Shepherding Engineering Leadership: A Combined Approach to Leading and Creating Employee Engagement

A shepherd and an engineer are two very different practitioners. A shepherd must keep his flock safe, protect it from predators, and guide it to market areas before shearing. In contrast, engineers create, develop, and evaluate large-scale complex systems. They improve and maintain existing systems and create new ones. They draft blueprints, inspect systems and manage projects. Taking care of their employees like shepherds and helping them achieve their work objectives is one-way leaders can approach their employees. Leadership in engineering encompasses providing resources, updating systems, and establishing a framework for success. I propose combining these two practitioner approaches to minimize employee disengagement and maximize employee satisfaction. Shepherds don’t want their flock to reduce in number because of a wolf (or wolves) among their sheep. In the same way, engineers want to stay current with the systems they design. Together, both mindsets could ensure employees understand why leaders do what they do and, from a leader’s perspective, emphasize the practices necessary to help employees succeed. In this chapter, I propose a leading mindset; the nurturing attribute of leading employees (shepherding), and actionizing developing systems that promote employee development and their idea implementation (engineering). I call it “Shepherding Engineering Leadership (SEL).”