Initial Leadership Competency Analysis

“Engineering leadership consists of capabilities and values that transform technical people from individual contributors into those who can lead teams to deliver a complex multi-disciplinary product” © Gordon-MIT Engineering Leadership Programm.

Cohort: Civil Engineering student, mostly juniors, Spring 2026.

Course: Introduction into Transportation System Analysis (for most students this course is the first exposure to the transportation engineering).

Based on the survey data from 105 respondents, we can see a clear baseline for the engineering leadership skills in the beginning of the Spring semester.

Before the education begins, students generally feel most confident in collaborative tasks and least confident in formal leadership and innovation-specific roles.

Methodology

This study evaluates leadership competencies among engineering students (mostly juniors) via self-assessment. The evaluation is based on a modified framework by Stevens et al. (2021) and adopts Huckabee’s (2023) definition of leadership: the ability to influence others to reach a specific goal.

Survey Instrument

Participants were asked to respond to the following prompt:

“Indicate how well your previous education prepared you for your professional career and enhanced your ability relative to each of the following skills using a 5-point Likert scale: (1) Poorly, (2) Fairly, (3) Neither poorly nor well, (4) Very Well, and (5) Excellently.”

Evaluated Leadership Dimensions

  • Leading Teams: Running meetings and adjusting to personality types.

  • Strategic Thinking: Using mission and vision statements effectively.

  • Teamwork: Contributing to high-performing teams.

  • Project Management: Applying formal processes to technical projects.

  • Feedback: Mastering the art of professional critique.

  • Self-Reflection: Ongoing evaluation of leadership growth.

  • Ethical Practice: Navigating ethical issues and decision-making.

  • Innovation: Fostering creative team cultures.

  • Global Competencies: Navigating cross-cultural environments and reducing bias.

  • Emotional Intelligence: Managing conflict and emotional regulation.

  • Communication: Tailoring professional writing and speaking to audiences.

  • Initiative: Taking ownership of new challenges and responsibilities.

“Stevens, J. D., Lang, D., Handley, M., Park, J. J., & Mittan, P. (2021). Evaluating the Effectiveness of an Undergraduate Engineering Leadership Development Minor on Graduates. ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition, Conference Proceedings.”

Average Scores

A bar chart of averages is the best “first look” to identify where the group stands.

Highest Baseline: Students rate themselves highest in Teamwork (\(4.08\)) and Effective Communication (\(4.07\)).

Lowest Baseline: The areas with the most room for growth are Leading Teams (\(3.55\)) and Innovation Culture (\(3.60\)).

Distribution of Ratings

A stacked bar chart shows the “spread” of abilities. Average score of \(3.5\) comes from everyone being “Neutral” or from half the group being “Excellent” and the other half being “Poor.”

Most skills show a healthy distribution concentrated between \(3\) and \(5\). Innovation Culture and Global Competencies have a higher frequency of \(1\) and \(2\) ratings compared to others, suggesting these are more specialized skills that students percive they don’t have.

Correlation: How Skills Move Together

A heatmap reveals which skills are naturally linked in students’ minds.

High correlations

Leading Teams & Initiative (\(0.60\)). This is the strongest correlation among all pairs of competences. Students who feel confident taking initiative also feel more prepared to lead meetings and teams.

Emotional Intelligence & Innovation Culture (\(0.56\)). This suggests that managing team emotions and conflict can be one of the prerequisite for fostering a creative environment.

Effective Communication & Initiative (\(0.52\)). Communication confidence is a strong predictor of a student’s perception to be willing to take on new responsibilities.

Low correlations

Global Competencies and Initiative and Communication (\(0.17\) and \(0.18\)).