Even non-managers need people skills.

“You can keep the drama and the politics; just let me do my work.”

That kind of focus on technical expertise often works well … for a while.

Eventually, though, if you work in an organization or provide services to other human beings, you will find your success driven in part by how well you interact with others.

“Your work” will eventually intersect with the drama and politics of your organization and/or your customers. Staying out of it isn’t a useful option, because even non-participation still has an impact.

Regardless of your DiSC profile, your Myers-Briggs personality, or your Enneagram type, people skills will be important for your long-term success.

👉 When people make decisions, relationships often carry more weight than technical defenses. People skills will help you help others to see things your way.

👉 Being able to “read the room” and understand other people’s emotional state can give you clues about timing or context when promoting your ideas.

👉 Sometimes, a key piece of information that makes your design exponentially better will come only through informal communication channels because of your relationships grown through unofficial, casual gatherings.

It can be easy for engineers to argue that those things shouldn’t be true. And in a pure meritocracy, maybe they wouldn’t be true.

But when you find yourself wanting to develop those people skills, whether you are a formal people manager, or whether you want to stay a technical expert, I’d love to talk with you.

Visit https://stevedwire.com/connect for a complimentary conversation.