with industry leaders.
It helped her to make the transition to a new job earning £45,000 as sustainable development and innovation manager for Chemicals Northwest, providing guidance for 8,000 companies across the English region.
“This new role is about influencing a huge range of companies while not having direct power over them – leading them without actually telling them what to do,” she said.
Simon Mitchell, director of the global business-leadership consultancy DDI, said the biggest challenge to becoming a leader was thinking differently to an individual contributor.
“What you need to do is help facilitate your team to be able to contribute towards the business goals and objectives,” he said. “That requires a very different mindset and set of skills.”
Mitchell said these skills were learnable, particularly with the support of coaches and mentors and the ability to practise in a safe environment such as a classroom.
Many engineers, like Elliott, have to take the initiative to find the support they need. A recent Global Leadership Forecast survey, carried out by DDI and the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, showed that only 42% of UK leaders were satisfied with what their organisations offered to develop their leadership skills.
Others are more fortunate. At Microsoft, engineers can participate in a variety of leadership programmes. Theresa McHenry, head of leadership and development at Microsoft, said this was regarded as vital for the company’s success. “We are growing and we want to grow leaders who can fill the roles we have got,” she said.
Microsoft’s high-potential programmes identify people with the aspirations, commitment and ability to succeed in senior roles and involve training, coaching, work projects and networking.
“We get our population of talent together on a regular basis so that when they are in a leadership role in the future, they already have a great network across the organisation,” said McHenry.
The programmes also involve the company’s existing leaders giving talks, taking part in discussions and advising Microsoft’s rising stars.
When Steve Clayton moved within Microsoft from a technical role helping customers understand software products to leading a team, he found the transition testing.
“My success had been entirely down to me until that point – then it was entirely down to other people,” he said.
While Clayton was in charge of two teams, he was selected for a high-potential programme, which gave him the support he needed.
“It took me a while to realise some of the nuances that leadership involves, such as diplomacy and dealing with difficult situations,” said Clayton. “But being successful through other people was ultimately what I enjoyed most.”
Six months ago, he moved back to a technical role, working on strategic thinking with a group of senior colleagues. However, Clayton expects to be back in a leadership role again in the future.
