Leadership for Engineers - Delft University of Technology

Many of today’s global challenges require tech-driven solutions -- climate change, the growth of the world population, cyber security, the increasing demand for scarce resources, digitalization, the transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy. With this in mind, it is no surprise that one fourth of the CEOs of the world’s 100 largest corporations have an engineering degree. Solving these global problems requires leaders who, in the first place, are comfortable with technology, models and quantitative analyses -- Leaders who see systems instead of isolated problems. However, simply understanding technology is not enough. Successful leaders today must have both the ideas and the know-how to put these ideas into action by working collaboratively with others, winning their hearts and minds. We need leaders who know how to seize opportunities in a networked world, and can mobilize people and other stakeholders for large-scale change. Leaders who lead fulfilling lives and who are able to move themselves and others from the ‘me’ to the ‘we’. Leaders who are long-term oriented and who deliver economic profit, while also making positive contributions to society and the environment. We call these leaders ‘sustainable leaders’. This course has three parts: In the first part, you will explore the context that leaders are facing, building an understanding of the complexities of global and business challenges. You will discover the ambiguities and the many stakeholders that leaders must consider when making their choices. You will get a sense of effective leadership practices. In the second part, you will discover your “who am I” through personal and group exercises. You will create a “Personal Charter” that can serve as a life-long guide, helping you, as a leader, to make important choices in your personal and professional life. In the third part, we will bring the knowledge of the context and yourself together. We will translate the insights of this course into a leadership model and you will discover what sustainable leaders do. We will offer you frameworks to help you make your own career choices. We will finally help you to ‘sell’ yourself as a leader. The course materials of this course are Copyright Delft University of Technology and are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike (CC-BY-NC-SA) 4.0 International License.

What you'll learn

• How to be a successful leader in a complex, tech-centered world
• What leaders can do in this world, and what strategies they develop
• A deeper understanding of yourself
• A “Personal Charter” to guide your life and leadership decisions
• What sustainable leadership is
• How to make your career choices
• How to position yourself as a leader