From Engineer to Empowered Leader: The PATH to Management Success
After 27 years with his company, Wes had built a strong track record of success as a Senior Process Engineer and a reliable individual contributor. His consistent performance and leadership potential did not go unnoticed. When his manager accepted another role, the company named Wes his natural successor. While he had led in many ways throughout his career, Wes realized that managing would present a new set of challenges.
Anyone transitioning from their contributor role into management has to rethink how they work and relate to others. They must:
Establish their authority while maintaining relationships
Shift their mindset from executing tasks to empowering their team
Learn to navigate new and less-defined responsibilities
Manage their leadership as well as their team
Many first-time managers fail to strike the necessary balance and become increasingly frustrated with their role and their team.
Wes wanted to avoid many of the pitfalls that await new managers. He explored his company’s self-directed training programs, but he found that they lacked the personalization and strategic guidance he wanted.
That’s when Wes found the Discover Your PATH Masterclass, a program designed to provide clarity, actionable strategies, and leadership development.
The PATH framework covers four key areas:
Purpose: The driving force that gives meaning to our actions and decisions.
Action: Break down your goals into actionable steps.
Time: Develop a realistic timeline for achieving your goals that balances various aspects of life
Honor: Recognize, respect, and leverage your talents, skills, and network.
As a logical, data-driven engineer, Wes was a little skeptical at first. He recalled, “There was some minor hesitation on my part with doing CliftonStrengths and the masterclass. When I hear Honor and PATH, you know, it sounds a little hippy-dippy, at least to my ear.” Yet, knowing that his company’s generic resources weren’t preparing him as well as he would have liked, he enrolled. He was soon very glad he did.
Wes had previously received leadership certifications through well-known online programs, yet he said the masterclass gave him more tailored guidance. “The PATH Masterclass is a more detailed approach,” Wes explained. “It gave me direction on how to lay out a timeline for personal and career development.” He noted four key takeaways:
Understanding His Strengths
Wes took the CliftonStrengths assessment before going through the masterclass, and Jill McCarthy, the course facilitator, helped him weave his strengths into his action plan. He recalled, “She helped me identify where my strengths can be used to improve teamwork and work with a broader team that would report to me.”
Wes’s top ten CliftonStrengths include Developer® and Activator®. The Developer® talent gives him the natural ability to develop the potential in others and encourage their progress. Activator® makes him inclined to put thoughts into action. With Jill’s guidance, he recognized times in the past where these natural abilities had clearly been at work: “I’ve been a mentor in crossfunctional team-type situations without even realizing it. Once we went through [Clifton]Strengths, I go, oh, that's what I was doing.” Now Wes can see how his talents will help him establish authority without needing to micromanage.
Seeking Strategic Mentorship
One of the things that Wes identified through the class was his desire to learn from leaders who could broaden his perspective. He explained, “So at my company, we have a CDAP (Career Development Action Plan). Going through the masterclass helped me identify very specific things I could do to enhance that development, such as seeking out mentorship from peers or managers who are not my own boss. It helped me brainstorm ways of seeking out that mentorship and define my goals for moving forward.” These mentors will be critical in helping Wes navigate the new expectations he faces as a manager.
Implementing the Plan
Even though he was initially skeptical about the Honor part of the PATH Framework, Wes now believes that his insights from this section were the most valuable. One of the key parts of Honor is knowing who is in your network and recognizing ways to create mutual benefit. Wes realized that he could leverage his relationship with his boss to meet his own development goals, and he came up with a simple yet effective way to keep momentum: changing the cadence of and agendas for his one on ones. Before, he took a more passive approach, but now he celebrates, “I set the agenda for what we will talk about, whether it’s him or me or the team. I lay out what I need to do going forward–all those things. We have a format for the meeting that I didn’t have before.” This new cadence will enable Wes to keep his leadership and team in alignment.
Why the PATH Masterclass Stood Out
Unlike other professional development programs, the PATH Masterclass felt personalized and practical. “Even though it was a group setting, it felt like it was tailored to me,” Wes noted.
His experience with Jill McCarthy was another highlight. “Jill relates information in a way that resonates,” he said. “Her background and knowledge transfer across industries—even though I work in manufacturing, her insights applied seamlessly.”
A Leadership Journey Transformed
Through the Discover Your PATH Masterclass, Wes gained the confidence and tools to take charge of his leadership development. By applying the PATH framework, he is now proactively driving his career forward and feels far more prepared to lead his team.
For professionals looking to gain clarity, take action, and accelerate their career growth, the Discover Your PATH Masterclass offers a structured and transformative experience, just as it did for Wes.
Ready to Discover Your PATH to a career you love?