An Introduction to Leadership: A Primer for the Practitioner
Leadership can be defined as the ability of an individual to influence, motivate, and enable others to contribute toward the effectiveness and success of the organizations of which they are members. Leadership is not dependent on title or formal authority. All too often we think of leadership as something we will develop and apply later rather than earlier in our career. This applies to both leadership within our chosen technical discipline and leadership of our profession. In the early stages of a career, most people naturally focus on the technical aspects of their career. They begin their careers applying the technical disciplinary knowledge and skills they acquired in college and focus on those aspects that will ensure promotion, tenure, and success early in their career. However, leadership is something that should be considered and fostered early and often throughout our entire professional career. Leadership is a subject that has been studied, discussed, and debated across a wide variety of disciplines for centuries. There are numerous books, articles, and self-improvement courses on the subject so many that the interested student of the broad subject of leadership might at first be discouraged. The purpose of this tutorial is not to be exhaustive but instead to provide a practical guide to leadership while providing references to some of the seminal works that form the foundation for both the theory and practice of leadership.
What you will learn:
- Provide background and motivation about effective leadership
- Consider a formal leadership development model
- Discuss principles of leadership and leader traits
Related courses:
Who should attend: Electrical engineer, Systems engineer, Hardware engineer, Design engineer, Product engineer, Communication engineer
Instructor
Barry L. Shoop
Barry L. Shoop is Professor of Electrical Engineering and Deputy Head of the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the United States Military Academy at West Point. Currently as Professor and Deputy Head he is responsible for an undergraduate academic department supporting ABET accredited programs in electrical engineering, computer science, and information technology. He received the B.S. from the Pennsylvania State University, M.S. from the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School, and Ph.D. from Stanford University, all in electrical engineering. He is a Senior Member of the IEEE and a Fellow of both the Optical Society of America and the International Society for Optical Engineering.
Publication Year: 2010
ISBN: 978-1-4244-6202-5