An underappreciated skill, learning how to talk to executives can boost your career. This sounds trite, but it is true. Many an engineer has capped out because they talked too much.
- Be succinct,
- Actionable,
- Focus on results and impact,
- Define the problem but always offer a solution,
- Subject lines - meaningful (not just "FYI" or "interesting event"), and
- Be terse - yes, redundant with succinct because it is that important.
If engineers as a group have a fatal flaw, it is the failure to be succinct. Ideally, when they ask a question, a manager or executive wants to hear "yes" or "no", to hear a single number or date. Answering with a "yeah, but..." is not going to succeed. In many cases, you can respond that you will get back to them with an answer, but be succinct. And if you promise to get back with an answer, give them a date for the answer and meet that date.
In a bit of cognitive dissonance, managers are creatures of action and of delay. On the one hand, managers want to get things decided and done, minimize delays, minimize waste, eliminate idleness. On the other hand, managers will wait if promised more information, but it must be high-quality information that will inform a better decision. Balancing these two is hard, but it is what managers are paid to do. In the end, advance actions and options.
As an aside, some managers get confused. One type of manager will made decisions fast in the belief that any decision is better than no decision. Another type of manager will kick the decision down the road in the hope of avoiding blame. Both of these are wrong. Each decision will be different - some will invite immediacy and some will demand delay - but a manager that always leans one way or the other is wrong. Either that, or they have no authority (delay) or they have no understanding (immediate). End of digression.
Results are what a manager seeks. Negative results are often called consequences. Ultimately, the manager is not as interested in the work, but in the results or impact of the work. A particular proposal may require an engineer to work nights and weekends, but the manager is interested in avoiding impact on the customer, and impact that might cause the customer to change to a competitor.
Clarity in defining the problem is critical. If an engineer delivers a perfect technical solution to the wrong business problem, it is not a solution, it has no value.
As a particular point of communication, email has become a dominant way to communicate with managers, and the first line if that communication is the Subject line. Write your subject lines to be clear, concise, and meaningful. Bad examples include, "that answer you wanted", "FYI", or "suggestion". A journalist would say that you have buried the lede. You want the Subject line to be relevant to the manager and give them something of value, something to catch their attention. Subjects like "solution for Jones case", "Q4 capital request", or "retention problem" are going to catch their attention. Your email is not a mystery novel - state the key inforamtion up-front, name the murder in the first sentence. Sometimes you need to temper this for confidentiality, and so some vagueness is in order in the subject line. You want to say "retention problem" rather than "Jones about to quit" in case someone is reading over the manager's shoulder.
Be terse. This bears repeating because being succinct is critical. All your work to craft a brilliant three-page document will be wasted if no one reads past the first paragraph.
There are managers and executives that will try to isolate you from the "next level up" and even peers will try to squeeze you out in an effort to out-compete you. If you work to become a good communicator with executives, they will seek you out.
No comments:
Post a Comment