Manager/TechLead, but looking for formal ways to upskill professionalism

Posted by Reasonable_Print_564@reddit | ExperiencedDevs | View on Reddit | 12 comments

Basically my boss (CTO) says I need to work on my communications and conduct to the C-Suite, and my ability to pitch, present, and update plans to the Senior Leadership. (Not that the plans are bad, but apparently I'm not persuasive enough or tell the story or commanding the attention.)

I've previously been dubious about short-fire cert or programs for Executive Leadership or Presence, but I'm trying to stay open. I am a product of ToastMasters (6 years since my last meeting), but I'm looking for some way to jump start my journey towards better professionalism, communication, persuasion, and leadership. (My current research is a 6 week program, online, by Wharton.)

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theavatare@reddit

I did the Wharton program it helps with talking to larger groups and storytelling but has very little on in room behaviors. Only thing I’ve done that helps was having a direct manager that was good at it and loved to show off his techniques.

Im not as good as he was but a lot better than i used to be.

Note im currently building a small product instead of managing a large organization because i ended up feeling unauthentic after doing it for 4 years.

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Reasonable_Print_564@reddit (OP)

This. The looming impostor syndrome of being part of the hierarchic, vs. behind hands on and seeing tangible outcomes from daily work. I've but up and down IC, Manager, Senior Manager, Tech Lead a couple times and comfortable to know when I'm not feeling fulfilled and on the path to burnout.

Huge thanks for that Wharton feedback.

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Reasonable_Print_564@reddit (OP)

Huge thanks for that Wharton feedback.

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ICanCountTo0b1010@reddit

I've been spending 30 minutes every morning working through technical writing courses by google[1], so far I'd recommend this -- it's very pragmatic in approach how to communicate on heavily technical topics which I find much more useful than the usual hand-wavy advice you'll get from LinkedIn posts or blogs.

[1] https://developers.google.com/tech-writing/overview

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Aggressive_Ad_5454@reddit

Rhetoric, the art of persuading people to do what you need them to do, is something we have to learn. It’s a skill as old as the Ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle.

There’s a club called Toastmasters that trains people in public speaking. That can help a lot.

Another possibility: do some teaching. Lunch’n’learn. Be an adjunct professor for a local college. I bet they offer a class in something you know, and man o man it is great for recruiting smart fresh-outs

Read Aristotle’s On Rhetoric.

Somebody suggested improv. Good suggestion.

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secretBuffetHero@reddit

I see management consultants as being very professional. I found this guys videos to be helpful for things that I suspected and had worked on, but he put into detailed explanations:

https://www.youtube.com/@FirmLearning/videos

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Artistic_Monk3y@reddit

The biggest part of your problem is likely you need to speak their language, which isn't to say you need to speak rationally and clearly with a cetain tone and announciate and use pauses to introduce inquisitiveness and draw attention and focus from those your presenting to. (although some of that might help)

It is to say as someone clearly very technically minded and gifted this is going to be hard to do but forget the how, you should spend the first part of every presentation informing them of the why (or reminding them of the why), then the what and sprinkle in a little how at the end if you have time.

Really emphasize why you need to do what you're about to tell them to do. for example your testing is shite and you need buy in to get some folks to setup automation

We have X regression defects per release, Our developers are losing focus due to context switching, we are losing productivity Our customers are complaining, we have lost Y revenue in the last n months likely due to regressions.

What's happening? We don't have an automated acceptance test framework, so we are massively exposed to human error. (Throw in some more why!!) - We are also severely exposed in the event of staff turnover.

How are we going to fix it? We'll make some simple BDD framework or something, it'll take us a couple of weeks (MORE WHY!) it should reduce the number of regression defects by 50%. We'll set it up to run on commit or nightly (MORE WHY) when we discover the issues sooner developers tend to solve them in half the time in addition they're fixed before the release leading to less customer dissatisfaction.

Summary? We spend 2 weeks of a developers time now and save ourselves 2 months over the next year, greatly improving our image to our customers by giving them stable releases We are also improving developer retention while mitigating any risk associated with loss of key knowledge in the event of staff churn.

Honestly this is going to sound like a joke but watch a few episodes of Silicon Valley, you'll want to be Erlich when dealing with the C levels (with a bit more class ofc. 😅).

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roger_ducky@reddit

I know this works in office. YMMV if it’s net only:

Pass a box of pens to the nearest person in the room and ask that person to pass it to the next person. Tic-tacs or gum works too. Goal is to get them to be okay with taking minor direction from you. Having
Speak as naturally as you can with them, and try to have a very steady, matter-of-fact tone about the statements you make. This will increase your credibility more.
Be respectful when they disagree. Especially if there’s a stupid idea that you have a logical counter to. What you’d do is act mildly confused, then ask the person directly, “I’m sorry. I probably misunderstood what you just said, because (State your counterpoint matter-of-factly) Can you clarify your point so there’s no misunderstanding on my end?” If they are convinced, they can then act like that’s what they meant all along.

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Informal-Dot804@reddit

I would say get out there. I had a lead once who was great technically but didn’t present very well. On receiving similar feedback he started taking a “learning session” each week, first with our team and then more teams on location etc. He would ask us for feedback after and try to address it in future sessions and this continued until one day he delivered an amazing presentation. Calm, confident, funny, good technical detail without being dry, just 🤌. He and our manager would arrange for more face time with leadership and same deal. It’s a skill like any other, read all the books and courses you want but you gotta exercise the muscle. All the best ! It’s terrifying but completely doable.

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jkingsbery@reddit

I don't know of a book or program you can read, but the thing I've seen work (and I'm still working on improving myself) is focusing communication on why the audience should care.

You can be very confident, or have a strong ego, but if what you say sounds indistinguishable from the Turbo Encabulator pitch guy, no one will care and you won't persuade anyone. Instead, connect what you're saying to things people care about, and then explain why it connects to what they care about.

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aspearin@reddit

Take an improv class. They want you to say “yes, and…” for every response to stakeholder nonsense.

Developers are too rooted in reality and logic to win board room battles where ego dominates.

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MrEloi@reddit

I suspect that a lot of this is almost genetic.

In my time I simply regarded the Cxx and other senior staff as my equals.
This attitude allows you to be natural when reviewing or explaining topics.

You need to be 100% comfortable chatting with anyone during say coffee breaks.

Being overawed by senior staff or job titles spoils everything.

I would have never considered taking courses for any of this - but I hope they work for you.

I assume that you are in-office.
If so, try to match the dress sense, language, behaviour of the other staff.
You don't want to stand out as an outsider.

Ideally, you need to spend as much time talking to the Cxx level etc as you can, so that they get to know you.