The Engineering Executive's Primer

Closing

Operating as an Engineering executive, I’ve learned that there’s quite a distance between influencing an Engineering organization’s mechanisms and being the person ultimately accountable for the success of those mechanisms. Crucial to my discovery were all the books I read along the way. I sought out every relevant book I could find. If a book spoke about being an Engineering executive, I found it, bought it, and read it.

If you picked up this book in a similar moment, I hope that it untangles some of the knotty questions you may encounter in an executive role. I hope it lets you skip some of the pitfalls that I struggled with and that you find a better path than I did. However, I want to acknowledge that no amount of preparation, not even reading a copy of this book smuggled back through time, would have taught me everything I needed to know to succeed as an Engineering executive.

The most important idea that I will leave you with is that while you should prepare, read, and study, the most valuable way to become an effective Engineering executive is doing the work. You will not step into these roles fully formed. Instead, the work will combine with your prior experience to mold you. Don’t be too anxious about what you don’t know; no one knows all of it when they get started and these roles will teach you—sometimes uncomfortably—what you need to know to thrive within them.

If you get lost, confused, or uncertain along the way, I’m obligated to remind you to come back to ...