How to Communicate

Effective communication is a career-defining skill for engineers that is often underdeveloped. Key practices covered include: avoiding 'no hello' and 'ask to ask' patterns in async messaging, using Bottom Line Up Front (BLUF) for longer messages, applying formatting to improve readability, choosing sync vs. async communication wisely, synthesizing thread summaries, defaulting to public/documentable communication, and leadership-specific techniques like active listening, seeking to understand before advising, adding rationale to decisions, using 'yes and' to redirect ideas constructively, and praising publicly while correcting privately.