You will grow a LOT faster in your career as an engineer if you focus on developing your people skills!
How to get better in people skills?
There are a lot of ways to get better and there’s not a “one size fits all” approach.
I’ll share with you what helped me to develop good people skills.
Develop teamwork and collaboration
- Team sports
I played a lot of team sports growing up (mostly basketball) and that helped me a lot get to know the importance of teamwork. You can’t win the game without great collaboration.
- Team-oriented games
I played video games competitively growing up (mostly team-oriented games) and the mindset is the same, you can’t win if you are not working together well.
- Doing freelance projects in collaboration with other people
I did a LOT of freelance projects in my career and it’s hard to have success, without great teamwork and collaboration between people.
Develop empathy and active listening
- Doing freelance projects for non-technical clients
You need to really understand the motivation and the problem behind their ask if you wish to create the right solution. Just jumping into code after the first requirements will in 99% provide a wrong solution.
- Coaching and mentoring
A lot of people may think that this only helps the person that you are coaching or mentoring, but it really helps you to develop the necessary skills to help effectively. Being able to put yourself in their shoes, offer guidance, active listening, etc.
- Consulting and advising
Similar principle to doing freelance projects, you need to really understand the problem and their motivation. That’s how you can actually map the right solution to it. A LOT of times the solution is actually hidden inside a lot of layers.
Develop communication
- Sharing knowledge by doing presentations or talking at events
You help others grow and at the same time, you are improving your public speaking skills, overall communication and meeting new great people (networking).
- Writing online
That can be writing posts on LinkedIn or X, or you are regularly posting articles on your blog or newsletter. This helps immensely with getting better in your written communication (saying the most in as few words as possible). At the same time, it also helps you a lot with your personal brand.
- Explain technical solutions to non-tech people
If you can explain a complex tech solution to a non-tech person, you understand it well. And to do that, you need to find the right words and sentences that resonate with them.
What would you add?
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