Welcome to Leaders of Communication for Engineers. I'm Dr. Beata Krupa and this is Dr. Gayle Moran. And we are communication faculty at the Rice Center for Engineering Leadership. >> Communicating is easy, right? You've done it all your life. You do it every day. You talk, you text, you shrug your shoulders. Nothing to it, it's all communication. People mostly understand you. >> But as most of you know, once you get into a work place, and work as a professional engineer, the game changes. The stakes get higher. Now, you are expected to solve problems, lead projects, to be an employee who contributes to the bottom line of their organization. >> And if you want to move ahead in your engineering career. If you want to lead projects and lead people, the shoulder shrug has to go. You'll find out very quickly that everybody, your management chain, your team, your peers, everybody will scrutinize the way you communicate. >> They will judge you, what you say. Is it relevant to the point? Something your audience needs to know, and how you say it. Are you confident, clear, articulate? The leader, in particular a leader in engineering needs to be a good communicator. As Neal Lerner from MIT once said, an engineer who cannot communicate works for one who can. >> Look around your own organization, chances are that the people getting promoted. The people leading the teams and the projects are the ones who have strong communication skills. >> And that's what we are going to talk about in the next 14 weeks. >> How to develop strong communication skills that will help you move ahead in your career? Engineering communication is challenging. We will talk specifically about unique situations, engineers encounter in their day to day activities. We will show you how effective communication skills can help you evolve as a leader. >> We're going to talk about three kinds of skills for good communication that are essential in today's engineering workplace. Number one, oral communication skills. You have to be able to explain your projects, your ideas, your solutions to technical and non-technical audiences. >> Number two, interpersonal skills. You have to be comfortable talking to your management, your peers, and teams. You have to be able to ask for help and resources to successfully complete projects. You need to network and collaborate. Sometimes, you need to solve difficult problems by having difficult conversations. >> And number three, writing. Engineers write a lot, emails every day, reports, proposals. The only writing that really matters is the kind that people can understand. >> During the three courses in the specialization, we're going to tell you how to improve your communication skills. But more importantly, we are going to ask you to practice those skills. Because we believe that when it comes to communication, knowing is important. But doing is the real goal. >> Doing is what your management and your peers see. Doing is what gets the job done. >> When you complete these three courses, oral communication, interpersonal communication, and written communication. You will have a toolkit of information skills and resources that you can apply immediately at your work place, and take with you as you progress in your career. Assignments and activities in these three courses are about specific challenges faced by engineers in real life. There's also specialization level of a project, but we'll explain that later. We strongly believe that communications skills are best learned when we actually communicate. >> So again, welcome. We're glad you here. And we look forward to working with you.
