In an Iceberg of Software skills, technical skills is just tip.

I realized the importance of using communication skills correctly when I was stuck in my career for too long at same level. My projects were delivered on time, had required tech complexity, co-workers treated me as tech-lead but leadership insisted I was not ready for next level.

No-one told me clearly on what was missing. Until, I found it out.

Projects were delivered but the IMPACT was NOT.

Except my team, partner teams had no idea what was delivered and why it was important.

Software development needs collaboration and interaction with members in the team and outside of the team. Partner's feedback has higher impact on your growth. To grow as tech lead, you need to have visibility not just with your leadership but partner team's leadership as well.

The visibility is driven by communication on project benefit to partners and regular interactions to understand their pain-points.

Communicating IMPACT of your projects is not Boasting.

I started having regular 1x1s with leadership from partner teams and communicated how my projects brought benefits to them.

I was surprised - they did not know all the benefits. They were happy to follow up and share about how we could add more features, how our teams could collaborate on certain goals, how I could help them with similar problems in their team. So many opportunities to grow.

In only few meetings, I felt more experienced, more valued and most importantly prouder for my accomplishments.

I achieved my new goals only because I shared impact of my achieved goals.