How to Be a Great Leader in Engineering with expert coach Alain Hunkins

How to Be a Great Leader in Engineering with expert coach Alain Hunkins

Do you want to be happy now? What can professional theater teach you about being a great leader? How does knowing brain science give you an edge in your engineering career?

In this episode, be prepared to discover the leader inside you with Alain Hunkins. He has worked with over 2,000 groups of leaders in 25 countries as a leadership coach and consultant, supporting a list of major corporations way too long for these show notes.

His powerful perspective on how to thrive in life and leadership is transformational for the engineering mindset.

A recognized author, Alain wrote “Cracking the Leadership Code: Three Secrets to Building Strong Leaders” (Wiley, March 2020), which was endorsed by leadership luminaries Jim Kouzes, Barry Posner, and Marshall Goldsmith.

A faculty member of Duke Corporate Education, Alain’s writing has been featured in Fast Company, Inc., Forbes, Chief Executive, Chief Learning Officer, and Business Insider.

So press play and let’s chat… let’s write the script for your future!

The Happy Engineer Podcast

WATCH EPISODE 028: CRACK THE LEADERSHIP CODE WITH ALAIN HUNKINS

LISTEN TO EPISODE 028: CRACK THE LEADERSHIP CODE INTERVIEW WITH ZACH’S DEBRIEF

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CRACK THE LEADERSHIP CODE: BEING A GREAT LEADER IN ENGINEERING

I am totally reeling with golden nuggets, insights, wisdom, amazing things that we could debrief on from my conversation with Alain Hunkins. I hope you enjoyed the episode, and if you have not yet listened, now’s the time! I don’t know how I could possibly do any better on some of these points than he already did, but I want to make sure, as always, that we take this and do more than just listen. Do more than get in the ideas that are vivid and in our minds, but don’t become action. Just like that last point about how engineers are in the world. I’m still just on fire with how that brought clarity and to some of my own patterns and behaviors as an engineer where we get so caught in the vivid ideas and concepts that we neglect emotional intelligence and other people’s feelings.

But also we fail to get into action. So that’s what this time is for, and I’m going to do my best to bring us back and get focused on what we are going to do in our lives as a result of this. Let’s first return to this concept of theater, fine arts, what a cool place to begin. So many leaders, people who do leadership training, leadership coaching, who come into that space have some complimentary background in music, in acting, in improvisation, these other sides of life than the technical and analytical that you and I lived in as his engineers.

I want to highlight the fact that there is a really true, and ever-present reality that you are showing up and playing a part, playing a role in your life, in these different environments and spaces. You are playing the role of an engineering leader at work. You are playing the role of a mother or father to your children, playing a role of a son or daughter to your parents.

That concept it’s not about woo-woo “what is reality?” You know, trying to get into the meta side of all this. That’s not the point. The point is when you step into these roles, there is an identity that you put on. A set of beliefs that come with that. And when you move between roles, there’s an identity shift that can take place. How you show up may be dependent on what you believe is the appropriate way to act in that situation. Something that you might do at home with your spouse is inappropriate at work. And so you act differently. When we say that phrase, we don’t think anything of it. And yet, if I were to say in your life you are constantly acting, many of us might reject that concept or that idea.

But here’s what I want you to think about in terms of application. If you are simply playing a role at work, what if you changed the character? What if you rewrote the script?. Let’s say for example, the character who you’re playing today is a quiet, introverted version of yourself that doesn’t speak up, does not bring your own original ideas into the meetings, avoids conflict, and doesn’t want to have those crucial courageous conversations.

Well, what if you made a decision today to start acting as a different version of yourself? What if you saw work as one grand drama that you play a part in written by Shakespeare (alright, maybe not the Olde English, but you get the point) and you have an opportunity to rewrite your character? Somebody gave you the creative license to say, “Hey, which character do you want to play in this movie?”

I know it sounds crazy, but what you’re doing every single day is exactly that you’re playing out that identity that you have created for yourself. And if you look at this and realize that shifting and changing that identity is a pathway to change in the results that you get. It’s extremely powerful. If it doesn’t make sense to you, you’re not sure what to do with that then get help. Reach out to me, reach out to OACO, reach out to Alain. Get some support on how to make these shifts, these changes. 

Vision plus action equals mission.

I really liked that this is a new way of thinking about it for me, you know, in my world and my vernacular. I talk about vision as a positive view of the future that is vivid, colorful, emotional. It’s all of the senses. It’s descriptive. It’s not just a sentence, it’s a true picture in our minds of what we want to see created at a point in time in the future. It’s something that when you see it, you know it, when you feel it, you know it, when you hear it, you know it, when you smell it, you know it, that’s what vision is. It’s the destination in all of its vivid glory of what we’re going to go create.

And mission, I talk about the north star, it’s the north star on my compass. It’s that guiding direction that helps me know if I am moving toward my vision in a way that is aligned with my values and my purpose, that gives me a sense of mission. And I love the idea of a mission statement, et cetera, but now when you connect this framework that we heard today, vision plus action equals mission. I like this. You need to have that clear picture of the future and where you’re going, but if you don’t take action towards it, then you’re not living on your mission, 100%.

So maybe that supports you and asking yourself the question “Do I have a vision?” and “Am I taking action towards it?” Inside of that combination is where we find the ingredients of your mission. You may not have such a beautifully crafted statement as Alain did. You have a vibrant and alive world by kindling the fire of brilliant people – what a phrase.

Mine is to be an oasis along life’s journey that gives you courage to walk. And we do a life purpose, a mission statement, exercise in my coaching program with the engineering leaders who I support, but maybe you don’t have something that’s beautifully crafted like that. But this is the place to go look. When you know where you want to be in life, you have a vision in the place of authentic action towards it is where you’re going to find your mission.

If you only take one thing away from this conversation, I hope it’s that ending point with Alain’s question. If you want to be happy, fulfilled, successful, fill in the blank, whatever that is that you want. What action can you take today to start experiencing happiness now, to start experiencing success now, to start experiencing love now? Don’t wait. Flip the script. Setting up a framework in your life where when I one day achieve this thing, then I’ll allow myself to be happy. We’ve heard this from several guests, you hear it all the time. It’s easy to want to write that off, engineer. It really is. 

I mean, I’m going to be totally honest with you. Sometimes these things that become cliche or that we hear spoken about a lot on podcasts or motivational speeches, we kind of have it in one ear out the other. “I already know it. I’ve already heard this.” I want to challenge you. Don’t let the “I know” part of your mind block you from what you need to hear right now.

What action can you take today to be happy? Go take it.

Previous Episode 27: From Ballet to Blockchain: Find Your Career Path with Matt Sevey

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ABOUT ALAIN HUNKINS

Alain Hunkins helps high achieving people become high achieving leaders. Over his twenty-year career, Alain has worked with over 2,000 groups of leaders in 25 countries. Clients include Wal-Mart, Pfizer, Citigroup, General Electric, State Farm Insurance, IBM, General Motors, and Microsoft.

In addition to being a leadership speaker, consultant, trainer, and coach, Alain is the author of CRACKING THE LEADERSHIP CODE: Three Secrets to Building Strong Leaders (Wiley, March 2020), which was endorsed by leadership luminaries Jim Kouzes, Barry Posner, and Marshall Goldsmith.

A faculty member of Duke Corporate Education, Alain’s writing has been featured in Fast Company, Inc., Forbes, Chief Executive, Chief Learning Officer, and Business Insider.

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FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPT:

Please note the full transcript is 90-95% accuracy. Reference the podcast audio to confirm exact quotations.

[00:00:00] Happy engineers. Welcome back. You are in for an incredible treat today. It’s an absolute honor to have Alain Hunkins with us, and he gave me training on how to correctly pronounce his name, the Midwestern yuppy, Zach white struggles. But this is an amazing, amazing leader who I just had the privilege of meeting recently at a mutual event where we shared some of the work that we’re doing with challenges, and it was an absolute pleasure.

[00:00:28] We have got to connect and get you on the show and Alain, thank you for making time to be with us. I know you have so much going on. It’s awesome to have you.

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