3 Communication Mistakes I Made as a Staff Engineer and How I’m Fixing Them
As a Staff engineer, my time is spent being glue for cross-team projects. This requires a lot of communication.
As a Staff engineer, my time is spent being glue for cross-team projects. This requires a lot of communication.
TLDR: I assumed that my message was fully understood when it wasn’t. I’m learning to over-communicate by writing and sharing more.
Here are 3 communication mistakes I made, and how I’m trying to fix them:
Mistake #1: Saying something once and moving on.
Telling people something doesn’t mean it’s been understood or will be remembered.
In large group meetings or meetings about to end, it’s easy for questions to go unasked. Details can be hard to capture or remember when listening in a meeting.
Solution
Write weekly updates and push this out (Slack/Email).
Take meeting notes and share them after. Highlight your main points.
Reiterate your weekly updates in any relevant team sync meetings.
Mistake #2: Assuming writing it down means it’s been read and understood.
People are busy. They don’t always have time to dig into your doc and decipher your point. They also might read with different levels of depth and not get all the details you wanted to convey.
Solution
Write short & clear. Highlight the main point. Put that main point first.
Bookmark the doc you wrote and continually refer people to it.
Mistake #3: Not sharing the full context.
Being too close to a project makes it easier to overlook details and skip critical context. You may have a clear understanding of the vision and why, but it might not be the same for others.
Solution
Encourage questions. Solicit feedback via comments, DMs, etc.
Support opposing views with a psychologically safe environment.
Write more. Keep your main points short and clear but link out to more details.
Like all of you, I’m still learning as I go. I would love to hear what’s worked for you.
Have you made these mistakes?
What has helped you communicate effectively across your org?