SWE - Spring 2008 - (Page 62) CAREER TOOLBOX Being able to work with a variety of personalities determines a project’s success as much as technical acumen. People Physics 101 on yourself first, and then you can use them to understand another person. BY DEBORAH FISHER, PH.D., SWE W hy would an engineering vice president want a Ph.D. in psychology? Why does it seem like “the people” are always the biggest part of “the problem”? When we think of diversity, usually ethnicity, gender, age, and so forth come to mind. But another kind of diversity transcends all of these categories. People’s personalities — or what I call “people physics” — may seem less tangible but are no less important. Indeed, diverse personalities are often the reason behind the success or failure of an otherwise promising technical project. I coined the term “people physics” with a former colleague, a VP of a large engineering firm working part time on his Ph.D. in psychology. Why such a drastic move for an already successful engineer? “Most of my problems are not mechanical engineering problems,” he replied, “but people problems. That’s the part of the equation that’s hardest to solve.” Over the years, I’ve realized how relevant social psychology is to our engineering jobs. This notion crystallized while I was on sabbatical at Sandia National Labs a few years ago, working on a career development model for project engineering managers. At the time Daniel Goleman was starting to publish his ideas about “emotional intelligence,” I was quickly realizing for myself that it was the managers’ interactive abilities, more than their technical know-how, that made them successful in a job most thought had more to do with data than with people. The people really were the most difficult part of the equation, and I wanted to know whether such “soft skills” could be quantified and tied to success. Fast forward to today, and I have my answer. For the past two years, I have been quantifying soft skills among engineers and correlating them with career success. I am able to understand people as having grouped characteristics, similar to engineered materials. I specify a job’s soft-skill requirements, just as you would specify the performance of a beam, and then I match the engineers with those requirements. Is the method perfect? Of course not, but it’s far better than nothing. You can use what I know. You don’t need the sophisticated assessment instruments I use, just the four basic laws of people physics. These principles will help you to categorize engineers and correlate their attributes with success. Try them Behavior. Behavior is the most clearly visible indicator of your needs, tendencies, and preferences. It yields far more information than anything else we can observe, and it can help to improve influence, teamwork, and career direction. Better yet, you can get all of this information using only a few simple questions. First, ask yourself whether you are more introverted and responsive, or more extroverted and active. Do you tend to follow the rules or change them? Then, ask yourself if you are more task-oriented or more peopleoriented. Would you rather interact with a person or with data? Your answers will reveal how you will likely approach your job, and those around you. Motivation. Motivation need not be the ephemeral topic of inspirational speeches. It is a quantifiable part of all of us and can be measured and understood as the basic reason we take action. Ask yourself which of the following six recognized and measurable factors are most motivational to you. Your answers will be the reasons that you choose to interact more with some projects or people than with others. • The need for truth, or to get the right answer • The need for results, or to see progress • The need for power, or to drive your own agenda • The need for assistance, or to help others • The need for form, or positive experience • The need for structure, or a standardized system Emotional Intelligence (EQ). Research clearly indicates that EQ is far more important to our careers and personal success than our purely intellectual IQ. By mapping an individual’s soft skills to 62 SWE SPRING 2008 EYEWIRE
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