Building the Dream Team: Insights from Women in Engineering Leadership

This is the second article in our multi-part series on "Women in Engineering Leadership," brought to you by Mouser Electronics. This series explores various facets of leadership through the lens of prominent female leaders in engineering who are paving the way toward a more inclusive industry. Each installment of this series dives into different aspects of leadership and professional development, underlining strategies, challenges, and key insights. Join us as we discuss the stories, challenges, and triumphs of women leaders redefining the engineering landscape.

What makes a team excel? This question is at the heart of organizational success. Leaders need to master the art of hiring individuals with the right skills and mindset and nurturing these talents to foster a culture of innovation and cooperation. From impactful interviewing techniques to strategies for maintaining team morale and cohesion, this article explains the crucial steps for assembling and sustaining a high-performing team. Offering insights from industry experts, this piece presents ways to build, nurture, and retain teams that propel companies to the top of their game, essentially outlining the blueprint for building the dream team.

Build a High-Performing Team

Building a dream team starts with the interview process. To create a foundation for success, you must hire and cultivate people with a growth mindset, seek out critical thinkers, and prioritize passion and positive attitudes. But building the team is just the beginning. Leaders must nurture high performers, emphasize personal relationships, share wins, and foster a culture of trust and empowerment. To retain top talent, you must keep your best and brightest engaged, motivated, and committed to the team's success. 

Ask About the Impact New Hires Made in their Previous Role

Tori Foust, director of project management at Samtec, reveals her secret to building high-performing teams: "When hiring, I ask candidates about the legacy they left at their previous company. I want to know if they implemented changes that are still in use, made a difference in operations, or implemented something that improved the business."

Foust emphasizes that the impact doesn't have to be huge: "Even something as small as creating a form to streamline meeting setups can demonstrate a focus on continuous improvement, which is a key quality I look for in new hires."

Look for Someone with a Growth Mindset

Esugasini Subramaniam, director of supply chain and engineering at Micron Technology, shares her advice on finding the right talent. Looking only for a specific skill set may set you back. Instead, she suggests finding someone with a growth mindset looking to build on their fundamental skills: “Look for candidates that show a willingness to listen to ideas, to come out of their comfort zone, and to make mistakes.” The suitable new hires for your high-performance team won't be defensive, have a big ego, or believe they are inherently flawed if they make a mistake. "Most importantly, I want someone with a growth mindset and the guts to make mistakes and learn from those mistakes," says Subramaniam.

Find Someone with a Passion for the Job and a Positive Attitude

Jacqueline Olson, head of Americas Automotive Sales at Wolfspeed, prioritizes attitude and passion over skills when hiring. "I focus on a candidate's disposition to learning rather than their current skill set," Olson explains. "Do they have a positive, constructive attitude? Are they self-aware and willing to learn?"

To assess these qualities in a short interview, Olson relies on a revealing question: "How do you describe yourself, and how do others describe you?" This insight helps her identify candidates with the right mindset for growth and success.

Seek out New Hires who can Think Critically

Mitra Tayareh, director of application design engineering at MACOM, seeks critical thinkers and problem solvers when hiring. "I want to know how a candidate handles work pressure and if they can deliver under intense conditions," Tayareh explains. "I evaluate their communication skills. Can we communicate easily? Do they respond promptly and concisely to questions?"

By observing how candidates react to problem-solving questions and the conciseness of their answers during the interview process, Tayareh determines if they're the right fit for her team.

Nurture Your High Performers

Prioritize Personal Relationships with Everyone on Your Team

Foust reveals the key lesson someone shared early in her career: “As a young engineer, someone told me that being a good team leader isn’t about the work. It’s about knowing more about the people you work with than you do about the work.” 

How does a leader put that into practice? She gets to know her team members and their motivations. "Our motivations shape our work and business. As a leader, it's my responsibility to grasp these motivations to better guide and collaborate with my team."

One fundamental way to build better trust with existing team members is to show sincere interest in their personal lives. "Don't walk up to someone's desk and immediately ask where something is or for a status report on something else," says Foust. "It's far more important to know how they are doing or how their son did at an archery competition over the weekend. Get to know the people on your team, and everyone will do better work."

Share Everyone’s Wins and Successes—Let Everyone Shine

Olson believes that to nurture existing high performers, leaders need to share success stories from the team, especially when everyone is spread across the globe, working in different time zones or locations. "High-performing teams need to know what others are doing and how to replicate their best work," Olson explains. "In quarterly meetings at my previous company, I would highlight three success stories from different team members. We'd analyze the best practices and identify lessons everyone could emulate."

This approach elevates everyone's skills and recognizes employees' great work. "As leaders, we should celebrate everyone's wins," Olson emphasizes. "Share progress and accomplishments, giving each team member their moment to shine." This practice nurtures high performers by demonstrating that their efforts matter.

Retain Top Talent 

Retaining top talent can be as challenging as recruiting it. Subramaniam's advice? "Empower your team to make decisions. Inclusive decision-making, involving all stakeholders, is key to business success and employee retention." Informed, collaborative decision-making keeps projects moving forward and ensures everyone feels valued—a critical foundation for retaining the best and brightest.

Subramaniam likes to use questionnaires to assess how everyone on the team is doing and to eliminate any behavior that might create chaos for the team or the business. "I have managed a difficult work environment," says Subramaniam. "I put everyone in the same room together and walk them through the exercises and questions. I asked everyone to respond to the questions, complete a self-reflection, and participate in a discussion about how to avoid toxic work behaviors." Subramaniam uses this framework when creating her questionnaire.

Jane Yun, a principal system architect at TE Connectivity with ten patents and over thirty research papers, says, "Trust between a leader and the team members creates the ultimate foundation for a high-performing team." She recommends: "Focus on building positive relationships with team members—and the number one way to do that is by fostering an environment of trust." Trust helps retain top performers in a few ways: team members know who they can go to for help, they know their colleagues will have their backs when doing challenging work, and they’ll trust the ability of others to do the job and follow through. And most importantly, says Yun, "When team members trust their peers to correct their work, they learn from each other’s mistakes." 

Conclusion

Building a high-performing team is a complex endeavor that requires leaders to look beyond technical competencies and consider the interpersonal dynamics and intellectual agility of potential and current team members. To effectively nurture and retain top talent, leaders should focus on the following key strategies:

• Celebrate Achievements: Actively showcase the wins of every team member, not just those of the leaders, to promote a culture of inclusivity and shared success.

• Understand Personal Motivations: Deepen relationships with team members by understanding their personal interests and motivations, which enhances collaboration and trust.

• Value Critical Thinking: Prioritize hiring individuals who can think critically, respond promptly, and communicate effectively, ensuring the team is equipped to handle complex challenges.

These strategies are fundamental in creating a cohesive, motivated team that is prepared to drive the organization towards its goals.

This article was initially published in "Women in Engineering Leadership: Advices and Best Practices for New Leaders," an e-magazine by Mouser Electronics and IEEE Women in Engineering Society. It has been substantially edited by the Wevolver team and Ravi Y Rao for publication on Wevolver. Upcoming articles will explore various aspects of leadership and best practices for new women leaders in the engineering field.