Leadership is a challenging concept to nail down. There are many moving parts to effective leadership, and there are entire schools of research to determine what leadership actually is, how it is perceived, its efficacy, or how to define it. In fact, scholars on the topic often discuss lofty concepts such as vision, collaboration, problem solving, influence, loyalty, and trust as elements of effective leadership.

For the most part, Engineers don’t typically engage in the fostering and development of interpersonal relationships in order to build a culture of cooperation and a sense of vision toward a common goal in a group of people. We just aren’t wired that way. Engineers are more driven by budgets, schedules, and the precision of their work, so we have a more practical paradigm of how leadership fits into our purview of the workplace.

In the world of Project Engineering, leadership involves effective project management (collaboration), innovative solutions to design obstacles (problem solving), effective communication of direction (vision), and finally… Trust. These concepts are fundamentally some of the same leadership principles that scholars pontificate, but they are applied in a more practical manner.

Collaboration –

A few synonyms for collaboration are: Alliance, Partnership, and Teamwork.

Our staff takes pride in the Project Management specialists we have on our team that share their knowledge throughout the organization. On projects with multiple vendor resources, we make a concerted effort to work with them across every necessary discipline as part of the project team. This teamwork ensures that design efforts are coordinated, subcontracted elements are meeting the required specifications, and schedules are not jeopardized by rework or reordering necessary elements of a project.

Problem Solving –

VITOK approaches every project as an opportunity to be a leader. As VITOK is the lead designer on most of our projects, our clients rely on our multi-disciplined approach to finding the best solutions for every potential obstacle throughout the project. As we have our cross-disciplined team meetings on active projects, we are able to identify project problems, and we address them by seeking team guidance outside of our specific engineering disciplines. This enables our team to approach different solutions for project or process challenges through mechanical, structural, electrical, or controls design.

Vision –

For projects that have multiple resources for successful completion, we will assign a construction or project leader. This is the person who has the task of organizing the necessary resources (vendors) on a project, but most importantly they are looking ahead to the time of project completion. This person is a great communicator, and the goal is to make sure that all of the resource tasks converge on or ahead of schedule to successfully impact the timing and budget of the project.

Trust –

Trust is the foundation for everything mentioned in this article, and trust is much easier to establish than it is to earn back. At VITOK Engineers, we pride ourselves in the fact that we continue to provide engineering services for many of the valued customers that we have served for more than 50 years. We engage every project with the understanding that a successful completion is important to us, but it is vital for you. This commitment to your satisfaction is what has kept VITOK Engineers servicing our existing clients for so long, and we believe that our successful track record of substantial projects stands on its own.