The pressures being felt by corporate management have never been greater than in today's economy, according to business leaders who have shared their concerns in meetings that bring them to the Auburn campus formally and informally.
"What they've been telling us repeatedly is that they need a program designed to prepare the next generation of leaders by providing the tools needed to achieve new insights, improve trust and commitment, build effective teams, and ultimately, influence organizational success," according to George Blanks, who is heading the newly-formed Engineering Leadership Institute (ELI) at Auburn University.
The Engineering Leadership Institute, he points out, has been developed as a response to corporate leaders seeking a forum in which their brightest employees can develop communications skills, team building and human relations techniques needed to make them effective leaders in a dynamic workplace.
"The College of Engineering has taken the lead in establishing the Engineering Leadership Institute because engineers have consistently proven to be valuable in management positions due to their ability to analyze factors related to project development, business operations, and problem solving," William F. Walker, dean of the College of Engineering, notes.
"While colleges of business have long provided education and training for young professionals entering management, they have never incorporated the engineering fundamentals needed in today's high technology workplace," Walker adds. "And while engineering schools have recognized the need to train engineers in management, they have traditionally provided such training through graduate degree programs and continuing education courses."
Blanks notes that while some of these programs are likely to include leadership in their curricula, few offer training programs or courses that focus specifically on leadership development for engineers.
"Ours is the first such effort to bring this kind of leadership thrust to the Southeast," Blanks says. "Currently there are only two programs that are similar in content, one in the West, and the other in the Northeast. This is definitely a need which exists in our own back yard."
Blanks points out that Auburn's ELI program includes training by leadership and organizational experts; industry CEO's who act as leaders-in-residence; personal, team and organizational assessments; field trips and on-site leadership exposure; project management training; case studies; and continuing leadership support and networking.
Linked by a series of eight intensive two- and three-day learning institutes held at various locations within Alabama, the program is conducted over a period of a year, Blanks explains.
Participants are exposed to the concepts of personality characteristics and human behavior, cultural diversity, organizational culture and development, project planning, team building, professional ethics, goal setting, conflict management, and a wide variety of other topics, Blanks says of the program.
"The young professionals who will form the core of this program have demonstrated technical competence and aspire - or have been marked - for leadership roles in their organizations," Blanks adds. "To this end we have included mentoring as an important element of the program. It allows us to team a 'sponsoring executive' with a 'developing leader'."
He adds that executives who take on a mentoring role do so not only to offer advice and support, but because they want to intentionally develop their own 'institutional heirs.'
"Mentors frequently find an unanticipated benefit for themselves as well," Blanks adds. "They find their own leadership skills refreshed and developed."
Applications for the program are now being accepted, and may be directed to Blanks at the Engineering Leadership Institute, 217 Ramsay Hall, Auburn University, AL 36849; phone (334) 844-5759; fax (334) 844-5715; e-mail blankgw@eng.auburn.edu. The new institute's home page can be accessed at http://www.eng.auburn.edu/eli/.
"Change is occurring at such phenomenal rates in the business world that management functions - the ability to control, order, and maintain - alone will not be sufficient if a company intends to be viable in the future," Blanks explains.
"The next generation of managers must be capable of leading change,
not merely reacting to it."