How do you communicate and negotiate effectively?

I often see engineers challenged at presenting their work to non-technical audiences. I advise my team to start from the perspective of their audience and think from what THEY want out of the presentation. If your audience is executives and you are presenting a project update or proposal, they likely do not care about the technical details. They likely want to know about the impact of your work to their business, the risks, timelines, and investment required. Tailoring your communication to your audience is key for effective communication, and a key component of career growth as you move to more senior levels as an IC or manager.

Effective communication and negotiation are crucial skills in various aspects of life, from personal relationships to business interactions. Here are some tips on how to communicate and negotiate effectively: For Communication: Active Listening: Clear and Concise Language: Body Language: Ask Open-Ended Questions: Avoid Assumptions: Stay Calm: For Negotiation: Prepare Thoroughly: Set Clear Goals: Create Win-Win Solutions: Be Flexible: Use Negotiation Tactics: Manage Emotions: Keep Records: Seek Win-Win, but Know When to Walk Away: Follow Up: Remember that practice and self-awareness can improve communication and negotiation skills.

Know your audience, understand the context, be clear and consistent, avoid generalisation, recap at the end. Talk to your audience and not to a presentation, presentations are mere tools to help communicate the message.

In interaction, it is important (as noted) to commit to the prework but do not allow the prework to create a stereotyped impression - you need to use the prework as a basic synopsis but go in with a Blue Sky thought pattern aimed towards your goal. Relationships are built on a genuine knowledge and interest in the process you are dealing with. It is also important to Keep It Simple - expand on questions but do not exceed your time of attention span of the audience - boredom switches them off. Be prepared for off topic discussions if the audience is more personal than objective.

Based on my experience, combining tools like Coda and Mural can significantly enhance communication and negotiation for engineering managers. Coda provides a centralized platform for organizing information, while Mural enables collaborative visualizations and brainstorming. By leveraging these tools, managers can effectively convey messages, build rapport, resolve conflicts, and share information in a way that aligns with the preferences and needs of diverse stakeholders, leading to more successful outcomes in communication and negotiation scenarios.

Communication is made up of a sender and a receiver - but the importance of the message will dictate the direct need to clarify and ensure the message sent is the message received. Emails do not always Convey the "meat" of a message and is more than normal - simplified down to points - this does not always convey the message as the receiver tend to add their own meat which convolutes the clarity.

Not too concise - enough to maintain attention and clarity. Too concise loses the meaning of the message and it can swerve off its intended goal. Discussion is always tops, but not always feasible.

A good strategy for active listening is to summarize your understanding of the other person’s viewpoint back to ensure that you understood the intent. This helps avoid miscommunication and shows that you are actively working to understand the other person’s views. Further, it provides the opportunity explore the problem space together, building trust. I use this technique when I am speaking with someone new, or in a new problem space, to ensure I have the proper context. This allows me to communicate clearer and to make better decisions. Really understanding the other person’s views helps to articulate their goals and motivations, which you can use as a foundation to work together to find a path forward.

Listening to feedback and questions helps you understand the other person’s motivation, and what they are looking for out of the conversation. For example, I was once presenting a multi-quarter delivery plan. My confidence decreased as we looked at future quarters due to higher uncertainty. One of my company’s executives asked question about de-risking, and I pivoted to discuss how we could structure POCs iteratively, building up to our overall delivery goals while also de-risking future work. If I had stuck to my planned presentation, I would have not provided the confidence to the leadership team that we had a view of how to move forward while mitigating uncertainties in the project.