Taking the Lead

Frontiers November 2014 Issue

TAKING THE LEAD Employees gain opportunities to grow as managers By Geoff Potter Frontiers November 2014 23 honing technical skills. As a new manager, however, she said she found it challenging, as Salt had noted, to delegate tasks she could do—and formerly did—herself. But after completing a leadership-development course at the Boeing Leadership Center in August, she better understood how to develop teammates by empowering them to lead projects and complete tasks in their own way. Boeing revamped courses at the center this year to target new first-level, midlevel and executive leaders and better prepare them for their new roles. “Delegating is an uncomfortable feeling at first, but it’s really rewarding once you see the progress and success your team actually can perform,” Davis said. And it freed her to spend more time coaching Salt and helping him develop his own career, she said. Like Salt, Sascha Ruegamer, a flutter lead on the 777X program for Commercial Airplanes in Everett, Wash., started working for a new manager. That was late last year, just as the new manager was establishing a Lines, Loads and Laws team to integrate the aerodynamics, flight controls, loads and dynamics disciplines for the program. When her manager returned from the new leadership-development program, Ruegamer saw the positive impact. “He took time with our interim performance reviews to understand where we wanted to go in our careers, and he acted on what we discussed.” Ruegamer noted that when she wanted to gain project-management experience, her manager taught her how to build an integrated schedule for the team and to resolve prioritization and scheduling conflicts between team members. She credited him for taking time to listen, to understand what her goals were and to help her succeed. “That was a great experience,” Ruegamer said, “one of the things I’ll take away from the group.” n geoffrey.potter@boeing.com PHOTO: Delegating helped new manager Vonda Davis, left, focus on teammate Tony Salt’s development. RON BOOKOUT/BOEING


Frontiers November 2014 Issue
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