Soft skills usually rank beneath technical abilities, thus making communication one of the primary snubbed skills. A plethora of IT people assume that they won’t need communication. Largely due to the fact that the core work is made up of time in front of the computer, not among people. This presumption is really wrong, leading a team of developers to a communication disaster be it between themselves or with their clients. All the technical skills in the world are useless without the ability to communicate.
So, let us discover the essential communication skills for IT leaders
Active Listening
The act of listening is not a lack of speaking. The best strategy out there is to seek to be an active listener who pays attention and asks questions at appropriate times. This will help you better understand the dialogue and incentives behind it. In the long run, this will surely speed up the workflow of various projects.
Smart emotionality
Undoubtedly, we all are emotional human beings. Nevertheless, the most tension often arises from mixing the emotional part of ourselves with the one of a colleague, manager, or even client. The clash is imminent. The IT leaders must navigate and cut superficial drama in order to address underlying issues that actually affect project outcomes. This requires objectivity in the face of sometimes harsh interpersonal flair-ups.
Empathy
This is officially the most snubbed communication skill out there, not only in the IT realm but everywhere and anytime. If people were able to take the stance of the opposing side, the world would be a better place, right? However, here we gather to highlight current IT problems and not the omnipresent misbehavior. So, let us rephrase the lack of empathy into mutual understanding. This is a highly valuable skill that will naturally make a project or a task working instantly. This leads us to the subsequent skill of …
Education without Arrogance
A common failure of IT professionals is the perception that everyone is as technically knowledgeable as they are. This can quickly turn into arrogance toward those people who simply don’t know what is going on. It’s not just about behaving well with others. It’s about developing communications styles that don’t alienate the very people you’ll need to successfully launch a product or project.
It is easier said than done!
IT leaders can deploy the communication skills mentioned above to catalyze change across the enterprise via well-planned and executed technology initiatives that emphasize internal collaboration. However, developing these abilities is often easier said than done – especially for IT pros in the industry who have spent more time in front of the computer than they have connected with peers. Even so, there are workable solutions to this problem.
Proper introduction of communication in IT:
- Preparation – individual or team – it goes a long way when a prepared team lays out their ideas to potential/existing clients in sync
- Written and oral communication on daily basis – practice communicating with everyone – from the fellow developer to a persona you are too afraid to talk to.
- Brainstorming sessions – the topic is not as important as building communication skills here! These sessions will bring the worst and best out of people. But it is an excellent way to practice every skill mentioned above!
Conclusion
For people involved in IT, many challenges will arise that are difficult but not entirely unmanageable. Regardless of how much you prepare for a situation, sometimes technicality is not the best card you may play. In order to succeed in IT, pros must learn to improvise, adapt, and ultimately overcome unforeseen issues. All this can be done through practicing effective communication skills such as Empathy, Active Listening, Smart emotionality, and Education without arrogance.
Sources:
https://thriveglobal.com/stories/why-communication-skills-are-important-in-the-it-industry/