2026 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

This is an Evidence-Based Practice study where we explored the preferences that early college engineering students identified about their preferred leadership style, then compared their preferences to their recall of “critical incidents” in prior academic or other work experiences involving teamwork. We did this to identify the extent to which prior experience might influence the mindset of our students as they embark on a project-based team experience in our foundational engineering course. Prior experience on a team does not necessarily guarantee a specific viewpoint about the prospects for success with a future team, but it could influence a student’s preference for a certain type of team leadership. This could encourage or erode a sense of optimism that team experience will be both successful and enjoyable for all or most team members.

Many engineering educators want to provide appropriate guidance for team success at the early college level. The ability to work on a team constructively has been identified as an important skill in the engineering workplace and is a required Student Outcome for undergraduate engineering programs for ABET accreditation. While many adults are able accept and adapt to differences in fellow team members in order to work with them toward a common goal, many students in higher education are still developing these skills.

Throughout our collective experience as higher educators, we have observed student teams with various amounts of effective and/or ineffective leadership. Knowing that a successful team depends largely on mutual trust between leader and members, educators need to provide appropriate guidance that will help to foster trust. Knowing what team members expect from their leader at the outset of team formation and development can inform an instructor as to which types of guidance to offer to the team. leadership. We assert that appropriate guidance from educators could include an understanding about the influence of prior team experiences and how these experiences might or might not contribute to how team members want to be led.

This research question forms the basis for our study: how do prior work-related team experiences influence team member preferences for leadership style by early college engineering students?

Data were collected from responses to three separate prompts in multiple choice format and one free-response question related to critical-incident surveys and interviews:
• Preference for leadership style from four options: be a strong leader, follow a strong leader, leader who takes input from everyone and decides, or shared leadership
• Preferred leadership style: one strong leader, one leader with a lot of team input, or shared leadership
• Preferred leadership role: strongly prefer follower over leader, lead when necessary, follow and lead in equal amounts, prefer leader over follower, and strongly prefer leader over follower

• Short essay response about prior experiences on a team by recalling “critical incidents” involving teamwork

The first three sets of responses were compiled according to the frequency of each response for individual team members and for all the members of the same team. We analyzed the responses to the fourth prompt according to its tone: mostly positive, mostly negative, or a combination of both positive and negative experiences.

Our results revealed a wide variety among the choices of leadership style when compared to prior team experiences. For example, we expected that most students would prefer a strong, highly directive leadership style if their prior experience was negative, such as serving as the leader or following a strong leader. However, we found that some of these students preferred shared or rotating leadership. Conversely, there were some responses about prior team experience that contained both positive and negative descriptions, and these students were more likely to choose shared leadership or designating one leader who takes input. Overall, relatively few students preferred to be a strong leader or a strong follower, regardless of whether their prior experience was positive, negative, or contained elements of both perspectives.

Educators could use the methods described here to detect similarities and differences in preferred team leadership styles among team members. They could then use this knowledge to offer appropriate guidance to teams regarding team cooperation and cohesion, especially for teams experiencing difficulties in fulfilling their purpose and accomplishing their goals.