How to talk like an executive…when you come from a tech background

I have learnt amazing things from amazing people during my Master in Entrepreneurship with UCL School of Management, but if I were to pinpoint one significant result, aside from the knowledge and the network, that would be a behavioural change.

Early on I discovered that coming straight out of a software engineering role into a business environment is both a blessing and a curse.

My knee-jerk reaction when I engage in conversations about technology is to provide as many details as I can to the people around me. I thought that lengthy explanations would bring everyone on the same page quickly and help my credibility. It turns out that talking like an engineer is very different than talking like an executive.

I know that many executives get coaching on communication topics, but for me, that is not readily available. So I learnt it the hard way.

TL;DR 1. If you are broadcasting your knowledge in “engineer speak”, you might discover that business people are not tunning into that channel.
TL;DR 2. Talking in short sentences makes you more confident and more “executive-like” sounding.

Not every technical detail you find fantastic is interesting to other people.

Depending on the situation, they want the gist of it and not a Computer Science lecture.

You have to prioritise your ideas in your head before you speak.

If you have ten ideas you want to communicate, sort them in your head in the order of importance and have a clear discourse ready. You will be lucky if you manage to get to the third point before losing everyone to a lateral conversation.

Don’t be afraid to say the things that are more important to you first.

There is no better way of showing executive-style than being able to articulate the result you want at the end of the meeting in a concise, bite-size way.

Formulate the results of a meeting as nouns rather than verbs

You could say “We are meeting today to discuss about X and Y”. But how do you measure if the discussion lead to the desired outcome? Much better is to say “At the end of this meeting we want a solution to X and Y”. You have it or you don’t.

Your body language matters.

Maintaining eye contact with your speaker is the best way of establishing credibility. If you’re sitting down, try to lean forward to show your engagement.

Conclusion: stop talking sooner!

The longer you talk, the less effective you are. That is the hardest lesson I’ve learnt.