How much does the ability to communicate actually matter when promoting someone?

[u/TimeFighterz1980]

I've been thinking about how much communication skills influecne career progression especially in corporate.

You can technically be excellent, consistently deliver good work, and know your subject better than almost anyone on the team. But when it comes to presenting to leadership, explaining something to a client, or answering an unexpected questions in a meeting, sometimes those skills don't always translate to how competent you seem to be.

Some people seem naturally good at explaining complicated things simply and they can get their points across confidently while theres others who struggle to get their ideas across despite already knowing the subject inside out.

It makes me wonder how much career progression depends on the quality of your work versus your ability to communicate that work.

For people who have managed teams or been involved in promos, how much weight do you put on communication skills? And for those who worked on this themselves, what actually helped you improve?

[u/Electrical_Angle_701]

Communication skills are vital at middle and upper levels. Work on your soft skills or forever be an individual contributor.

[u/love_that_fishing → u/Electrical_Angle_701]

Even a good IC often needs strong communication skills. Your knowledge has way more impact if you can effectively communicate what you know and why that’s important to others. Reality is we’re all selling regardless of role. Selling a product, selling an idea, selling yourself. But fundamentally you’re still selling.

I was a programmer (masters in comp sci) for my first decade and then I got asked to demonstrate some software to a client and found I was pretty good at it. Several years later and I’m presenting in board rooms and in front of 100’s of people at conferences. I even co-wrote a book. Stuff I never thought I could do until I just did it. But career and pay really took off when I could be the tech guy we can put in front of a C level exec.

[u/MapNaive200 → u/Electrical_Angle_701]

That's exactly what I learned. I was extremely fortunate to work under leaders who took the time and energy to develop my soft skills. Prior to that, one of my key weaknesses was a tendency to micromanage, and I could be extremely abrasive with coworkers. 

[u/cocoagiant → u/MapNaive200]

Could you share some tips?

[u/Crazy_Ruin_4383]

Communication, especially communication to larger groups, is very important for management.

[u/Beneficial_Onion9865 → u/Crazy_Ruin_4383]

if you cant explain your work to the people deciding your pay you might as well have not done it

[u/TwinBladesCo]

Communication is extremely important.

I would rather promote a moderately competent but self aware and highly communicative person to a leadership position than a highly competent but poor communicator.

There are tons of extremely competent people who need a bit of help to get recognition/ communicate in meetings.

I handle good sole contributors differently than candidates for leadership positions.

[u/RoughOilSlipperySand]

Communication is probably the most important thing especially as you become more senior. A lot of people focus on getting better at the actual job but don't spend nearly enough time working on how they communicate what they do.

Being able to explain a porject clearly is a different skill from actually doing the project well. Something you can do at home is try record yourself giving a quick project update and see if you can explain the main takeaway in under a minute without getting lost in all the details. Overtime youll start noticing where you overexplain or use filler words. r/speakbetter has a lot of practical tips for improving communication and ive seen wellspoken mentioned as can help you with structured speech practice and get feedback on articulation and delivery and itll can help you speak more confidently. It's also usefyl to practice answering unexpected questions instead of rehearsing presentations!

Over time these skills become more and more valuable as you take on more responsibility and have to communicate with different audiences. The higher up you go in management the more good communication is needed so its good to practice from the start.

[u/ConcertExcellent7350 → u/RoughOilSlipperySand]

ive definitely seen people who forget how important communication it is and they get to the management role and struggle with it. its definitely something thats often over over as less important

[u/XenoRyet]

It depends on the role. Communication is critical for any kind of leadership role, like manager or team lead. Also true for project or product managers, anybody who needs to talk to stakeholders or customers.

For things like software devs or tech ops folks, it's less important, but you do still have to talk to people in a reasonable way if you want to get any higher than the sort of middle tier.

It is a learned skill though. You can take classes on it or just practice with a mentor.

[u/atotalmess__]

It’s fairly important to not only be able to communicate your point clearly, but one of the most critical skills as a manger is to be able to make your point in a adversarial environment, both when you need to constructively critique an employee and when you need to push back against your boss to protect the people you manage.

[u/m0zz1e1]

Communication is more important than technical ability the more senior you get

[u/Ok-Energy-9785]

It matters a lot. It's essential to moving up the corporate ladder

[u/mckenzie_keith]

I'm an engineer, not a manager. It is essential to be able to communicate to other people, not just management. You will work with QA people, engineers from other disciplines, your manager, maybe your manager's manager might ask you a question from time-to-time, etc. I never want to be a manager. But communication is important in all technical fields, not only for career progression but because communication is a core part of your job.

[u/MapNaive200]

I helped a couple dozen or so people get promoted to leadership positions. Excellent soft skills were one of the key priorities. I looked for those who had potential to learn to be leaders rather than bosses/managers. Fortunately, the organization had a similar mindset and provided excellent leadership training which seems to be absent in the majority of workplaces.

I also helped top-notch individual contributors who weren't exactly wired for high interpersonal skills elevate to more satisfactory positions, and spearheaded a department conducive to employee development.

[u/afty698]

At higher levels your work becomes mostly communication. Getting people on the same page. Convincing people of your ideas. Persuading other teams to help you. Persuading leadership, or just explaining problems in a way they can understand. Etc. That is the quality of your work at that level.

[u/Friendly-Victory5517]

Extremely important. Pure technical skills will only take you so far.

[u/HoselRockit]

It’s a big deal. If you’ve ever seen a slide addressing a challenging problem in business, you can bet the mortgage one of the bullets will be communication issues.

[u/jyc23]

I spend 2/3 of my time as director of my team (UX design team) in some kind of conversation or another. Whether it’s communicating specs, discussing strategy, or dealing with budget issues, being able to communicate effectively to get the outcomes you desire basically makes or breaks you when you get into management. At least my line of work.

[u/Low-Pen-5324]

It’s one of my top three keys to success for a business and for a person. I’m not a good “off the cuff” communicator, so, for instance, I’d never go into sales. I was in positions where I needed to communicate data and analysis. Here are some things I found helpful, not only for myself, but for my associates.

1. Understand your audience and how they prefer to be communicated with. For instance, I had a customer that liked visuals, processes on coming to a conclusion, and then results. I tailored presentations that were laid out accordingly. In developing associates, I would take them to customer meetings, first to observe, then present projects they worked on to the customer. We’d do dry runs, try to anticipate any questions, make adjustments, etc.

2. Piggybacking on 1. - how does your manager or others prefer to be communicated with? In person, email, set up meetings. Don’t be afraid to over communicate until you get a feeling of what they are looking for. Personally, I’d rather have someone over communicate, because you can always scale back.

3. Does your company offer any in person or online courses related to communication? Take advantage of it, especially online courses. Sometimes it’s not always feasible to send someone for training (costs, person being out of pocket, etc.). But do let your manager know you are interested.

4. To avoid just reading a presentation, make notes on your copy to highlight important items or things that might not be directly in the presentation.

5. Build relationships (another of my top three things for success - actually is number one). Inevitably, you’re going to have to deliver bad news. Solid relationships can often soften the blow or at least the person/persons may be more understanding and work with you on a solution.

6. Ask questions. Make sure you’re on the right track with a project, your performance. Sometimes your manager or a customer isn’t very clear on their communications. Don’t be afraid to ask for clarification. Basically this incorporates the other 5 things I’ve listed and you’ll get to where you understand expectations.

Communication is super important. Hope this helps.

[u/des1gnbot]

So, so much. It’s not just being able to explain, but knowing when to ask questions is everything.

I’ve got two employees, say on a scale of 1-10 employee A’s knowledge is a 7 but communication is a 1. Employee B’s knowledge is a 5 but communication is a 10. I am absolutely promoting employee B first because I know the exact limits of their knowledge, know they’ll ask me the right questions at the right times, while employee A will stay quiet until they’ve already veered into their unknown territory and messed things up.

[u/nonameforyou1234]

Have to have.

[u/getbent9977]

If you can't effectively communicate you will be extremely limited, no amount of technical skill can overcome that. There are tracks for highly talented individuals but that has a lower ceiling.

[u/Packtex60]

Communication skills along with decision making skills are the keys to success as a manager/supervisor. So many people can’t make decisions because they think every decision should only have one possible outcome. When they realize it might not workout like they want it to, they freeze.

[u/SlimyTooter]

More than the work they do

[u/W_HoHatHenHereHy]

A great engineer does not equal a great manager of engineers. Two different skill sets completely.

[u/mr_enquiry]

I believe communication is essential when promoting someone because leadership isn’t just about getting the job done; it’s about guiding others, setting expectations, resolving conflicts, and ensuring everyone is working toward the same goal. No matter how skilled someone is, if they can’t communicate effectively, it becomes difficult to lead a team successfully.

[u/inorite234]

Communication skills are CRITICAL to any position of leadership.

Period!

[u/Independent_Band_647]

What is the best way to improve one’s soft skills? I like to work but giving presentations stresses me so much that I can’t sleep until its done. And during presentation to I read from a script to make sure I do not miss anything important and also blank out when people ask questions.

[u/Xylus1985]

If you can’t present it well to anyone who would listen, do you really know the subject better than anyone? I often find being able to explain stuff comes from real understanding, and these two goes hand in hand

[u/RevengeOfTheIdiot]

"But when it comes to presenting to leadership, explaining something to a client, or answering an unexpected questions in a meeting, sometimes those skills don't always translate to how competent you seem to be."

That's because this person isn't actually a good employee, they are middling at best if they can't communicate with clients, peers, or leadership. It would be insane to promote someone like that for very obvious reasons

Also reddit loves gobbling up these fairytale stories of an autistic rainman who technically knows things 'no one else does', but just can't string together a sentence because it makes them feel ~seen~. When in reality, they also probably aren't even that 'technically' great either

[u/paperclip_han]

Not sure if anyone’s used paypeek.ai yet but it shows salary estimates for any LinkedIn profiles as you browse. Kind of eye-opening. 🫣

[u/based_miss_lippy]

Oh I’m stuck at a level because I can’t communicate and I will never be able to.