Effective communication
Written by Merlina Ramani — Muhovic, HR Manager at Softray Solutions
Imagine you are applying for a job as a Software Developer. How would you expect to be evaluated on the interview? You might be thinking it would be all about object-oriented principles, some specific programming languages or technology stack, design patterns, database design, or something else along those lines? After all, you are a developer so technical knowledge is really all you need in order to get a job done well right? Well, allow me to prove you wrong.
Whether you are primarily working with people or code, at some point of your career (probably at very beginning) you will need good soft skills. Soft skills are a combination of people skills, emotional skills, communication skills, and interpersonal skills. Our main focuses here are going to be communication skills.
Working in the IT industry requires well developed communication skills because you depend on a lot of people to get your job done. You will find yourself in need of communication with clients and your teammates; you will review your younger colleagues, mentor them and give them feedback, leave comments on tickets — all that requires well developed verbal and written communication skills. Communication skills are the tools you use to clearly and effectively converse with others, set expectations, and work with others on projects.
Whether you’re a CEO or an entry-level employee, communication skills are of utmost importance. Verbal and written communication comes into play every day at the workplace. Make sure you are communicating to the benefit of forward movement of both your company and your career. Here are some of the most important communication soft skills and how to apply them no matter what your role is.
First of all, you need to listen. Listening is the most important communication skill you will need to develop. As humans, we can always learn from new experiences. Assumptions are the enemy of real growth. If you are brand new at a company, you might feel a little lost. Some workplaces have processes in place that move fast and, therefore, are hard to fold seamlessly into on your first day. Listen and learn. Take your first few weeks to listen to your new coworkers, to learn the ropes, to ask questions, and to take it all in. Active listening is a precondition for successful and effective communication.
Verbal communication is something that comes more naturally to certain people — and it’s a highly ranked skill in the workplace. However, if it doesn’t come naturally to you, don’t worry, it’s practicable.
Here at Softray, we recognize the need to stimulate the team to improve their communication skills, so we started a Communication Skills Course that occurs every week. The main idea behind it is to present and clarify some of the myths regarding the communication skills and to share some tricks and tips for better communication between team members, with clients, with upper management, when speaking publicly, etc.
First, we covered the distinction between being assertive and aggressive. Then we learned how to use the assertiveness when giving feedback and how to give constructive criticism. We took some time to talk about running meetings effectively, since we work with other outsourcing teams and participate in meetings every day. We learned how to prepare for the meeting, how to be concise and present our ideas and thoughts clearly and most of all, how to be time efficient and respect other’s turn to speak. We also dedicated some time to cover the topic of public speaking, since IT world carries seminars, conferences, meet ups and we decide to share some tips on how to prepare public speech or presentation.
Written communication is also a great part of our everyday correspondence, so we dedicated a course just for that: how to properly write an email, how to leave a comment on code, how to use channels of communication in order to clarify issues, and more.
In order to better understand ourselves, to achieve our goals, to be better at what we do — let’s communicate!
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