K. Michael Dresel, Ph.D.

About K. Michael Dresel, Ph.D.

K. Michael Dresel, Ph.D. Biography
I am a shrink who took a wrong turn somewhere and ended up in Aviation/Aerospace Human Factors. Human factors is an applied psychology and engineering discipline that works to improve the health, safety, and effectiveness of people as they interact with designed systems. I was finishing my Ph.D. in experimental psychology at the University of Manitoba when my wife and I relocated to Wichita, KS for her internship. I found work at Boeing, which provided a great introduction and jumping off space for my career in human factors. I was able to apply all of the psychology, research design/methods and statistics I learned in graduate school and helped create products that actually make a difference in the world. I have worked on most of the parts of the airplane, including the flight deck (military and civilian), the factory, passenger accommodations and maintenance, as well as extensive work on a variety of Human-Computer Interface and User Experience issues. I have a private pilot license. I have recently completed a book on how to lead teams of very intelligent people, titled “Questioning Leadership: How to lead teams of people who are smarter than you.”

Questioning Leadership: How to lead teams of people who are smarter than you is about how to lead those highly intelligent and creative people found in many places in the science, engineering, and computer world. Companies spend a great deal of time, effort, and money to attract the best and brightest, and then these people are often mismanaged to the point of despair because the ‘leaders’ do not understand who they are, how they operate, and how to lead them.

This book discusses who these highly intelligent, creative, and competent people are, how to work with them, how to lead them and how to listen to them. The book is based on the author’s career in aerospace human factors, where he worked with a wide variety of good and bad (but mostly bad) leader/managers and a wide variety of good and bad (but mostly good) engineers and scientists. The straightforward style, with both humor and many true stories to illustrate the points, provides a valuable resource for leading the people that many consider to be very difficult to lead.