Brandon W. Jones

There are leaders that come from all backgrounds. Some have no college degree while others have doctorate degrees. At the same time, leaders come from different areas of study. Some have studied business while others have studied engineering. In addition to engineering and business, there are many other fields of study that also produce strong leaders. There is no specific template for a good leader since they come in all shapes and sizes with all types of backgrounds. There are, however, backgrounds that tend to produce more leaders than others. Engineering happens to be one of those backgrounds.

So why are does engineering produce good leaders? When you think of engineers, you may think of the technical guru that sits behind the computer all day working out solutions to advanced equations. Although it is true that this is what some engineers do, there is actually a lot more to engineering than just solving technical equations. There are many different specialties in engineering (e.g. civil, mechanical, electrical, structural, mineral, geological, etc.). Each engineering discipline specializes in a different subject matter based on their area of study, but they all focus on solving problems. You can actually think of engineers as problem solving specialists.

Problem solving goes hand in hand with leadership. Leaders spend a significant amount of time on a regular basis solving problems. Leaders solve a wide variety of problems ranging from minor employee issues to determining the direction the company will go on new product lines. The problem solving leaders do is right in line with the training engineers receive which is why engineers make great leaders.

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