The Growth of Leadership Potential of Engineers; A Case Study

Abstract

As the global workforce increasingly emphasises interpersonal skills along with technical skills, engineers face the unique challenge of expanding their leadership and communication capabilities. The aim of this study is to examine how the collaboration with Toastmasters International, a global organisation dedicated to public speaking and leadership development, has supported and catalysed the growth of the leadership potential of Sri Lankan engineers as a case study. An online face-to-face interviews were conducted with 20 Sri Lankan engineers who worked with Toastmasters International to achieve the aim of this study. Voice-recorded interviews with the consent of the interview participants were transcribed verbatim and analysed using NVIVO software employing the thematic analysis method. This study has revealed that engineers’ experience and engagements with Toastmasters have helped them to improve confidence, communication skills, experiential learning, networking, and transformation that foster their leadership potential to the next level in their professional work environments. They have realized the drastic improvement in their leadership potential was catalysed with the Toastmasters engagements. Hence, this study confirms Toastmasters as a proven pathway to transformative growth of the leadership potential of Sri Lankan engineers. However, further studies are needed to investigate the range of leadership development opportunities available within society, with the aim of identifying the most effective approaches for cultivating leadership among professional engineers. Integrating such frameworks into undergraduate engineering curricula has the potential to significantly enhance the leadership competencies of future engineers in Sri Lanka.