Communicating with Clients: Making a silk purse out of a sow’s ear!

‘Write an article about how techies can make themselves appear more human’, says the brief for my debutante freelance article for Technibble. AS IF! is my first reaction. That nugget has been floating about since I was at University, where they made us carry out a special course on communication – which was fine. After all, we only had to communicate with each other, and everyone in my class was fluent in stunted geekobabble anyway!

Then I started to think about the subject properly. What is it that we do or don’t do that unnerves the world at large? Why are we seen as being so unapproachable and geek-like? And what can we do to change it?

Ok, so, looking at this logically – we’re all people – right? What do we do that’s different to non-techies? We KNOW stuff. And we know stuff about computers, which makes us more knowledgeable than others. We also forget, I think, how scary technology can be. And, by association, how scary technology-friendly people can be. AND THEN are the pretenders – people who only know a little, and who use this small amount of (incomplete/incorrect) knowledge to scare their friends/family/associates and colleagues into submission – and talk absolute rubbish with great authority.

To be seen as human friendly, we have a large hill to climb, carrying the weight of the pre-conceived IT techie image before we even start. As my first contribution to the Technibble world, I’d like to share with you my own personal hints for being people-friendly, in a professional and technical manner

1) SMILE AND SMILE SOME MORE. It’s hard to find a smiling, agreeable looking person as unnerving or objectionable.

2) Remember to consider what your ‘audience’ knows or doesn’t know. If you are talking to a client/customer/colleague, use words that they understand, and don’t ‘geek them out’ with lots of rubbish. The truly technically-aware of us can say things in a way that makes really complicated stuff sound commonplace. However, if you do have to use technical words, make sure you explain what they mean if your audience doesn’t know, or check their understanding if you’re not sure (there’s nothing worse than being patronised).

3) SPEAK to people whenever you can, and try and find some common ground. TV watching, lunch, Sport, the weather (emergency use only as it can be very B-O-R-I-N-G), the time of year, the weekend, whatever comes to mind. Even – ‘Hi. How are you today?’ can break some ice, and have you noticed as a nice, friendly, non robot-y type of person if used well. I once worked at an office where an accounts person made a point of saying ‘Hello’ to me, and ‘Goodbye’, every time I entered or left the building. We had nothing in common, I didn’t speak to him apart from that, but he made an impression as a nice, friendly person.

4) SAY SOMETHING NICE to a person you are talking with – ‘I like your tie/hair/suit’, ‘How’s your day going?’ – Whatever you can think of (sincere rather than made up). All of this helps you to be perceived as a ‘good’ guy/gal/geek.

5) DON’T WORRY about what other people think of your communication skills. What some don’t realise is that the first few years of your career can be excruciating when it comes to networking and socialising, even on a small scale. It takes a while to build up the ‘polish’ and the confidence to breeze through meetings, events and get-togethers at the water machine (I’m still working on mine), but in the meantime, you’re going to have to fake it, which brings me onto my next point.

6) FAKE IT. The cheery self-confidence of some of your colleagues is going to be faked as well. Few people feel as comfortable as you think they are with social events. What you don’t see about them is how they feel inside. And they can’t see how you feel either, so plaster on a big smile (don’t grin inanely though) and pretend you feel OK and that you are managing well, whatever the situation is. Before long you will be.