SYNOPSIS     

Engineers are continually shaping the future by applying their skills to almost everything you can think of, solving problems faced by society around the world in order to improve lives. There is no limit to what engineers can do as evidenced in the rapid advancements seen in society. This ability to face a problem, work through options & abstract ideas and then translating them into reality is what engineers thrive on. However, engineers do not work alone and often have to manage others in getting things done. Many engineers experience going through the transition to manager feeling ineffective and frustrated due to the many challenging aspects of management. An effective transition requires understanding of the intricacies of people and process management. Organizations are simply systems of people and processes. Engineers are uniquely qualified to be managers and leaders as they are trained to understand systems-thinking, a way of looking at totality instead of each individual parts in isolation in a pragmatic way. There will come a time when you will no longer do the detail nuts-and-bolts of design works but instead will lead a team of people to get things done through them. This requires an understanding of the factors that drive people or otherwise. Knowing how to lead teams well is often a big learning curve for an engineer. To do so effectively, some of the important soft skills to acquire are, among others good communications, handling conflicts and change management. This talk will look at some of the aspects engineers have to deal with for an effective transition from engineer to manager.


SPEAKER BIODATA

Ir. Dr. LING Chen Hoe has been working with Meiden Malaysia, a company in the electrical engineering and construction industry in Malaysia since 1990. The company is a subsidiary of Meidensha Corporation, Japan (http://www.meidensha.com/) a manufacturer of electrical equipment and provider of electrical engineering products and services to both the private and public sectors in Malaysia. He is currently the Senior General Manager and Director of the company, with roles for Business Development, Strategic Planning and overseeing of the Engineering and Corporate Departments of the company. Dr Ling obtained his Bachelor’s Degree in Electrical Engineering, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia in year 1989. He holds a MBA from the University of Lincoln, United Kingdom (2003) and obtained his Doctorate in Business Administration (DBA) in 2015 from SEGi University, Malaysia. He is also a certified Chartered Professional Engineer of Australia, a Competent Engineer (33kV,132kV) & Professional Engineer in Malaysia. Dr Ling also serves part-time in various universities’ programs, namely in the engineering faculty and post-graduate business management studies.