3 Communication Mistakes That Will Cost You.

...whether in software engineering, product management or in sales.

Hello all,

this week it’s all about communication.

Three years ago, when I started the process of a career change into software engineering, I had so little idea about the real job.

Well, even on my first day on the job I actually thought that the majority of my work would be sitting and coding.

Before that, I had spent over 6 years in retail consultative sales and I was ready for a bit less communication with other human beings, to be honest :D

Imagine my surprise when I spent about 3 hours in meetings on my first day (it was planning and retrospective I guess so really just a bit of bad luck :D)

The fact is that our work is a LOT about communication.

In software engineering, clear and effective communication is as crucial as your technical level.

And that’s the reason why this week the topic is all about communication and some common mistakes you might be making - and sometimes these can be really costly.

Literary.

Whether you're discussing project requirements with a client, collaborating with your team, or presenting your work to stakeholders, falling into these communication traps can hurt your efforts and even impact your career trajectory.

1. Assuming Instead of Asking

Mistake: Jumping to conclusions or making assumptions about project requirements or team expectations without seeking clarification.

Impact: Leads to misaligned objectives and costly revisions.

Fix: Open-ended questions, summarizing discussions, and regular common understanding check-ins.

When you are in sales, one of the first things they are gonna teach you is this: Never think for your customer. Never anticipate what the customer thinks. Make no assumptions.

And you should extend that to any communication - when you start projecting your own knowledge and your bias into the discussions, you are in constant danger of unalignment with your counterpart.

Make sure you are talking about the same thing, make sure you are on the same page. And listen - that gets us to point number 2…

2. Underestimating the Power of Listening

Mistake: Dominating conversations and not actively listening to colleagues' ideas, feedback, or concerns.

Impact: This creates a gap in understanding and reduces collaboration effectiveness.

Fix: Practice active listening by summarizing what you've heard and asking follow-up questions to demonstrate engagement and ensure mutual understanding.

Active listening is an important topic - and I actually dedicated a lot of space in the very first issue of this newsletter - so you can go back and deeper here.

3. Neglecting Non-Verbal Cues

Mistake: Overlooking the importance of body language, tone of voice, and facial expressions in communication.

Impact: Misinterpretations or unintended offenses can occur, especially in remote work settings with digital communication.

Fix: I really like it when people are on camera during calls - although you still lose a lot of nonverbal communication signals/cues this way, it’s still 100 % better than just voice calls.

Especially for more sensitive/intense topics like a good retrospective on even 1/1 with your manager.

Be in control of your non-verbal signals in video calls and in-person meetings.

Use positive body language and maintain eye contact - that helps to gain trust and screams openness.

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Improving communication skills is a continuous journey, but you can get only so far without it in software engineering.

That’s the reason why I started this newsletter.

If you like it, it would mean the world to me if you could spread the word and share it with the world"!

See you in a week, Pavel.

P.S. You can get in touch with me also on LinkedIn,