Ask Slashdot: Communication Skills For Programmers? 361
An anonymous reader writes "As a new developer at a young-ish software company, I've been told my communication skills need some work. I'm not painfully introverted or socially inept, but I get lost in my work and only contact people if I need something from them or they ask me a question. Traditional advice isn't relevant to casual, less hierarchical companies — I don't have to hold my tongue when someone is wrong or worry about formalities. But I do need to connect with people professionally, since my team members and managers decide my perf and advancement. How do you keep colleagues abreast of your work without having exponentially many needless conversations?"
Needless? (Score:5, Insightful)
So this needless communication is actually needful?
Maybe just change your attitude. Forming relationships is very important at work.
Are you sure "communication skills" means that you aren't socializing enough? Perhaps your emails are inadequate, you aren't keeping people informed, aren't discussing ideas with others or are not adequately explaining your ideas.
The fact that you only talk to people when you need some from them is a problem. What about brain storming? Design meetings? Code reviews?
Getting to know people and taking an interest in their lives doesn't hurt either.
Re:Needless? (Score:5, Insightful)
It could just be his manager. I've often been dinged for "communication". As have most of the techs that I've worked with. It's an easy stereotype.
Now look at the manager who is putting that on a review. Has he been pointing out better ways you've could have communicated as they've happened? No? Then it is a problem with your manager or the system he has to follow.
The best anecdote for that is from a friend of mine who's boss (former tech with no management training) told him not to include him on his weekly updates for a specific project. Then dinged him for "communication" because he should have known to include him in his weekly updates.
Too often "communication" translates to "you are not my drinking buddy". And if evaluations are based upon that then you should find a better job where your boss understands "communication" himself.
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
It can also mean don't be an introverted dork who's only there to work. People will dislike you if you only communicate with them when you need something.
Source: I was once an introverted dork, but got medicated for my social-dysfunction, and am now an outgoing person who gets along well with co-workers.
Re:Needless? (Score:5, Insightful)
It's a balance in my experience. I've had places where they would get upset if they saw you talking to someone rather than nose to the grind stone and others that got upset if you didn't stop what you were doing and say hi to someone that came into your workspace to talk to someone else (who was there, not that they came asking for them and you ignored them).
Sadly, it is the lowest common denominator (well maybe highest common denominator): those that do need a lot of social interaction will get very frustrated by not having it. The assumption is usually that those that are quite or less social are not harmed by being forced to say hi and deal with small talk (even though that isn't the case when you need hours of consecutive time to figure out things sometimes, or just like the socialites might feel with no social interaction that like your life is being wasted with "how's the weather" talk). Regardless, the socially adapt are by definition the squeaky wheel and so are the ones that will get their way. Also, they tend to be the ones seen as being leaders/liked by people so are more likely to be your manager now or in the future so always a good idea to keep them happy.
Suggestion: have lunch with people. You have to eat anyways, so if they have to feel like they know you let them have their meaningless conversations with you while you are stuffing your frozen dinner in your mouth.
Oblig Dilbert (Score:4, Funny)
http://dilbert.com/strips/comic/1996-01-12/ [dilbert.com]
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Now, once I have decided on the best idea, yes, leave me alone to write it up, but taking 10 minutes to make sure what I'm writing is the best approach is a far more efficient method in my book than saving those 10 minutes and writing up a worse plan.
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This is good if everyone has been hired because they share the same background and views. It is not so good once you start getting people who hold non-work opinions that are very different from yours. The Atheist and the Creationist are probably not going to be socializing together.
Possibly. Or it might depend upon how you communicate with them. The people
Re:or converse rather than proselytize (Score:5, Insightful)
I do not identify myself as an atheist. Technically, I am agnostic, because I know that there is no way to disprove the existence of an omnipotent and omniscient entity. I have no objection to people discussing their theories about such an entity, and I will even admit that some are a lot more entertaining than others. On the other hand, I hate it when people try to use their religious beliefs as arguments for or against anything in the real world. "This man has to die because he is an asshole" is a valid argument, "This man has to die because my Holy Book says the penalty for what he's done is death" is not. Thus, I am only 'unconcerned' with theism and theists as long as they do not pretend that their religious beliefs are in any way relevant to me. As soon as that line is crossed, I become, indeed, an anti-theist.
That said, could you please explain why the Atheist League should be called the Antichrist league, as opposed to the Anti-Kali, Anti-Mohammedan, or Anti-Pastafarian league? Sure, there are tons of different sects that profess the divinity of Christ - Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, Protestants, Mormons, members of the Unification Church, etc... But there are also a lot of sects that do not consider Christ divine, and frankly, I feel a lot more threatened by some of the latter.
The guys who keep trying to bring me to Christ on the streets of Glendora are polite, clean, and well dressed. They bother me a lot less than people who think that I could be killed without spilling blood to fuel a religious rite, that I should pay higher taxes because I am an unbeliever, or that mocking their fairy tales is a capital offense.
So, again, why should people identify as antichrists, instead of atheists if they have no more beef with Christians than they have with other, less... grown-up theists?
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And you probably won't if you stick to work-subjects while at work.
And that's my point. You've just
Re:or converse rather than proselytize (Score:4, Interesting)
I usually identify myself as atheist because that doesn't require the explanations that the correct label of anti-theist would. I see an atheist as an agnostic who is sufficiently convinced that supernatural beings don't exist. I am also anti-theist because I think the belief in gods is inherently evil, harmful, corrupting, and otherwise a bad thing.
Just to put the discussion back on track, as an engineer I find communications to be my most difficult challenge. I hold meeting, issue reports, and make sure to talk privately with everyone involved in my projects. Despite a strong concerted effort I still find people under or miss informed. No amount of communication is too much, I'm not sure any amount is sufficient.
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Re:Needless? (Score:5, Insightful)
Sounds like the same kind of attitude behind corrective education for homosexuals. Just because you're a successful graduate of Camp-don't-be-Gay doesn't mean that anyone else who's forced to attend wants or needs chemical correction.
Introversion is natural. Just because the extroverts are in the majority and are trying to force their kool-aid on everyone doesn't mean that introversion is wrong.
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What does introversion have to do with shyness? Besides a superficial resemblance I mean?
Shyness is a case of someone feeling uncomfortable with social interactions - usually rooted in a fear of doing/saying something wrong and being publicly humiliated/ridiculed or otherwise rejected. An overactive "social compliance/approval" subroutine if you will.
Introversion is a matter of someone being *uninterested* in social interactions, especially the sort of light "fluff" that's irrelevant to anything, because i
Re:Needless? (Score:4, Interesting)
I agree. Many people believe that "talking" is the same as "communicating". And because they've been talking since they were 2 or 3 or whatever that means that they are good at "communicating".
And you can be a complete extrovert and have terrible communication skills.
One of the problems that isn't being discussed is that in order for communication to happen, both parties have to participate. That means that party A has to be willing to listen and understand what party B is communicating. You may be familiar with either or both of these phrases:
1. It isn't what you said, it's how you said it.
2. It isn't what was said, it's who was saying it.
Are you "communicating" that the project will be late and over budget? But the manager is hearing that he's not going to be getting a bonus and the next promotion will probably be going to someone else which means he won't be able to buy a bigger house with a swimming pool in time for his daughter to have a pool party for her 16th birthday ... why do you hate his daughter?!?
The unstated assumption being that the person higher in the hierarchy has more/better communication skills than the person lower in the hierarchy.
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Communication skills also means saying "Good morning" and "good bye" when you enter or leave your bureau.
All the mail suggestion here are bullshit. Neither is sending a mail every day nor is a weekly summary for a 'programmer' or his boss relevant. There is no need to be "kept in the loop" for a boss as some people here claim: FOR THAT YOU HAVE AN ISSUE TRACKER!
This said, I assume you either get mobbed or wrongly evaluated or you indeed have bad communication skills.
Do you look people into the face when you
Beer (Score:3)
How to be a Star Engineer (Score:5, Insightful)
This.
Years ago, my boss pointed me to a good article titled "How to Be a Star Engineer. [encribd.net]" (Apologies for the annoying format; if you're an IEEE member or university student you can download a PDF [ieee.org]).
The article essentially says communication skills and attitude are what differentiates star performers from the rank and file. Understand the people you're working with, what they need, and provide that. Everyone will enjoy working with you, and you will become well-known.
Re:How to be a Star Engineer (Score:5, Informative)
This IEEE article is the only answer the poster needs. I read it all the way through, and it is spot on, matching my personal experience. I sometimes wondered what exactly I had done to garner such high praise from my colleagues and managers, but as it turns out I was doing all nine of their "Star Work Habits". Paraphrasing some of their findings with my experience:
Those "needless conversations" are where you can ask about other people's projects and experiences. Find out what their areas of expertise are so you can go to them when you need help, or can point others in direction--becoming a clearing-house for technical advice makes you conspicuously valuable and is a great way to gain exposure to all sorts of people and problems in your organization.
At the same time, you can also discover other opportunities. When I first joined as an intern, I quickly became part of the team by volunteering to help out on projects way above my pay grade because knew I had the skills to do them as well or better than the senior engineers. By delivering quality work on those assignments, my boss put me on the fast-track to more interesting projects and responsibilities.
More advanced forms of "communication" include knowing when to push back against your boss on requirements or schedule in order to benefit the organization in the long term, proactively stepping in to resolve conflicts among teammates, promoting others' good ideas when they are not being heard, and learning the ins and outs of the corporate culture so you can communicate effectively with other departments and managers.
It may seem like a waste of time, but you can learn a lot of valuable information by listening to the old-timers ramble on about this and that. More importantly, if you listen to their stores, they will be more willing to help you out when you need their advice.
So my immediate advice for the poster is: Get out there, chat with your coworkers at lunch or the water cooler, and don't worry too much about keeping track of how many dogs they have or where they went to vacation last year. Do ask them about technical topics or share what you are working on--it may be a more comfortable topic for them as well, and vastly more useful.
If people think I suck, I do indeed suck (Score:5, Insightful)
> > Understand the people you're working with, what they need, and provide that.
> Worrying about what people think ... then you are still going through puberty and all the pubescent insecurity that entails.
I've said things like that before. Every so often, I have to remind myself of the following:
If your customers think you suck, you do indeed suck. You may have provided them with a wonderful solution to problem X, but since you didn't listen and ask questions you didn't know their problem was Y. For the problem at hand, your solution sucks, and your poor communication caused it.
If you don't "worry about what people think" when it comes to your boss, you'll not know she thinks it's critically important that your application is very easy to use because the old farts in the C suite will be the primary users. Lack of communication = suck, for the purpose at hand.
If the people report to you think you suck, they'll leave, after having no interest in getting your projects done and probably bad mouthing you (accurately). Again, the results suck because you're only interested in what you think.
Being interested in what other people think, need, and want is the first requirement for a successful project. Not paying due attention to what other people think makes you an arrogant asshole.
Re:Needless? (Score:5, Interesting)
I think you cover a some important aspects, but I do have a couple things to add.
Communications can not only be lacking, but contain too much information. I had a manager long ago that told me to use Word's grammar check and don't produce anything over an 8th grade reading level when communications were going to non-technical staff. He also told me to limit emails to one topic, even dealing with technical issues, so that people could not confuse issues. That has turned out to be very sage advice in my career, and I have since adapted my own style for technical emails where management is included. I add technical notes after my signature, and in the summary email I tell people to review "technical details" if they need or desire the technical details. That habit saves me writing two emails for everything, but does not confuse the non-technical people.
Something else I do with certain management types is to simply set a reminder to send out a periodic status update on large projects. If you have your head buried in your work, but nobody is aware of what you are doing, you are not seen as really working. A very simple status message helps people gain and keep confidence in your work ethics.
Lastly, periodically ask for assistance with small things. Even if you don't need the assistance, it lets people know you are there and working for a "team" as opposed to being the guy with the "Red Stapler".
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He also told me to limit emails to one topic, even dealing with technical issues, so that people could not confuse issues. [...]
Something else I do
Whoa, now I'm getting confused.
This, many times this (Score:3)
Are you sure "communication skills" means that you aren't socializing enough? Perhaps your emails are inadequate, you aren't keeping people informed, aren't discussing ideas with others or are not adequately explaining your ideas.
The fact that you only talk to people when you need some from them is a problem. What about brain storming? Design meetings? Code reviews?
Several times at my work, where I help with testing/QA (mostly I'm the IT guy, because apparently programmers suck at understanding and maintaining their computers and infrastructure---I guess they're more engineers than anything else, the "science" part of CompSci notwithstanding) I've had to pass on changes that one programmer is doing or projects they're working on to others who are overlapping or would benefit from some good ol' code reuse. There's really rather little communication between them outside
How to win friends and Influence people. (Score:5, Interesting)
This book changed my life. I had no idea how bad I was at dealing with people until I read it. I re-read it at least once a year.
http://www.amazon.com/How-Win-Friends-Influence-People/dp/0671723650 [amazon.com]
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It’s a great book but I find it a bit overrated. It focuses on acting like an extrovert and surface characteristics.
I would counter balance that book with one on listening, the other half (and much neglected part) of communication. Unfortunately I can’t think of any off the top of my head. Susan Cain put out a excellent book called “Quite”. It’s not quite on point for this topic but it may be worth a read.
Re: (Score:2)
I point out that book, because it is actually readable. Not only that, it is enjoyable to read. Has some great examples, and some interesting stories to illustrate its points.
To each their own.
projecting to the point of identity (Score:2)
I'm not attempting to contradict anyone but there is something to be learned here about the whole dialectic of the young techie seeking advice & what is considered a 'helpful' response...
Look, Capt.DrumkenBum, I can't prove or disprove your statements about how good this book is...I will agree that it is true in the sense that **you** see these things in this book.
You admit as much...
That's fair...not criticizing...my point is that, in *most* situations like this, the 'advice seeking d
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I would counter balance that book with one on listening, the other half (and much neglected part) of communication. Unfortunately I can’t think of any off the top of my head. Susan Cain put out a excellent book called “Quite”. It’s not quite on point for this topic but it may be worth a read.
Let me second that, since I don't have mod points right now. Communication isn't real communication if you only ask others when you have a problem or they are your boss telling you what needs to be done. The internships I did while in Uni, I had two that were of the later form, where I'd talk to a professor, then go write the code they wanted and turned it over and moved on to what ever else they needed. No collaboration, no meaningful communication. Those projects, from my coding perspective, turned to cra
Default ding. (Score:3, Insightful)
If you didn't screwup in any other way, your manager will put 'communication skills need work' just so it looks like he did something during the last review period.
Send an email to the whole team at the end of each day, summarizing what you've been doing.
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Send an email to the whole team at the end of each day, summarizing what you've been doing.
That is definitely the most stupid thing to do.
I don't want every evening (or next morning) an email from every colleague. Neither do they!
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Who cares what you want? I sure don't. This is a show for the boss.
If you don't have the skills to route my daily BS update somewhere more appropriate then your inbox maybe you should look for new line of work.
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I assume his project manager is already aware of his completed items.
This is a show for the boss. He will see the mail distribution list and think: 'This guy is keeping his teammates in the loop.' or some other meaningless bunch of buzzwords.
The whole point is to appear to be doing something about it. Even if daily emails are kind of 'scrummy' they are easy to ignore.
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My bosses would either make a mail rule and delete those mails, and would then miss his really important mails or they would tell him after two days to stop.
Not every boss is as stupid as you assume .
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Shoot, you should be keeping track _anyway_, if nothing else for your reviews. I wrote a personal webapp that makes it easy for me to keep track of what I do, especially since I'm working on lots of little things and several big things. Then when review time comes around I can just review the year's work, filter out the misc cruft, rewrite the remaining into several paragraphs, and submit that.
[John]
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I do this also and have found it a very valuable thing. Also helps when updating the resume.
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Send an email to the whole team at the end of each day, summarizing what you've been doing.
Please don't do this. Updates are good, but not every day via email. It's just annoying and a waste of everyones time. Can you imagine if everyone took this advice? 20 status update emails each day at 4:30, ffs ;-)
As for the main question: go make tea a couple of times a day, or grab some water instead of staying chained to your desk. Set an alarm if you have to. Walking around the office you will bump in to people, which is a good opportunity to say hi, tell them what you're up to or find out what th
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Unless the boss sees you communicating with your coworkers it might as well have never happened.
Daily updates are a show you put on for the boss. They are easy to create (just copy yesterdays and change the details) and equally easy to ignore.
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Send an email to the whole team at the end of each day, summarizing what you've been doing.
What? That's exactly what the morning standup is for.
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Quit your job. There are better places.
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If you didn't screwup in any other way, your manager will put 'communication skills need work' just so it looks like he did something during the last review period.
This is the "feel good" answer that tells the geek he doesn't have a problem.
In real life, "Poor communication skills" often translates as "Doesn't work or play well with others."
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It could be, or it could be the truth. Only the OP knows, even he has to have some doubt.
5 minutes a day (Score:3)
* What I finished - accomplishments, problems solved
* What's coming up - milestones, issues or possible stumbling blocks
That'll keep him in the loop and any conversations can be spurred from there.
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Send or post a short note each day where your supervisor can/will read it -
* What I finished - accomplishments, problems solved
* What's coming up - milestones, issues or possible stumbling blocks
Doing this weekly or monthly would usually be sufficient. Daily would be seen as pestering. You should keep a daily journal that includes your ToDo list, that shows the above, but that's not for communicating with anyone. That's CYA when things go wrong. You let your boss know that you are keeping it, but you don't let him or anyone else see it unless you have to defend yourself. You can do things like pipe up in a team meeting "Hey, I ran into a problem like that a couple of years ago. I could rummage arou
Vague criticism (Score:4, Interesting)
Did the person who told you this give you any more detail? Are you not engaging often enough, or are you not good at explaining yourself and listening during the times when you are engaged in conversation? The former is partly a matter of being friendly/comfortable with the people you're around. The latter is critical thinking -- what do I understand, what do they understand, will this choice of words be interpreted how I want, etc.
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If in the hopefully unlikely chance your manager is not able to provide concrete examples of mistakes and ways to improve then you are being screwed over and that last "criticism" was actually a heads up for
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This, and the meta point: the fact that the poster of this "Ask Slashdot" left the conversation WITHOUT having an answer to those questions is itself indicative of poor communication skills. A good communicator will convey that sort of information regardless of how poorly his report listens; a merely average manager will convey merely average general principles and it's up to the report to pull out more information. (And a poor manager will give non-committal evals then fire somebody without warning).
I'm re
Have More Needless Conversations (Score:4, Insightful)
I'm fairly introverted (18 out of 20) but I also make time to walk around Operations (I'm a Unix Admin) and chat. While I'm not a sports person, there are folks who share the same interests. So finding out about a few guys who play guitar lets me chat about guitars (or bass). I get to poke at the guys who ride cruisers (I'm not quite old enough for a cruiser yet :) ) and share stories about my own touring rides (going to Alaska again next year). Several are gamers of one sort or another so there's some cross discussion there, even over in Engineering where there's a fellow Shadowrun gamer and another guy who plays Bass.
Heck when I worked at IBM, one of the jobs was remote 100% remote (me here, a couple of folks in Rochester NY, one in Seattle, one in Austin, a couple in New Jersey, and a couple of guys in Boston where the contract was). I had a problem with it _because_ there was no interaction outside of work conversation.
Sure, you're a working guy but networking, even amongst your coworkers is important.
[John]
The purpose of conversation is to listen and learn (Score:3)
If you think that way, rather than: The purpose of conversation is to tell people what I'm thinking, then you will be a better communicator.
Listen, process what the other person's motives and needs are, and take the opportunity to learn something from them or their perspective.
It you think you know it all already, you are already done, in any business or endeavour.
If you think you know it all and can only pass on information, you are not really that valuable a contributor, because you are probably working hard and cleverly on the wrong problem altogether.
There is always something to learn by active listening. You get more out of conversation that way; appreciation, and knowledge, cumulatively.
Ask Questions (Score:4, Interesting)
You have needless conversations. (Score:4, Informative)
I hate to say it but the retention rate for programmers is higher than everyone else. So, when you go to advertise what you've been working on (and yes, it's advertising) sometimes you'll have to re-hash the conversation four or five times. The trick is to re-hash the ideas and talk about things in a different way each time so that the topic doesn't get stale to the audience.
I wish (as do many programmers) that advancement was about nothing but pure ROI to the company (including future ROI) but it doesn't work that way. It's hard to measure, is labor intensive to figure out, and is a waste of time in a small company. So, failing that, you rely on marketing. How you get along with people, small talk, casual banter, idea roundtables at lunch breaks, those all contribute to your "brand image" and you need to take advantage of that image to paint a perception of intellectual value at your company. Make sure you're good enough to provide deliverables to back up your image. You also need to pick one or two things to be REALLY good at so that other people can ask you for help. Helping people helps you.
Managers.. (Score:3, Insightful)
Start by asking for more specific feedback (Score:5, Insightful)
You've been told that your communication skills need some work. Part of communicating is asking for, and learning how to receive, feedback. So, I'd suggest the following:
DO NOT:
Good luck.
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Lunch (Score:3)
The least painful (usually) technique is simply to eat lunch with one or more of your co-workers most days. You'd be surprised how much useful information gets shared that way.
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Related question: how do you stay in the loop if you can't afford to go out to lunch with them and have to brown-bag it?
Needless conversations? (Score:3)
By communicating on a non-work level you let people in, making them feel more comfortable speaking with you. A good team is one that communicates often and effectively. Above all, by involving yourself in the social dynamic at your work you will gain respect from your colleges. IMHO, respect is very important if you plan on heading a team or department at a later time.
Quality or Quantity (Score:3)
I think you have to first ask what is required here; whether it is simply the quantity of communication, or rather the quality. The team and communication skills of developers are more correlated with success than technical skills. Communication means being able to effectively transmit what you are thinking and understand what others are saying. Perhaps you should ask your co-workers what aspects of your communication they have difficulty with. Is it that you are unclear, or do you not communicate with those you should? Are you really listening to people; by which I mean actually taking onboard what people say? The "needless communication" phrase indicates a certain degree of hostility towards communication. Obviously you should not have 'needless' communications, but clearly your workmates believe there are issues impacting your effectiveness.
Formalities (Score:2)
be courteous (Score:3)
You may not be correct.
That's not quite exactly the same as saying, "You are wrong."
You may not think you have to hold your tongue, but it certainly helps if you hold it in the best position to let other people feel as self-important as you yourself like to feel. It's called empathy. Try to fake it until you make it.
Use TCP instead of UDP (Score:2)
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And be sure to watch the window size, the latency, and be very careful about too many dropped or NAK'ed packets.
Respect (Score:3, Insightful)
>I don't have to hold my tongue when someone is wrong
I respectfully disagree. You should definitely speak up if something is wrong, and it's good that you're in an environment that allows you to. That being said, I suspect that the number one "communication problem" software developers tend to have is coming across as having an overactive ego, that your word is the divine truth handed down to the unwashed tech-illiterate masses, and that their opinions don't actually matter in the face of the cold, hard facts you bring to the table. I don't think this is the dev's actual attitude (most of the time), but it's so, so easy to come across that way. Coming up with ways to share an idea while making sure your audience understands yet doesn't feel talked down to is a skill I know a lot of devs could stand to learn. If your coworkers feel respected by you, that goes a long way toward improving communications.
The other problem I see frequently is a general lack of visibility into what progress is actually being made on the seething morass of shifting dev priorities. Even something as simple as a daily/weekly project status update e-mail to the right people can do wonders here.
(This question gets deep into greater issues of how much power tech people have and their perceived role in businesses and society, which is far too big a discussion to be had here. Short version: IT experts are witches).
Full disclosure: I am a career software developer, and like to believe I do pretty good at the communicating with business thing.
Monday-morning meetings (Score:2)
Something that we did at my previous job, and that I have successfully lobbied for at my current one, is the Monday-morning meeting. The whole team gets together, everyone explains - in a few short sentences - what he's currently working on, and mentions anything else people might want to know about (when they will be absent, for example). The team-leader sometimes talks a little about upcoming projects or company news. Shouldn't take more than half an hour, and everyone gets up-to-speed on what people are
At my work we have weekly meetings (Score:2)
It's a difficult skill to master (Score:3)
Unfortunately if you're a talented developer or engineer just writing good code does little for your career. If you want advancement, more responsibility and the pay that comes with it you'll have to learn to communicate effectively. I see lots of talent get pigeon holed in an organization because they can't communicate effectively or become too impassioned about something that is contrary to the perception of management because labels get attached to that individual and those are difficult to get removed. More often than not, the individual leaves or in a layoff situation, especially if that person is very vocal or sticks out like a sore thumb, they're let go. You have to be able to communicate effectively, build conclusive arguments that drive your point and learn to work with your co-workers. Nobody said you had to love everybody or live in a yellow submarine but by doing this and building consensus you can demonstrate that even though you've got talent in development or engineering you also have soft skills and soft skills pay more. I can get Java, C# or C++ developers any time but couple that with somebody who can lead a team and deal with having bumps in the road and then they're a better asset. If they have enough experience and have managed a few successful projects then they're great candidates for further advancement.
Sure, sometimes you have to play company politics and the higher you go unfortunately the more political things become but unless you have killer IP and are running your own place, you'll have to put up with it wherever you go.
Be Proactive (Score:4, Insightful)
The best advice I received, which came from an outside source, was to start emailing the team leader and the manager a quick "status" update every week. Just a quick email about what I was working on that week, what I accomplished, and any issues they should be aware of or handle. It worked very well, and it tended to cut down any interruptions from them wandering by asking me "how's it going?" As time went on, they learned to trust me more as a professional, and it became less of an issue.
Now, I hate mandated weekly status reports as much as anyone, but if the perceived problem on their end is that they don't know enough about what you're doing, I would much rather start sending them email with the relevant information. Otherwise, you might find you have to start filling out detailed weekly status reports, attending regular status update meetings, or something else more painful that a quick email.
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I can vouch for this approach.
I was in a similar situation, except I wasn't a contractor. I had a manager whose memory was terrible - legendarily terrible. We had weekly meetings (one that was just him and me, one that was the whole group); but he and I kept banging heads because "he didn't know what I was working on".
After a couple years of that, I started sending him an email at the end of each week that very briefly touched on everything I'd worked on that week. It didn't cover any new information that w
Who initiates those "needless" conversations? (Score:2)
.
The first thing about having a productive conversation is to listen.
You learn more when you're not talking than when you are talking.
Seems Follow-up is Warranted (Score:3)
Possibly related case:
During a review my boss remarked that my appearance was not entirely up to snuff (my words, not hers). I immediately asked for clarification and got a less than specific answer along the lines of you're usually very put together but, some days you're not, which didn't help much. Months later I was witness to a comment she made about another employees scruffiness. Note to self, she doesn't like 5 o'clock, or in my case 3rd day shadow.
More to the point, did you ask for clarification, examples, guidance? Going about this, in a "flailing in the dark" manner is unlikely to produce the desired results. Social skills covers a wide range of material.
Stow the 'Tude, Queenie (Score:2)
Granted, I don't know Mr. Submitter from Adam, but from the tone of your post you sound like a self-aggrandizing jerk. Not only that, you also seem quite keen on talking shit on and otherwise denigrating the people who have elected to employ you (albeit in a rather passive-aggressive manner). You show a complete lack of respect for proper procedure and formality, which, regardless of your personal feelings, exist for a reason.
I'd recommend you take that chip off your shoulder poste-haste. You might be the w
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What a fascinating example of unintentional self-referential criticism. Your comments seem more applicable to your own post than that of the submitter.
I'm in the exact same boat. (Score:2)
Innovative company? Innovate communication (Score:2)
OK, so you write code for a living and only reach out to people when you need an answer to a question.
Sounds like you might need a daily blog / journal. I've seen co-workers post a daily summary of what tasks / actions were worked on and the journal is injected with a few humorous lines of the individual's personal views. This is a form of communication that may suit your style better.
* It provides team members the opportunity to know what your working on, and may encourage them to share id
A couple of observations (Score:5, Insightful)
My first manager always told me that I needed better communication skills. Mostly this was because she was incompetent and couldn't keep track of her own work much less those reporting to her. In hindsight, I do not blame her, but rather the organization that promoted someone beyond what their skill set could handle.
At the same time, I did work on my communication and organizational skills. Since then I've earned five or six promotions and get consistently high marks in both of these areas. In my twenty years of a professional career, six in management, I've learned quite a bit and learned it can be distilled into just a couple of points
1) Know your audience.
This is the most important aspect of communication. My direct reports have learned (and I have told them) that I trust them and only expect a minimum of communication on a daily basis. I like status reports on a daily or near daily basis that let me know if you are on track. I also want to see reports when you see things going off track. Then we can sit down, go into more detail and I can do my job of providing additional resources or a manager's voice to get cooperation. If it is urgent, see me immediately. if not, it can wait for our 1:1. I want my employees to be able to work without getting sucked into a lot of meeting, be allowed to take ownership of their projects but then leverage my position when they need it.
But that is just me. Some managers want to be in the middle of every technical decision. While I don't agree with this management style, if that is your manager, adapt to his style. If he likes face-to-face daily, then give him the meetings. If he prefers a daily email, go that route. If he is a drop-by-meeting manager (I hate them) then keep talking points by your desk so you are ready.
How do you learn your manager's style? If he is good, he will explicitly tell you. Most managers are not good, however and don't receive any type of training. If this is the case, I'm sure you know who his favorites in the office are. Emulate parts of their style, or explicitly ask them how they deal with the boss. Also, occasionally, ask the boss how you are doing with communication. It will help reinforce that you are trying and he will generally view that favorably. Perception is at least half of the battle on communication...
For non-boss coworkers, communication is easier if you are already communicating well with the boss. Daily statuses on projects via email is likely the route to go. Whatever you are sending to the boss, send a similar update to your team. Develop a standard template so busy readers can scan for what they are looking for.
2) Be Consistent
For each of my direct reports, I created a template for our weekly 1:1's. There are 5-7 items on each that I go through. Sometimes most of the items will be "nothing to report". Others, there are lots. But by being consistent, I make sure everything is covered. I do the same for those I report to, either directly or as part of a project team. If you go the route of daily email updates, make sure they are done every time and have a consistent format. This will help you to be efficient with your time. Then make sure you follow through each day or however often you decide to. This creates a healthy habit in yourself, keeps people in the loop and reinforces the perception that you are an organized team player.
3) Get to the Point in EMail
Folks are busy, so spend a few minutes and think through a problem before emailing on it. When I see a long email on a subject, I immediately assume the person hasn't thought it through themselves and is looking for me to solve the problem. Don't spend three pages writing an essay. Don't go past three back and forths on an email chain. If you really need someone else to help solve something and you can't express it in two or three paragraphs, have a conversation.
Finally, a few minor points
* When getting an assignment, repeat it back to the person who assigned it so they can confirm. In most cases, follow
Good First Start (Score:2)
Best advice is don't reveal more than you need to share and, when you do share, do it in a clear, concise and non-rude manner.
Learning proper English (or your native language) vs slang is important in conversation and documents you prepare internally and for clients.
I have actually received resumes written in "text" speak. And, no, I am not kidding. Can you guess who didn't get hired?
Start smoking (Score:2)
In my experience if you really want to 'fit in' and be part of the group you need to start smoking. Those 5 or 10 minute breaks they take every hour to go outside to smoke is when they do all their social networking.
Read Fiction (Score:2)
And by that I mean non-SF fiction (what's called in the article I'll link to "literary fiction"). Research has suggested that reading this sort of thing, as opposed to man pages, SF, or journals, improves empathy and communication skills: http://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2013/oct/08/literary-fiction-improves-empathy-study [theguardian.com]
Also, learn about different types of intelligence. Daniel Goleman's books are a good place to start.
Basically, don't neglect non-STEM topics in your, your friends', or your childr
Find out from the source - the manager (Score:4, Informative)
The manager is the one who has made this comment, so I would surmise that one of two scenarios is at work here:
1. The manager has either noticed for themselves, or they have received feedback about you, to the effect that you do not communicate effectively with others within the company.
2. The manager is looking for a reason to give you a less-than-excellent performance review (a couple of potential reasons for this, the most common one being that the less than perfect review impacts your bonus, thus saving money for the company; alternatively, this could simply be a manager who just does not give excellent reviews because they think it leads to complacent employees).
In both cases, the best thing to do is ask the manager for their advice. You are a young, (relatively) inexperienced person on the team, and from my perspective it is safe to assume that you are interested in improving yourself and doing the best job that you can - that means that if you could self-identify things you can do better, you would have done so and be doing them. So take the manager to one side and explain that you are looking for some specific input about what areas of communication could be improved. Usually in my experience, where it is not a matter of the manager finding fault to save on bonus payments, it is not about communicating more, but more effectively. If that is the case, the best advice I could give is to look up a public speaking organisation - Toastmasters (www.toastmasters.org) is one of the more common ones, and one that I have worked with for a few years. You can learn more about effective communication, and also about leadership as well, both of which will carry your career a lot further if you are a good programmer, than just being a good programmer.
who told you to do this? (Score:2)
now who said this? what was the context?
these questions are, IMHO, integral to giving you good advice!
other comments here are very helpful, but more for the general info and narrative than advice that will actually help you **make a decision in this situation** directly...I think you should absorb all the info, but you (and all techies) need to **consider the source** of this criticism
important quesitons:
> were they male or female? a co-worker or supe
Get to the root of the communications problem (Score:2)
First of all, if someone is telling you that you have a communications problem, that is a BIG red flag in any career you need to look at immediately.
"...without having exponentially many needless conversations," ... "I don't have to hold my tongue when someone is wrong or worry about formalities"... "Traditional advice isn't relevant to casual, less hierarchical companies"
You are 100% wrong here. Those conversations don't sound "needless" if you have a "problem".
Here's some traditional advice that applies
[SOLUTION] communication skills (Score:2, Funny)
I stopped reading after the first 2.5 sentences because as I programmer, I can see where this is going already and I like to be efficient. So - what you need to do is look yourself up in the employee database. If you don't have access with your user account, just use the root account - noone will mind. First make sure that all communication skills you have are listed, none are left unmentioned. Add missing ones - if you can think of any - to your entry in the database (and if necessary to the meta-table whi
Communication is my #1 skill when hiring debs (Score:2)
Communicate upwards (Score:2)
What they're really telling you is that you are being too independent at least to start. Its generally good to be self-motivated but its preventing them from forming an opinion on how well (or even possibly what) you're doing or how good you are.
Basically because you are new you have to train your managers to trust you. At least for your first few months, until you feel you have become a trusted "part of the family" you need to communicate regularly (about daily) with all the person(s) you directly report
Your job is more than programming. (Score:2)
Without more information, nobody is going to be able to give you solid advice. However, the particular impression I get from how you phrased your question leads me to believe that you do not truly grok an essential fact, that your job is more than programming and that you do not understand business.
The business types (and this can be a Lead Developer, Project Manager, etc) around you need to understand nuances in your code in order to communicate it to others, to document, and so forth. They also need t
Stakeholder management (Score:3)
Try reading Tess Roeder's book [amazon.com]. I recommend you give yourself a crash course in Project Management [amazon.com] and give the PMBOK [amazon.com] a read. These skills will help you communicate.
You also want to learn some problem-solving strategies. If your workplace doesn't use something like the Kepner-Tregoe Problem Solving and Decision Analysis method, they need to. It will establish a common language and methodology for approaching a problem. 100% of the problem isn't always you; in many organizations, communication has become comfortable but is still terribly poor. In those situations, when you try to intentionally improve you will make the problem worse because suddenly your communications skills will exceed the organization's; you must commit to also leading a communications improvement in the organization if this happens.
Lost in your work (Score:4, Insightful)
"I'm not painfully introverted or socially inept, but I get lost in my work and only contact people if I need something from them or they ask me a question."
The people that get the best reviews are not the ones who work the hardest. They are the ones who impress their bosses and colleagues the most. That may sound a bit cynical, but it is the painful truth. Stop working so hard. Take a breath, look around, and relax a bit. If you are feeling swamped, then you need to set expectations better. Let everyone know that you are really busy, even if you are not. Try simple small talk, like "good morning," and "going to get some coffee, you want some." Treat your boss and people in authority with casual respect, that is, not stiff, but with deference. Take more breaks and run into more people. I learned a long time ago that in IT, perception is more important than results.
You want to be a cog, or be important? (Score:3)
If you have an office job "communication" consists of walking down the hallway to ask (or answer) a question instead of sending an e-mail. It means bumping into someone in the hallway and sharing a thorny problem you are working on (or even gloating on how you just came up with a clever solution.) If you have meetings, make sure you actively participate instead of fiddling with your laptop or phone. You spend time shooting (relevant) shit with your co-workers (and spend some time making small talk; that's important too.)
If you work remotely, it means much the same. Call people on the phone instead of doing everything via e-mail. Send out "FYI" notes if you find something the rest of your team should know. Cultivate a reputation as somebody who asks for advice when needed and is helpful in offering advice/education when requested. If you have regular meetings make sure you regularly get yourself on the agenda discussing something you are working on (either to ask for advice on how to solve a problem, or offering information on how you fixed it.) You can also sign yourself up to inform your teammates about things going on outside your team, like other projects, a new architecture coming down the wire, some new tool that's made your job easier, whatever.
If you don't interact with your team, you've rendered yourself into an utterly replaceable cog, that most certainly can (and probably will) be replaced in the future with somebody else who will offer to do the job cheaper.
Re:First, learn the proper use of "exponentially" (Score:5, Insightful)
Not to single you out when there are many other offenders around, but comments like yours remind me of something I don't miss on slashdot. You open up with an unsound criticism of someone's word choice ("exponentially" has an informal non-technical definition that does not equate to geometric growth). You close with a sarcastic putdown. You sandwich good stuff in-between.
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Awwwwwwww
Can I keep my Soft Kitty poster up? :)
[John]
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I think GP is objecting to "exponentially many", which although is a syntactically legal adverb + adjective combination, the issue is that "many" is not an appropriate adjective since it does not suggest any form of comparison or rate that could have an exponential relationship. I would suggest adjectives "more", "greater", or a participle like "increasing" to sound more natural and logical.
This is one of those things that would sound natural if said in conversation, but stands out as somewhat wrong in wri
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The only reason to read those books is to be clearer about when other people are trying to manipulate you.
Honestly, OP, please don't go down/up this "how to climb the greasy pole" route. Continue being polite but plain.
It seems OP's problem isn't his honesty, but his lack of ability to communicate updates.
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all these years, all those posts, it was you
this whole time it was YOU
MODS PLEASE
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all these years, all those posts, it was you
User ID: 3394245
This account is like 3 days old.
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Slashdot needs a 'self-righteous moron' moderation.
It would be one of the most used ones.