Skillset And Mindset

Working on and expanding your technical skillset is very important.  Equally as important is your mindset so you can keep your technical skillset sharp and up to date.   Your mindset is really about how you think about what motivates you, your attitude about learning other skills and your dispositions in how you react to certain situations.

If you can get your mindset right to work in tandem with your powerful skillset, your engineering journey will be more rewarding and meaningful. Some of the mindsets you will need to consider are the entrepreneurial, leadership and growth mindsets.  Having an entrepreneurial mindset will involve the growth of other important skills, like leadership and how you deal with failure and change, especially in this time of exploding technology and rapidly changing economic conditions.  Working on your mindset will give you that competitive edge others may not be thinking about.

The content below intends to help you on your professional journey which will include discussing character and career development for undergraduates, graduate school students and young professionals, including topics like:  leadership, system thinking of complex projects, creating value and a passion for excellence.

For those interested in being a licensed professional engineer or IEEE senior member, please visit the following Life Member Affinity Group Chapter, who is taking the lead in this area of the webpage:  https://site.ieee.org/pikespeak/professional-development/.

Here’s a 1/2-hour video set to start at the 26-minute mark with Dr Warrick being presented as a second speaker for this talk, entitled, Demystifying Leadership Principles – Business Briefing 4.13.21. 

Here, Dr Warrick’s talk presents:
  • Leadership myths
  • Potential payoffs of developing skilled leaders
  • Principles for being a skilled leader at any level
Here’s one of the most important one-hour of Dr Warrick’s Webinar, entitled, “Committing to Personal Excellence”, with the title of slides shown below.

  • Purpose of webinar: Preparing a life of personal commitment of excellence regardless of circumstances
  • What You Will Learn: Committing to Excellence is a Lifestyle, Attitude and Approach to Life
  • Why Committing to Excellence Is Important
  • What Committing to Excellence Is Not
  • What Committing to Excellence Is
  • Developing a Plan for Committing to Excellence
  • Defining Excellence
  • Managing Your Life From a Whole Person Perspective Evaluation
  • Behavioral Chain Reaction:  Why Do We Do What We Do
  • Keys to Continuous Growth, Change, and Commitment to Excellence
  • Are You Willing to Commit to Personal Excellence
  • URL: Warrick Webinar: Committing to Personal Excellence – YouTube

 

After reviewing Wooden’s Pyramid of Success on Leadership, found on the tab, scroll down to the bottom of the Pyramid of Success for more insight about John Wooden’s philosophy on leadership which includes an interactive Pyramid at his official website, along with some more videos.  Also on the same tab is Admiral McRaven, inspirational speech, containing many elements found on John Wooden’s Pyramid of Success.

Recently, a presentation was given to the IEEE University of Colorado, Colorado Springs (UCCS) Student Branch about IEEE and John Wooden’s Pyramid of Success held on 6 Oct 2022.  See flyer at IEEE Day: Why Your Technical Skillset Might Not Be Enough & ‘State of the IEEE Pikes Peak Section’ : vTools Events for more details.

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Drag and Drop the character values in the appropriate position of the Pyramid without looking at the Pyramid of Success By John Wooden.

This exercise will give you some reflection in coming up with your own values on what it takes to be successful. Recall, your thoughts will govern your destiny.

The video below has no audio.  It will just give you an indication what was presented with animation. Here is the slide presentation on “Why A Technical Skill Set May Not Be Enough “by Dr John Santiago and “Going Pro” by Mr. Daniel Thomson.   For Dr Santiago’s talk, there are two YouTube videos in the recorded video presentation below.  You should watch the first video, the Backwards Brain Bicycle shown below before viewing the rest of the slides.   The other video of 45 seconds in length is on slide 4 and is made by a student showing a glimpse of their advertising/marketing aspect of the entrepreneurial mindset.  The student who made this video is now working at Disneyland in China designing theme rides.

For Daniel Thomson presentation, he provides reasons why IEEE is a good return-on-investment (ROI) as well as a discussion of the benefits of attending the Rising Stars Conference, held every January at Las Vegas.   Young Professionals and IEEE Student members are highly encouraged to attend.  Please see your student branch advisor for details.  Due to budget constraints, one student per student branch may attend.

A flipbooks of the slide presentations.

You alone can’t create a pencil but over thousands of people who don’t know each other cooperated in making the pencil happen at an insignificant price.  That’s the market enterprise important role in letting the free market govern the price structure.  Developing partnerships and building a team as well as identifying supply chain distribution methods when there’s market (customer) interest contributes to global harmony.