The problem
Hired for craft. Fired for people. Promoted for leadership.
Engineers are trained in scientific method and left to invent communication, mentoring, and business judgment alone. Teams and careers pay for that omission.
Engineering leadership, as a craft
Engineering LeadershipBridging the Gap
Developing engineers to be the technology leaders of tomorrow. “Engineers get hired for their engineering skills, they get fired for their lack of interpersonal skills, and they get promoted for their business and leadership skills.” — Russell & Yao, 1996. That sentence is the gap this book exists to close.
Peter Becker · 129 pages · August 22, 2023
Who it is for
Engineers, managers, and the organizations that grow them.
If you lead engineers — or you are one being asked to — ELBTG is a curriculum of soft skills you can put on a calendar.
Why now
Technology got faster. Soft skills did not get optional.
The book names AI, blockchain, quantum, and AR as the landscape. Engineers must absorb new technology and lead diverse teams. Interpersonal skill is how the work travels.
The ELBTG model
Five verbs. A way to grow a team of leaders.
The author
Peter Becker
Engineering leader with more than 30 years in the semiconductor industry. Author of Engineering Leadership Bridging the Gap — and a mentor who starts by giving a book.
More than thirty years in semiconductors. An MBA in technology management. A practice of starting every mentoring relationship with a leadership book — because someone once did that for him.
From the book
Lines worth underlining.
“Engineers get hired for their engineering skills, they get fired for their lack of interpersonal skills, and they get promoted for their business and leadership skills.”
“Great engineers do not always make good leaders, and great leaders do not always make good engineers.”
“It is not their fault that they have not been trained, guided, or mentored to lead.”
Don’t just buy the book. Start the practice.
Take the assessment, pick a stage, and leave with a reading path and a 30-day challenge. The site is a home for the work the book begins.
Be first when new lessons go out.