Communication skills

- You know one of the things that I did to work on my communication skills was to start presenting at some of these events. Super scary at first, not anything that I thought I wanted to do, but it really helped me be able to crystallize like my ideas and make it easier for me to defend some of the reasons why I think some of the projects should be approached in a certain way. Learning how to present is really simple. You just have to go do it and you'll be pretty horrible the first few times, but as you do it more and more you'll gain a lot more confidence, and it translates into the work environment. You'll be able to talk more clearly about your projects and your ideas, and it's something that is definitely a plus for somebody in this field. I find that a lot of the developers don't do that very well. So that definitely will set you apart from other developers who might be brilliant, brilliant ideas but don't know how to present those and push them up the chain. - Well, it always comes down to communication. You need to be able to be proactive in your communication, nobody likes shock at the end. And oh, I know it's due tomorrow but it's going to be two months late. So constant communication with the clients, setting expectations, and then realizing when, when something's beyond your ability. But it's okay, but you have to communicate that to them. And sometimes they're going to be disappointed, and sometimes they're not going to handle it very well, and you have to listen to those red flags. When somebody who is going to blow up or be upset, they're telling you how they work. And you need to listen to that. But it's, it always comes down to communication. Clear communication, setting expectations, and then doing everything you can to meet those expectations. It's all just being a responsible developer, being professional. Doing your job. My best clients are people that got burned before coming to me. 'Cause they appreciate that and I would encourage anybody to just be as responsible as you can be and communicate as much as you can up front. My rule of thumb is if a client has to ask for an update on the project, that's a bit of a fail for me. Because if they're wondering where it is and I haven't been telling them, then that's my fault. So always try to be as proactive as you can and set those expectations. Chances are they won't be disappointed if they know it's coming even if there's a problem. - I think the number one fundamental in communication skills is clearly and precisely and simply explaining the answer or asking the question. So, taking a little bit of time and thinking about that, and reviewing yourself when you've spoken. When you ask someone the question, was it clear? And you can get better at that. You can get better at being clear. - I lead a geographically distributed team, so I have teams that are off-shore, and some that are on-shore. So I found that the best way to lead teams is really to be hands on and to constantly communicate. So it's better to over communicate than to under communicate. Especially when you're leading off-shore teams you have less time where you're interacting with them because of timezone differences. So I'll make sure that I provide them with as much guidance as I can up front. I'll put together technical design documentations. I'll go through walk-throughs with them to make sure that they understand the big picture and that we're all aligned.