Communication & Influence

The most common complaint about managers — from engineers, from peers, from leadership — is some version of "I don't know what's going on." Not enough information. Wrong information. Information too late. Communication that's clear going up but murky going down, or vice versa.

Good communication is the single highest-leverage thing an EM can do. It's also one of the hardest transitions from IC to EM, because the type of communication that makes you effective changes completely.

The Shift

As an engineer, most of your communication was reactive and technical: answer a question, explain a design decision, write a ticket. You communicated when you had something specific to say.

As an EM, communication is proactive and relational. You communicate before people ask. You translate between technical and business. You create clarity in situations where there isn't any yet. You say the uncomfortable thing in the room that nobody else is saying.

That's a different skill set. Most new EMs don't realize how different it is until they're six months in and their skip-level is asking why they're always the last to know things.

What This Chapter Covers

Three lessons:

• Conducting Key Meetings — the meetings that actually matter, how to run them, and how to make them worth everyone's time
• Contributing Technical Feedback — how to stay in the technical conversation without becoming the bottleneck or the dictator
• Communicating Objectives — how to translate strategy from above into clarity for your team

By the end of this chapter you'll be the person on your team who brings clarity — which is one of the fastest ways to build influence in any direction.