2011 July | Sales Aerobics for Engineers ® Blog

An Interview with Anthony Fasano

July 20, 2011 By Babette Ten Haken Leave a Comment

I recently had the honor of interviewing Anthony Fasano, who just launched his new book: Engineer Your Own Success: 7 Key Elements to Creating an Extraordinary Engineering Career. Anthony is a design engineer turned executive coach, speaker and author. He now spends his time helping engineers around the world to create careers that are exciting, enjoyable, and rewarding while being well-balanced.

BTH: When did the “idea” for the book become your mission? What was your turning point in finding your writing “voice”?

AJF: After traveling around the country for over a year speaking to engineers on the topics of career growth and development, I realized that the information I was giving out was much needed and based on the response of my audience they were successfully using this information to advance! Earlier this year, I finally decided that this information should be in a book that all engineers can have access to. I guess over a year ago when I started writing daily career inspirational messages to engineers and other professionals known as A Daily Boost From Your Professional Partner, I realized that not only did I really enjoy writing but my readers enjoyed my content!

BTH: Why did you feel compelled to write this book? What was your perceived need from your constituents?

AJF: I felt compelled because I knew that I could only speak or coach to so many engineers on a weekly or yearly basis, however with the book I could get this career development information to thousands of engineers with no geographic limits. The need that I found was that engineers are very technically savvy but when it comes to communication, networking, leadership and other soft skills, we struggle. It is totally understandable that we struggle with these skills because they are never taught to us in school. Once I experienced this myself as a young engineer, I made it a goal to develop my skills and then transfer the information I learned to as many engineers that I could, hence the book – Engineer Your Own Success.

BTH: What is the biggest shortfall in the engineering community in terms of career development?

AJF: First of all, I believe that the college curriculum does not include enough classes (if any) on the topics I mentioned above, specifically communication and leadership. In addition to that, TIME is a huge shortfall for engineers. Many engineers realize that they need to develop some of these softer skills but due to stressful project deadlines, they don’t have the time to do so. That’s why my book and daily e-mails give them information in the form of easy to use strategies so they can fit some developmental tasks into their busy daily schedule. Chapter 6 on organizational skills also provides strategies for being more efficient, to be able to get more done in less time. The newfound ‘free’ time can be used to develop and advance or simply to enjoy with their families.

BTH: Has this shortfall always been there or has the recent economic meltdown contributed to it / made it more profound?

AJF: I think this shortfall has always been there, but the technology today and all of the different avenues of communication draw more attention to these skills. Also the more distractions that are out there make it critical to have great leaders in your company to keep everyone on track. The economic meltdown has unfortunately forced many engineers into unemployment and these soft skills become even more important for those unemployed as prospective employers today are looking for well-rounded engineers.

BTH: Why will readers benefit from your book?

AJF: By reading this book you will discover ways to:

Set goals that are in alignment with your true desires,

Find the right mentor and get the most out of the relationship,
Obtain the credentials needed to easily reach your goals,
Become an effective communicator,
Network your way to impactful relationships,
Get and stay organized in a way that will increase productivity,
Be a confident leader as you rise up the ladder to success!

You won’t learn many of these skills in a textbook, course or even your company, however all of these things together will change your life both personally and professionally forever!

BTH: How does your book differ from other resources available to the civil engineering community (if any)?

AJF: There are some other resources and they are all good, however mine does differ in a few ways. First of all I have advanced during the same generation as most of the engineers who will read the book so feel I feel like this book is very much geared towards TODAY hence the section on social networking. I also felt like some of the other books were very long and at points difficult to read so I tried to make my book information packed and to the point. It ended up a very easy to read 200 pages or so. Lastly I am a very inspirational person (or least I am told so) so this book represents me and who I am, which is different than any other book. Intertwined with the information I give the readers is a lot of inspiration that will motivate them in their career. It’s one thing to give people information that they can use, it’s another thing to inspire them to use it!

BTH: What’s a key excerpt/quote from your book? Why do you feel it is significant?

AJF: One point that I make in my book is the statement that: Developing relationships is directly related to developing your career. In today’s world people are always in a hurry and they forget how important it is to build solid relationships with other professionals. Most people today would rather text someone one line rather than call them or grab lunch and really bond with the person. The more solid relationships you build, not only will there be more opportunities available to you, but your career will be much more enjoyable!

Filed Under: Professional Development & Social Selling, Sales & Engineering Collaboration Tagged With: Anthony J. Fasano, Engineer Your Own Success, engineers, professional development

Rubbing Your Head and Patting Your Stomach, or Learning To Play Pinochle

July 12, 2011 By Babette Ten Haken Leave a Comment

We have so many habits. Our bodies and minds have been so programmed to respond to information in a certain, set way. We are programmed for survival. We are not programmed to take risks, unless we have no other choice. Fight or flight, fear or foe. No in-between area.

Yet in the business world, everything is really some shade of grey, rather than an either-or, black-or-white type of decision. What is an appropriate choice or solution in one context is not appropriate in another. So we may end up making the same choice, with different outcomes, or different choices with the same outcomes, many times during the course of a business day. We “live” in the in-between areas, and not necessarily comfortably.

We become complacent about our decision making. We know where the information is stored, so we have standard responses or solutions we offer when the behaviors of our clients and prospects “seem” to indicate them. Have you ever wondered where all the rest of the great stuff you learned resides in your brain? So you can offer clients and prospects, and even your internal colleagues, some refreshing insight that will lead to an entirely different outcome than the same-old, same-old, tried-and-true stuff you offer? Of course, this “stuff” is what works and what generates revenue for your organization. But revenue and profitability are not necessarily the same thing.

How do you jog yourself out of your status-quo mindset? For that matter, does your status quo mindset even bother you? In order to get over the mental quagmire you’re in, I suggest learning to rub your head and pat your stomach at the same time. Do this activity at least three times a day. First of all, it’s a bit of fun. Second of all, you probably won’t be able to do this successfully, even by the third try of the day. Third of all, in order to even attempt to rub your head and pat your stomach simultaneously, you will have to use all sorts of muscles and muscle memory (aka, your brain and nerves) in different combinations and sequences than how you are used to using your body. It’s like shuffling a deck of cards differently. Your grey matter will slightly reorient itself.

You will be provided with a new idea of how to use your muscles and mental resources to produce a different outcome. Interesting, huh? Wanna guess how this might play out the next time to you need to create a solution for a customer? Some ideas and concepts may surface that lead you to wonder where they came from…. How about from someplace in your brain where they were “stuck”?

If you don’t want to engage in a bit of public “silly” in the workplace, how about learning to play Pinochle? No easy card game, that one. For starters, the cards are organized differently. They are valued and weighted differently; they sit in the hand that was dealt you differently. And guess what, you can’t become complacent at any point during the game. Your full attention is required on focusing to keep all the rules, values, finesse and points in play at all times. No room for “same old, same old” with this card game. Because it’s not like other games. You use your mind differently. And you know what, your brain relaxes, yes relaxes, because it’s expanding to extract stored information in a different manner and in different combinations than what you are used to. It’s mentally aerobic, if you ask me. And great fun.

We owe it to ourselves, as business development professionals, to use as much of our brain power as possible in seeking solutions for customers. And with both of these exercises, silence, observation and listening – rather than chatter and spiel – is involved in seeking those solutions. No matter how successful you are in your current position, there is always room for continuous self improvement. And self improvement can come from a variety of sources, not just the same-old, same-old. Think about it. And have a bit of “silly” at the same time.

Filed Under: Professional Development & Social Selling, Sales, Pitching & Business Development Tagged With: business development, engineers, professional development, sales

Back by popular demand. Let’s play 20 questions! Should the VP of Business Development run your next Engineering meeting?

July 4, 2011 By Babette Ten Haken Leave a Comment

One of my most popular posts.

Would you voluntarily turn your Engineering meeting over to the VP of Business Development? Think about it: Key Performance Indicators, or KPIs, meet Sales and Profitability Goals. The Engineering function is seeking project delivery on time, within budget and with high quality (and 0% defects and elimination of wasteful processes) once the work comes in house. The Sales function has their eye on anywhere from 10-25% growth in gross revenue over last year, as they look towards the upcoming fiscal year and increasing overall net profit. This year is, well, this year.

What type of questions – as a review of the State of Engineering for your company – might the VP of Business Development have for the Engineering Team if s/he were running the next Engineering meeting? What if the VP of Business Development walked in to the meeting, thanked you for your invitation, and said: “Let’s get the cards on the table. I’ve got some questions and I need your input. In review…..”

1. What type of projects are you working on? What types do you wish you were working on?

2. What is the priority of these projects based on forecasting?

3. What type of industrial segments are involved in these projects? Are these the segments we do our best work for?

4. What type of project segments are involved: rapid turnaround, long term projects, medium duration? Are we balanced?

5. How long do you think it should take the Sales Team to win jobs?

6. What is the timeline for Engineering’s completion of these projects, once they are won?

7. What other projects can be anticipated arising from these initial projects?

8. How are these additional or add-on projects being identified by Engineering?

9. What is the rate of new project or add-on project acquisition by Engineering once the Sales Team wins a project?

10. What are the gaps in skill set among Engineering that prevent the Engineering Team from being more successful identifying Opportunities based on the hard-won work by the Sales Team?

11. How much of project completion time can be billed back to the customer?

12. How much of project completion time is eaten by the company?

13. What is the nature of non-billable (wasted?) time and how much is it costing the company per year?

14. How much Engineering time is spent on achieving KPI’s during the course of each project?

15. What is the average amount of time Engineering spends on achieving KPIs, including Lean and Six Sigma / Quality activities?

16. How do these activities directly impact overall project outcome in terms of time to completion?

17. How do these activities impact profitability?

18. How well does the Sales Team factor in Engineering and Quality costs into the project proposals?

19. What are the gaps in the Sales Team’s skill set in terms of understanding the value of Quality/Six Sigma/Lean processes in the overall project outcome, and therefore the project proposal?

20. How can these gaps between the Sales and Engineering processes be bridged for the benefit of Business Development?

Could you answer these questions? Do you go into each Engineering meeting prepared to answer questions like these? Do these types of questions enter into your project planning, as an Engineer? Perhaps they should. Because Engineering shouldn’t be doing Engineering in a tactical, by-project vacuum. And Business Development usually takes a strategic perspective, rather than a tactical one – although sometimes it just looks like a lot of churning and burning and wild goose chases and dead ends.

What if your VP of Business Development is also an Engineer, or perhaps Director of Operations? How does this change your receptivity to their running your next Engineering meeting? Do you think being an Engineer or in Ops is going to change the nature of the profitability-oriented questions they are going to ask you? They’ve crossed over and now incorporate right and
left brain, yin-yang considerations into their thinking. They take a high level, multi-factorial overview of things. They see the problem from around the table,not from one side or the other.

Does your company have KPI’s? Does your Engineering Department have KPI’s? How are these aligned with your Corporation’s KPI’s? Does your Business Development function have KPI’s? How are these aligned with Engineering KPI’s?

With everyone chasing their silo-ed interpretation of KPI’s – and probably bonus money- how is this affecting decision making, interdepartmental collaboration, innovation, employee and customer retention and overall profitability?

A lot to think about. For your next Engineering meeting. Bring it to the table. And invite your VP of Business Development. Like me, they may have a lot more than 20 questions to ask you.