This article focuses on how you add value to leading a team when you listen to the team members. Guy Eid has extensive experience in leading biomedical engineering teams. He has worked in Canada, Côte d’Ivoire and Lebanon most recently for bioMérieux in Montreal.

Leading a Team in Field Service and Customer Support Management

Background

Could you give a brief description of your background and why you decided to study electrical and electronics engineering?

As a young child, I was always curious about how things work. I used to dismantle the toys I received for Christmas the next day to see what was inside. Also, what made them move, for example, in the case of battery powered miniature cars. I developed a penchant for technology. My other favourites were building blocks like Meccano, and puzzles.
In the later years of my adolescence, my childhood friend stirred my interest for electronic circuits. So, I built a disco lights circuit, and a sound amplifier for my 1982 Sharp Walkman. As well, I assembled a miniature battery powered remote controlled Pontiac Firebird.
By the way, we are still very close and have been best friends since 1980.

Medical Engineering

Why did medical engineering attract you?

It happened by mere coincidence; something I never regretted though. A dear friend who was in my Electrical Engineering class was approached by a volunteer at the Red Cross for a job opportunity in the medical engineering field. As he was not interested in it, he passed it to me. We were all looking to have careers in the IT field at the time as it was the craze for new graduates and still very new.
I had never heard of medical devices or a career in that field and it was not part of our curriculum at university.
However, I went into it with full dedication and thirst for knowledge. I learned about x-ray imaging diagnostics, ultrasound echography, sterilisation, and participated in several technical training courses in East Berlin at the time and in The Netherlands. And that was only the beginning.

What are the reasons you would recommend this as a career to someone who has just completed their education or is thinking of what to study?

The field of medical devices is fast evolving at an exponential rate with new discoveries of diagnosis methods and patient treatments, coupled with new innovative technologies. So, it is best suited to those technically inclined curious learners.
Whether in the dedicated biomedical engineering department or in the field, it is a very satisfying job as one becomes the saviour in dire situations. Customer appreciation is the ultimate reward on the job and users welcome the medical engineers with open arms as they trust that they will get their devices up and running ASAP.
It is often a solo undertaking, but it builds resilience, character, and confidence.

Working globally and leading a team

You have worked in Canada, Côte d’Ivoire and Lebanon. What are the positives of living in diverse cultures and how does this transfer into your working life?

I started my career in Lebanon, in the middle of a devastating war. Some areas I had to access were beyond green lines, in dangerous areas, but also with different religious beliefs and ethnicities.
After 4 years of that, I immigrated to Montreal where I did all kinds of jobs as an immigrant until I had the opportunity to join a global medical devices company as a Field Service Engineer. It is a different market, and the culture is unique in every province; something I learned on the job. But what remained the same is serving the customer the best way I can and the job satisfaction.
Canada is a remarkably diverse country and I learned to adjust and integrate, but working in Abidjan in Côte d’Ivoire presented a totally different environment in which I had to adapt and learn to succeed. Something that served me well later when I went back to Lebanon for 2 years and then in Canada when I came back late 2019 to work with people of African, Middle Eastern, and other descent.
One learns to listen and understand not only what the urgency is about but also how the users express it, and how to approach them in their own “sphere”.

Benefits of global working when leading a team

Why has working globally been of benefit to you as a team leader?

Just like customers, so teams are very diverse, and people come from different backgrounds, schools, experiences, and have unique customs. Experience of working globally allows me to appreciate the team members very well as to what motivates each of them and what their mindsets are, while staying focused on our mission and objectives. It helps me understand each team member to keep them united and aligned.

Traits and skills

What sort of personality traits and skills are ideal for an engineer who wants to work in another country?

There are seven key ones:

Open minded,
self-aware,
mindful,
adaptable,
quick learner,
humble,
eager to serve.

Languages and culture

You speak three languages (Arabic, English, and French) and work in all of them. What is your advice to other engineers about learning languages?

Being fluent in many languages opens doors to career advancements and in more geographical locations, in addition to the obvious advantage of understanding customers and people around us.
My advice is not to be shy and be open to making mistakes while learning; people appreciate your effort in communicating in their language.

How has speaking three languages made you a better communicator overall?

Communicating with people in their own language puts them at ease and helps better understanding for both sides.

During your career, what are the techniques you have used when there is no common language?

I rarely faced such situations, but some of those instances having a third person to translate helped, and in other instances body language and keywords made it work.

Leading and caring for a team of field service engineers

How much do you measure your own success by how successful members of your team go on to be?

Almost one to one. A leader succeeds through his team, just like the conductor of an orchestra.

What are your techniques for caring about your team’s wellbeing?

Listening, understanding, appreciating, and supporting while being always available. Being an empath and having walked in their shoes for many years and in all possible circumstances makes a big difference.

How do you motivate your team? (in good times and bad)

In addition to listening, understanding, appreciating, and supporting while being always available, building trust, providing feedback, coaching, and giving them autonomy in what they do best while developing them to close gaps and advance while holding them accountable to the agreed-on outcomes. Then, rewarding them for their successes.
Also, creating a career ladder with levels of expertise allows knowledgeable team members to feel appreciated and assist their colleagues with complex technical situations and service escalations.

How do you support someone in your team when things have gone wrong because of a mistake? (theirs or someone else’s)

Acknowledge the mistake, gain common understanding of it, learn from it, how to overcome it and prevent it from happening again. With the understanding and agreement that it should not happen again as it will have more repercussions if the mistake were to be repeated.

Leading and growing a diverse team of field service engineers

How do you grow and develop a team of engineers to be more diverse?

It is really based on the required talent available in the market when hiring, to start with. But it is also about choosing people with the right attitude, emotional intelligence, and growth mindset. Then it is about the company culture and instilling acceptance, tolerance, and camaraderie, as a team can only succeed together.

What do you feel are the advantages of a diverse team?

It enriches the team’s curiosity and interest in the different experiences and cultures. So, they learn a lot from one another.

Successfully leading a team who are working at different locations and in different time zones

How do you build relationships across the team? (even if they never physically meet)

The ultimate opportunity is an annual national team meeting coupled with fun events and team building activities, which is not frequent enough but helps.
On another level, regional teams often work together locally. For those who work alone in their regions, and for cross-regional relationships, encouraging them to communicate amongst themselves, for assisting one another and for sharing helps.
Furthermore, travelling cross-regionally, for them and for myself, builds bridges.

How do you keep communication open with all members of your team?

Holding weekly virtual team meetings to discuss the latest endeavours, projects, answering questions, addressing concerns, service trends, and talking about matters that interest the team.
It is a recurring platform for open discussions, creative suggestions, and knowledge sharing.

About the author

Guy Eid is a progressive leader of customer support teams; hiring, developing, supporting, motivating, coaching, and empowering talented people.
He has achieved this by mastering a wide expertise in reengineering initiatives and change management to optimise operational and financial performance in challenging conditions.
Guy is keen on continuous improvement and high-performance standards meeting the business and customer needs.
He is an articulate communicator and negotiator, and skilled relationship-builder, quickly earning the respect and trust of internal and external customers, OEMs, distributors, and key decision makers.
Guy is based in Montreal in Canada and speaks Arabic, English, and French.

Further reading

How to build successful global technical field support teams

Advice for Women Engineers working in gender imbalanced teams

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