Critical roles and responsibilities for Engineering Managers

What you'll learn

Leading and Inspiring Teams

Fostering Individual Employee Growth

Addressing Team Challenges and External Relations

Facilitating Communication and Strategic Planning

As an effective engineering manager there are several different roles that you must learn how to play. Each one addresses a specific need that your employees or team has. The exact roles that you need to play will vary from team to team and over time. It is crucial to understand each one and when each role should be employed.

Team Captain

The role of team captain is one of your most important roles and most likely the one that you will employ the most. In this role you will demonstrate leadership and communication skills to build your team and hold them together. You will be responsible for inspiring confidence and communicating the team’s vision and strategy. You will define goals for the individual team members and help members understand the unique position that they play.

Instructional Coach

The role of being a coach to your employees is  arguably the second most important role that you can have. In this role you will assess your team members strengths and needs and help build them up by training them. As your team members practice new skills you will provide valuable feedback to allow them to learn and grow.

Detective

In this role you will identify problems that are affecting the team. As you discover new problems you will work to determine their cause and develop appropriate solutions to mitigate them in the future.

Spokesperson

The role of the spokesperson is to represent the team to outside influences. This may be within the same company or even outside of the company at professional gatherings. In this role you will promote the goals and objectives of the team. As needed you may even seek feedback on improvements or changes in course direction as appropriate.

Counselor

A counselor is different than a team coach. The team coach works on building up the individual skills whereas a counselor listens to the  specific problems in employee is facing. The counselor then works with the employee to develop a solution to that unique problem. The solution may often be different from a new skill that has to be acquired.

Cheerleader

The cheerleader encourages team members to grow and excel at their responsibilities. They build confidence in the abilities of the individual team members. In addition the cheerleader harnesses support for the team’s projects both inside and outside of the immediate team.

Referee

The goal of the referee is to identify when conflicts have arisen and to intervene. The referee will often get input from the various parties while seeking an appropriate resolution. The referee has to implement that resolution and then determine what consequences may need to be imposed on those involved.

Switchboard

The role of the switchboard is to connect different people as appropriate. There will be times when a team member needs to know who to communicate with to solve a certain type of problem. The role of the switchboard is to put them in communication.

Reporter

The role of the reporter is to inform the team of updates both in and out of their immediate group. This includes updates to goals or  timelines that influence the project work and scope.

Negotiator

The role of the negotiator is to facilitate the communication between parties with different opinions. Resources, timelines and objectives will all need to be negotiated in order to meet the common goal that all parties are striving against.

Crystal Ball

The role of the crystal ball is to identify and predict what will be happening in the future. This will help the team take the best course of action to accommodate the predictions made.

Recruiter

The role of the recruiter is to identify new resources, including employees, that can be added to the team.