Top Five Communication Skills All Engineers Need To Know

1.    Analyze Your Audience.

Ask yourself, “Who is my audience?”

Are they other engineers who are already familiar with the terms you are using in your proposal or are they “lay non engineers” such as client people who need your proposal explained to them  in the simplest terms possible?

If it is a mixed audience of both groups, you will need to remember to be sure and explain your terms and concepts in a balance of both simplistic and engineering terms so you don’t lose your audience.

2.    Figure Out Your Key Points
     
      Ask yourself: What Are My Three to Five Key Points?
 
This is a really tough thing to do for engineers. The problem I have observed is that these groups of speakers are usually so excited about communicating as much as possible about their topic,  they usually overload and overwhelm their audiences with too much information as result.

I always tell these engineer clients, “You can get all the information eventually to your audiences, just not all right now and all at the same time!”

Figure out your top three to a maximum of five key points of your proposal and stick to them.

3.    Look At The Language and The Power Point Slides of Your Speech

Ask yourself: How can I write this speech in such simple terms that no one will be left out in terms of their understanding?

Once you know who your audience is and what they don’t know or know already about your topic, go back and look at your speech and simplify the language.

Do your best to lay out your proposal for your audience in terms that are easy to understand and with as little technical engineering jargon as possible.

Also don’t overload your audience with too many Power Point slides with too much technical information either. If you can focus more on the stories about what your proposal will do and the impact it will have, you are more likely to get your audience excited.

We as human beings are not hard wired in our brains for numbers. We do love and remember stories more than anything else.

4.    Strategically Anchor Your Speech

Ask yourself: What is my strategy for this speech?

This is where a great communications or media coaching comes in. There are always different strategies available to you for communicating information depending on what your target is.

Aristotle said, “Begin with the end in mind.” This is true for an engineering proposal or presentation as well. Figure out what your key objectives are and then write your speech and craft your presentation to hit that target.

5.    Get Some Coaching On The Delivery Of Your Pitch or Proposal

Ask yourself: Am I delivering my ideas and research in the most effective way possible?

A few hours of great coaching can make all the difference in terms of how your information is both understood and received.

If you are used to being focused on minute details of construction and solutions and not on talking with people, you really need to get some presentation coaching. A few hours spent on learning how to lift your material up off the page into a compelling speech is absolutely imperative if you want to move your audience and get them engaged in your proposal and solutions long enough to consider hiring you and your company for the job.

In Conclusion

My experience with engineers is that with just a few hours of help with their writing and presentation skills, it can make all the difference.  With improved communication skills, most can make huge leaps forward in both their communication of their ideas and their ability to move an audience toward choosing them and their firm for that next really important  job.