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Leadership Development New Focus for Extension Effort

Responding to a strong message from the engineering community for the need of young leaders, the Auburn Engineering Extension Service is developing a program to equip engineers with the interpersonal and organizational skills needed to succeed in industry.
"We kept hearing, 'You're providing young engineers with superb technical educations, but they need help in basic leadership skills'," said Dean William Walker. "This is our response to the needs of our constituents, the Alabama engineering community."
The Engineering Extension Service has hired George Blanks to develop the College of Engineering's Leadership Development Program. Formerly of the Office of Student Affairs at Auburn, Blanks brings with him over 18 years experience in training and developing young leaders.
"Our primary target audience," states Blanks, " is the young professional, men and women with 3-10 years of experience as engineers, who lack any formal training in leadership. There's an entire generation of engineers emerging leaders as we're referring to them who represent the next wave of leadership in their organizations and industries.
"Our target in this program includes up-and-coming, promising young engineers who not only possess the drive to be more effective, but who also have the deep desire to be leaders. We're learning from industry leaders that they're willing to fund such developmental training for this unique population in the work force. They see it as developing the future of industry."
In recent years, greater emphasis has been placed on the importance of engineers having personal transferable skills that can be utilized in a variety of organizational settings and contexts.
Graduates are increasingly expected to not only be technically competent, but also to be self-confident, able to communicate effectively, capable of working on and leading integrated work teams, and astute at understanding organizations and what makes them function efficiently.
"Beginning next year," Blanks explains, "We'll be offering an intensive week-long institute in a retreat setting designed for young professionals to receive innovative, energetic skill-building leadership training. We'll complement this with on-going courses and on-site training programs.
"The kind of program I envision," he adds, "is one that will become the preeminent leadership program for young engineers in the state. The needs are too great, the timing is too right, and the information is too dynamic to do anything short of that."
Blanks' efforts don't end there. A similar leadership development program is being planned for undergraduates.
"We seem to teach everything at Auburn except how to be effective at leading yourself and others," Blanks notes, "This is exactly where the university wants its graduates' aspirations: becoming effective leaders and contributors in society.
"We're taking a proactive stance by establishing a 'feeder program' for industry, one that will equip students to have a more immediate impact on the work place upon their graduation from Auburn.
"My favorite leadership model is Max DePree, chairman and CEO of Herman Miller, Inc., who introduced the concept of leaders as 'institutional heirs' who are committed to practicing stewardship toward their jobs and who earnestly strive to leave legacies of quality for others who follow.
"I want to build these programs on the concept of developing institutional heirs who will become stewards who will continue to support our efforts long after they've completed their training."

Eight Learning Opportunities for Professional Engineers, Land Surveyors Have Been Scheduled

The Birmingham Office of the Engineering Extension Service will present eight continuing education programs during November and early December as part of the College of Engineering's PRECISE seminar series. They include the following: These programs are being presented on Tuesday and Thursday evenings from 6-9 p.m. in the Birmingham Office of the Engineering Extension Service, which is located at 85 Bagby Drive, Suite 100. The cost of each three-hour program will be $75. Additional information may be obtained by calling 205/942-7900 or faxing to 205/942-2800.

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