Engineering Leadership Summit 2023

Engineering Leadership Summit 2023

By: Rory McPhail

Over the weekend on February 17th-19th, the Université de Moncton hosted this year’s Engineering Leadership Summit (ELS). ELS is a conference put on every year by the Atlantic Council of Engineering Students (ACES). Half of ELS is devoted to the lecture series on leadership and the other half for the governing body of ACES to hold elections for their executive board and make policy changes in their General Assembly. The theme of ELS this year was the Four Pillars of Leadership: Talent Development, Communications, Responsibility and Vision. The lecture series was held in one of UdeM’s auditoriums and this lecture space taught us something important: not all auditorium seats have to be as uncomfortable as G109.

The first lecture focused on Talent Development and was delivered by Nancy Black, a professor in the Mechanical Engineering Department at UdeM. According to Nancy, there are three key components to leadership: vision, inspiration and momentum. To be successful you need to know what you want, imagine success and then go out and achieve it. While leadership can lead to personal success, at the end of the day it is about giving back to others. A strong leader works well in a team and helps those under them to realize their full potential. Leadership also means being honest about what you can give and not overreaching yourself. Nancy spoke of the importance of learning when to say yes and when to say no. Everything demands sacrifice, but it is important to avoid unnecessary sacrifice. When dealing with setbacks a healthy mindset is not to worry about what you haven’t done but to concentrate on what you have done and what you are doing right now. Finally, Nancy said that to be successful in life and leadership you need to find what your passion is and follow it.

The second lecture or pillar of leadership was Communications, delivered by Major Neil MacPherson, an engineer with the Royal Canadian Airforce. According to Neil, leadership is all about understanding human behaviour and building trust. Neil spoke of the difference between a manager and a leader. A manager tells their subordinates what to do while a leader inspires their subordinates. A real leader will lead by example. The third lecture was on Responsibility, delivered by Pierre Martin, a member of the mechanical engineering team at Michelin. As an engineer we have a variety of responsibilities. These include a responsibility to ourselves, the public, your employer and employees and to your peers. These responsibilities can be managed by having a good work life balance and developing relationships built on trust with those you work with. The fourth and final pillar of leadership, Vision, was described in a lecture by Gerald Gallant, a project manager at Englobe, a civil and environmental engineering consulting firm. As Gerald describes it, the two main types of vision are personal vision and team vision. For a personal vision Gerald spoke of the importance of setting a goal, executing and then adjusting if necessary. One’s personal vision will change over time, and you must be able to adapt. For the team vision, it is important to have a simple and clear vision. To be a truly inspiring leader, you must get all your team members invested in your vision.

If I were to take one thing away from ELS it would be this: to be a successful leader in the field of engineering you must identify your passion, share this passion by inspiring others and don’t be afraid to change your vision if your passion changes.