Which skills are most important for a Biomedical or Clinical Engineering Manager?

In today’s edition of the MedWrench blog, I want to go over a recent discussion I came across on LinkedIn. Todd Rogers, a staffing and recruiting specialist at TriMedx, posted a question asking people to rank the most important skill for a biomedical or clinical engineering manager. I found this question intriguing and figured why not share his findings with our MedWrench users.  Below you will find a few of the responses/opinions from LinkedIn users.

When given a choice which skills are most important for a biomedical or clinical engineering manager?

Rate the following biomedical or clinical engineering manager's most important skill. (1-4)

• Astute technical / equipment repair skills
• General business skills (how to balance the books and other core business functions);
• Team-building
• Diplomacy and people-skills

Brandon V, a Regional Manager of Clinical Engineering, stated the following:

As a Manager of Clinical Engineering for GE, I have enjoyed a long term position as manager of the Biomed Team; as a result, I have a strong opinion of what skills are necessary in order to manage effectively. That said from the list that Todd has presented, I would put them in this order of precedence.

1. Diplomacy and People Skills - a definite required skill that a manager of people must have.
2. Team Building- An attibute that a manager must enables the manager to recruit and hire the right people to make up his Biomedical Engineering team. A certain level of pre-work must go into hiring the right people for your team. The planning and implementation of the interview process often typically yeilds an employee that is a better fit for the team.
3. I am biased when it comes to the standard practice that an experienced Biomedical Engineer with aspirations and the educational background to assume the role of manager in this arena is always a strategic choice. The experience of being a SME in their field along with having an educational background in business management..
4. General Business Skills and Acumen creates an equal balance that gives the manager that ability to make strategic business decisions that often are required of the position.

Chif U, a Healthcare IT Professional responded:

I will switch Business Acumen with technical expertise. Depending on the size of your shop you don't have to know how to repair a piece of equipment to lead a team, you have to know how to ask the right questions

As a leader/manager your focus is heavily on building trust with your customers and team as well as motivating the subject matter experts to do their job efficiently. For me the order will be:

1. Diplomacy and People Skills - Customer Oriented
2. Team Building - True leadership skill
3. Business Skills
4. Technical Acumen

Phil E, Director of Technology Operations stated:

I think diplomatic people skills are synonymous with team building. A diplomat’s job is to build consensus to and obtain movement towards a common goal. Additionally, I think successful HTM management requires more than general business skills.

1. Diplomacy and people-skills
2. Team-building
3. General business skills (how to balance the books and other core business functions)
4. Astute technical / equipment repair skills

Now I would like input from our MedWrench users. How would you rate the skills needed to be a biomedical or clinical engineering manager in order of importance?