Persuasive Communication for Engineers

Your Senior Management doesn't care about your corrosion rate. And honestly, they shouldn’t have to! I see this scenario play out every budget cycle. It’s heartbreaking. A brilliant young engineer spots a critical issue. A vessel is wall-thinning faster than expected. They spend days gathering UT data, running code calculations, and preparing a flawless technical report. They walk into the Plant Director’s office and say: "Boss, the amine regenerator overhead is corroding at 18 mpy. We are approaching t-min. We need a shutdown window to repair it immediately." The Plant Director (who is looking at a quarterly P&L statement bleeding red ink) asks: "What's the budget impact? Can it wait until next year's turnaround?" The engineer gets frustrated, talks more about physics, and eventually gets their request denied or deferred. They leave the meeting thinking management cares more about money than safety. They are wrong. This isn't a failure of safety culture. It’s a failure of communication. It’s the "Engineer vs. Mangement" language barrier. Engineers are trained to solve problems involving physics, chemistry, and pascals. Managers are trained to allocate scarce capital based on ROI, NPV, and Risk Exposure. If you cannot translate your technical problem into a financial consequence, you will lose the argument every time. How to become a "Bilingual" Engineer: Stop presenting data. Start presenting business cases. - Don't say: "The corrosion rate is 0.5mm per year." - Do say: "If we don't act in 18 months, this vessel will fail, causing an unplanned 10-day outage costing us $4.5 Million in lost production.” - Don't say: "We need this new $50k vibration monitoring system." - Do say: "This $50k investment will prevent the catastrophic pump failures that cost us $200k last year. The ROI is 300% in year one.” The hard truth: Great engineering that never gets funded is useless engineering. To move from a technical role to a leadership role, you have to stop speaking only in "Mils Per Year" and start speaking in "Dollars Per Quarter." #EngineeringLeadership #AssetManagement #BusinessStrategy #MBA #OilAndGas #Communication #CareerGrowth #ProcessSafety

Most engineers spend years trying to get a seat at the table. Then they finally get it and make the same mistake immediately. They show up and act like builders in a room full of decision makers. Here's what that looks like in practice and how to fix it: Step 1. Stop bringing answers. Start bringing perspectives. - Builders come to meetings with solutions already decided - Decision makers come with a point of view and an open question - "Here's what I'd recommend and here's what I'm still uncertain about" is more powerful than "here's the answer" - Certainty closes conversations. Perspective opens them Step 2. Read the room before you read the data - Engineers default to leading with numbers and technical evidence - At the decision-making level, context and timing matter as much as accuracy - Before speaking, ask yourself who in the room has skin in this decision - The most technically correct answer delivered at the wrong moment loses every time Step 3. Stop defending your work. Start advancing the mission. - The instinct to protect your model, your code, your approach is natural - At the table it becomes a liability - When your idea gets challenged, your job is not to win the argument - Your job is to find the best path forward, even if it isn't yours Step 4. Learn to sit with ambiguity out loud - Builders are trained to solve before they speak - Decision makers are expected to think in public - Saying "I don't have a clear answer yet, but here's how I'd approach finding one" builds more trust than silence - The table rewards engineers who can reason visibly, not just deliver quietly Step 5. Shift your metric from output to influence - Stop measuring your contribution by what you shipped - Start measuring it by what changed because you were in the room - Did the direction shift? Did the team avoid a costly mistake? Did someone make a better decision because of your input? - That is the scorecard that gets you invited back Getting a seat at the table is hard. Keeping it requires a completely different operating system. If you're navigating this transition right now, this is exactly the work I do with engineers. Follow me and let's build that together.

Whether you’re promoting yourself in an interview, pitching a product, or asking for a raise, here’s how to persuade the person without being manipulative: At our Science of People lab, I’ve found that the most persuasive communicators master what I call the Two C’s: 1. Clarity Confusion kills persuasion. People can’t say yes to what they don’t understand. So before anything else, get crystal clear about what you do, who you help, and why it matters. 2. Curiosity Humans are drawn to questions, not monologues. If you can make someone genuinely curious, you’ve already earned their attention. Now let’s put those into practice. Step 1: Forget the elevator pitch Instead, think in terms of value propositions, statements that clearly show what you do and spark curiosity about how you do it. For example: “Meeting planners and association executives hire me to make them look like superstars.” That’s from Don Levine Jr. Every time he says it, people respond with: “Really? How do you do that?” And that “how” is the golden question, the one that opens real conversations instead of shutting them down. Step 2: Invite dialogue Your goal isn’t to “pitch.” It’s to start a discussion. When you state your value clearly, people naturally ask follow-up questions, and that’s when your expertise shines. Compare these two: • “I’m an engineer for a software company. We specialize in cybersecurity” • “I’m an engineer trying to solve the three biggest challenges in cybersecurity today” The second version invites curiosity and sets you up as an authority. Step 3: Be ready for “how” and “why” A great value proposition always leads to deeper questions: “How do you do that?” or “Why do you do that?” That’s your chance to explain your mission. Those “how” and “why” conversations create trust and credibility faster than any sales script ever could. Step 4: Add the third C (Courage) Yes, I’m sneaking in one more C. Because clarity and curiosity alone aren’t enough. You also need courage. • Courage to sound different • Courage to be memorable It takes confidence to say something like: • “I’m a human behavior hacker” • Or Jim McConnell’s favorite: “I keep my clients off the front page, keep executives alive and out of jail, and make suppliers accountable” • Or even a wedding planner who says: “Brides hire me so they can sleep better at night.” Each of those lines makes people lean in. Step 5: Create your own Here’s a simple fill-in-the-blank template to build your value proposition: I help [target audience] in [category] by [benefit/outcome] so they can [result]. Examples: • “For store owners in retail, our micro camera system provides fail-safe, worry-free security 24/7” • “I help startup entrepreneurs in tech hire the right people so they can focus on growth.” Now, I’m curious: what’s your value proposition? Fill in the blanks and share it below. I’d love to see what you come up with.

Ever noticed how one colleague always gets their ideas approved while others keep explaining but never convince? It’s not confidence. It’s psychology at play. Persuasion isn’t about talking louder or longer It’s about understanding how people think. When you are in a meeting, people don’t care about - Your background - Your last quarter’s results - Your unknown skillsets They care about - How can your ideas benefit them? - How can you make a difference to them? - Why should they listen only to you? And the best professionals use subtle psychological cues that make others say “yes” without feeling pushed. Let’s look at a few of them 1. The Foot in the door Effect We never smash a door to invade someone’s privacy. We knock and ask first. Similarly, ask for something small first. Example: “Can you review just the first slide?” and once they do, they’re far more likely to review the rest. 2. The Because Principle People love reasons. Even simple ones. Clarify why you need what you need. Example: “I’d appreciate your feedback because this deck is going to the client tomorrow” gets faster responses than “Please review.” 3. Reciprocity Rule Do something helpful first and share insights, feedback, or support. People naturally want to return the favor Example: You help a teammate polish their client pitch this week. Two weeks later, when you need quick data for your report, they go out of their way to get it done for you 4. Consistency Bias Link your request to something they already agreed to. Example: “You mentioned earlier that speed is our top priority. This process will help with that.” 5. Contrast Effect Position your idea next to a tougher alternative. Example: “If not a two-day workshop, we can start with a 2-hour micro-session.” Suddenly, the smaller option feels easy to accept. Persuasion isn’t manipulation. It’s making good ideas easier to agree with. The next time you want to convince someone, ask yourself: “Am I trying to win the point or win the person?” You will understand what needs to be done next #persuasion #softskills #personaldevelopment #corporatetraining #careergrowth #communicationskills

𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐜𝐨𝐝𝐞 𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐚𝐤𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐦𝐚𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬. 𝐌𝐲 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐚𝐤𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐡𝐮𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐬. A techie in a hoodie can build the product but can they communicate its value ? Last week, I had the opportunity to train the brilliant team at Gemini Solutions Pvt Ltd and our core focus was one skill that is no longer optional in the tech world: 𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 Because here’s the truth The era of ���Let the engineers code quietly while someone else talks to the client” is over. Today: Everyone is client-facing Everyone influences outcomes Everyone needs to articulate, align, and collaborate Why Communication is now a Core Tech Skill Studies show: 🔹 86% 𝘰𝘧 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘦 𝘧𝘢𝘪𝘭𝘶𝘳𝘦𝘴 𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘮 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘱𝘰𝘰𝘳 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘮𝘶𝘯𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 & 𝘤𝘰𝘭𝘭𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 (𝘚𝘢𝘭𝘦𝘴𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘤𝘦) Communication is no longer a “soft skill”. It’s a power skill. A business differentiator. Even the Best Tech Companies Got It Wrong (Before They Got It Right) Case Study 1 — Google The early Google engineering culture prioritized IQ over EQ. Teams were brilliant but worked in silos. Communication was “minimal but efficient”… until efficiency started costing them innovation, speed, and morale. ✅ Fix: Project Aristotle introduced structured communication rituals — clarity in meetings, psychological safety, and BLUF-style concise updates. Result? Team performance surged. If global tech giants needed to fix this… 𝐖𝐡𝐲 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐈𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐚𝐧 𝐭𝐞𝐜𝐡 𝐭𝐞𝐚𝐦𝐬 𝐰𝐚𝐢𝐭 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐠𝐚𝐩𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐥𝐨𝐬𝐬-𝐦𝐚𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐤𝐞𝐬? The 3 Powerful Tools We Practiced at Gemini Solutions : Here are the same principles the team walked out with — ready to apply: 𝐁𝐋𝐔𝐅 (𝐁𝐨𝐭𝐭𝐨𝐦 𝐋𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐔𝐩 𝐅𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐭): Say the most important thing first. No long build-up. 𝐒𝐂𝐐𝐀 𝐅𝐫𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤: A structured way to explain ideas clearly: Situation →Complication → Question → Action (Removes ambiguity. Builds clarity. Saves 30–40% meeting time.) 𝐄𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐭𝐡𝐲 𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐀𝐩𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐠𝐲: Instead of “Sorry for the delay”, try “Thank you for your patience — here’s what I’ve done to resolve it.” Small shift. Huge impact on trust. The Need of the Hour for Tech Talent Communication today means the ability to: • express an idea clearly • understand client needs • collaborate across functions • agree, disagree — respectfully • persuade, influence & lead Coding builds the product. Communication gets it funded, adopted & scaled. What is your biggest challenge in communication? #communication

If your mind goes blank when it matters most, your promotion goes with it. One of the questions that my engineering clients ask me the most is: “How do I speak on my feet when someone important puts me on the spot?” They fear rambling and losing credibility. Watching senior people’s eyes glaze over, knowing you have lost them. Then Doug jumps in, summarises their idea, and everyone thanks HIM for the brilliant point. Here’s how to speak to stop your seniors from looking to Doug for answers: The PREP Framework  ❌ Without PREP: "Well, I mean, there are a lot of factors to consider, and I think if we look at the market research, which is still ongoing, but promising, we could potentially see some benefits in terms of positioning,though it's hard to quantify exactly..." (Everyone has mentally left the room) P – Point (State your main idea) “This project solves a key problem no one else has tackled yet.” R - Reason (Explain why it matters) “It cuts down manual work and makes operations safer and faster.” E- Example (Bring in data or a story) “In our pilot, we saved 40 hours a week and reduced errors by 25%.” P - Payoff (Focus on what your seniors care about, eg business value) This improves efficiency by 20% and frees up $1.2M in capacity we can reinvest elsewhere.” Important tip: Start practising PREP in low-stakes conversations first. Here’s how: 1. Put (non-confidential) details of your project in AI 2. Ask it for the 5 difficult questions your SVP may ask  3. Write down your answer without AI (this step matters!) 4. Check answers with AI. 5. Practice until it feels natural Save the infographic below and test it in your next meeting. The engineers I coach use PREP to turn awkward silences into “drop mike” moments. It even includes an AI prompt to help you practise real executive questions before they catch you off guard.

I watched a solid engineer I knew get passed over for a promotion. His code was poetry. But he couldn't explain why any of it mattered. I've thought about that moment many times since then- because it wasn't an isolated case. I've seen it happen over and over in engineering teams across the industry. The "silent genius" pattern. The engineer who can architect an entire distributed system from scratch but freezes when a non-technical stakeholder asks "so what does this actually do for the business?" And here's the brutal truth Nobody gets promoted for code nobody understands the value of. In every engineering team I've been part of, the engineers who grew the fastest weren't always the most technically gifted in the room. They were the ones who could walk into a meeting with product, finance or the CEO and translate infrastructure decisions into business outcomes. "We migrated to Kubernetes — which means we cut deployment time from 2 hours to 8 minutes and our team can now ship 3x faster." That sentence just made someone's budget decision easier. That is what leadership remembers. Your technical skills got you in the room. Your communication skills will get you a seat at the table. The engineers who win aren't the smartest ones. They're the ones who make smart ideas feel simple and inevitable to everyone around them. So if you're heads down writing perfect code and wondering why growth feels slow Start practicing how you talk about your work as much as you practice the work itself. Document your impact. Present your decisions. Speak in outcomes not implementations. Your code doesn't promote you. Your communication does. #devops #platformengineering #careergrowth #softwareengineering #techcareers #engineeringleadership #cloudengineering #theengineeringladder #cloudOpsacademy #africantechtalent

Engineers don’t lose out on opportunities because they’re bad at sales. They lose them because they jump to the solution too fast. I see this happen constantly. Someone describes a problem and the engineer immediately says: “I know exactly how to fix that.” Technically… they might be right. But something important just happened. The other person stopped feeling understood. Engineers are trained to solve problems. Sales, leadership, and influence require something slightly different first: Diagnosis. Before proposing a solution, great engineers do three things: 1️⃣ They slow down the conversation Instead of solving immediately, they ask: “Can you walk me through how this is happening today?” Most problems are messier than the first sentence suggests. 2️⃣ They quantify the impact Engineers love numbers. Use them. “How often does this happen?” “How much time does this cost the team?” “What happens if this keeps going for another year?” Now the problem has weight. 3️⃣ They let the other person reach the conclusion This is the hardest part. Instead of pushing a solution, ask: “What would a perfect outcome look like for you?” When people articulate their own solution criteria, they’re far more likely to support the answer. The irony is that engineers already have the hardest part solved. People trust them. The next step is simply learning to stay curious a little longer before solving. The engineers who master that skill don’t just become better communicators. They become the people everyone wants in the room when decisions are made. Sometimes being More Than an Engineer means realizing your technical brain was never the limitation. The speed at which you used it was.

The most valuable skill an engineer can develop isn't writing more, it's writing less. Engineers have a natural tendency to be comprehensive. We document every technical detail, edge case, and potential issue. This works great for pull requests, technical documentation, and architectural diagrams. It fails spectacularly when communicating with non-technical stakeholders. Here's what I tell my engineering team about stakeholder communication: • Concise > Comprehensive. Five sentences beats five paragraphs every time. • Put blockers and critical issues at the TOP of status reports. Not buried at the bottom. • 𝗕𝗼𝗹𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝘀𝘁𝘂𝗳𝗳. Your executive contact is scanning this on their phone between meetings. • Action items should be crystal clear. Who needs to do what by when? • Save the technical deep-dive for people who ask for it. Remember: When stakeholders get 1,000+ emails and juggle dozens of issues daily, your meticulously crafted 3-page status report isn't being read, it's being skimmed in 30 seconds. #TechnicalLeadership #EngineeringCommunication #StakeholderManagement

I often teach a class on communications for civil engineers and it is a reminder that being a great engineer is not just about calculations and design. You can have the best technical skills in the world, but if you cannot communicate your ideas clearly, to clients, contractors, agencies, or the public, your impact will be limited. Engineering is full of complex concepts, and explaining them in a way that different audiences can understand is a skill that takes practice. Here are five key communication skills that every engineering professional should master: Writing with Clarity: Whether it is a technical report, an email, or a proposal, writing should be clear, concise, and to the point. Long-winded explanations or vague wording lead to confusion and misinterpretation. Presenting with Confidence: Engineers often need to present findings, designs, or project updates to teams, stakeholders, or decision-makers. Speaking clearly, making eye contact, and organizing information logically can make a big difference. Listening Actively: Communication is not just about talking. Engineers need to listen to clients, project teams, and regulatory agencies to understand concerns, gather requirements, and avoid costly mistakes. Adapting to Different Audiences: The way you explain a project to a fellow engineer is not the same as how you explain it to a city council or a community group. Knowing how to adjust your message for different audiences is essential. Handling Conflict Professionally: Disagreements happen in projects. Whether it is negotiating with contractors, addressing design concerns, or responding to public opposition, engineers must know how to navigate conflict calmly and professionally. I have seen students who were hesitant about communication at the beginning of the course completely change their approach once they realized its importance. These skills do not just help in the workplace. They help engineers lead, influence, and bring ideas to life. #Engineering #CivilEngineering #CommunicationSkills #Leadership #ProfessionalDevelopment (Chart source: ESMI)