Ask HN: How to speak like a leader, not like an engineer?

Re:Ask HN: How to speak like a leader, not like an engineer? by superconformist on Saturday March 09, 2019 @10:42PM (#19350044)

That's easy champ, let me help.

First, litter your conversation with baseball metaphor. You want to be fielding questions, starting sales plays, being the biggest swinger, and touching base. All this right off the bat of course (to get the ball rolling).

Second, make prestige noun/verb mistakes. After goaling your IT spend, you'll want to incent team members. Share your learnings from a go to market perspective. This is the best way to add logos.

I'd share more but I'm currently out of pocket. Going forward, feel free to reach out to learn more about talking like a leader.

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Re:Ask HN: How to speak like a leader, not like an engineer? by echan00 on Saturday March 09, 2019 @10:44PM (#19350046)

This is just bad advice. Don't listen to this guy.

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Re:Ask HN: How to speak like a leader, not like an engineer? by james_s_tayler on Saturday March 09, 2019 @11:40PM (#19350308)

Honestly, it's not even wrong.

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Re:Ask HN: How to speak like a leader, not like an engineer? by warent on Saturday March 09, 2019 @10:50PM (#19350070)

Jokes aside, some of this is just normal communication used in business and that's not a bad thing. The consistency is actually useful when communicating between businesses. Makes it easier to integrate and speak the same language so everyone stays on the same page.

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Re:Ask HN: How to speak like a leader, not like an engineer? by superconformist on Saturday March 09, 2019 @11:03PM (#19350128)

Yes, I can tell you and I have synergy. B2B consistency is not just useful, it is impactful.

Despite the win-win dialog we're having, maybe we should take it offline.

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Re:Ask HN: How to speak like a leader, not like an engineer? by hbarka on Sunday March 10, 2019 @12:38AM (#19350537)

That was funny. I get your /s

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Re:Ask HN: How to speak like a leader, not like an engineer? by gerbilly on Sunday March 10, 2019 @11:58AM (#19352482)

Except that many of these terms exist not to make communication clearer, but to obfuscate, to hedge.

It's a type of obscurantism. It also sounds like a bunch of shibboleths, secret handshakes of the C level people.

Why do we accept terms like re-structuring, downsizing etc? Can't we just call it what it is: "Firing people?"

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Re:Ask HN: How to speak like a leader, not like an engineer? by warent on Sunday March 10, 2019 @03:04PM (#19353685)

Because there's more information being communicated in "downsizing" or "re-restructuring."

All downsizing involves firing people, but not all "firing people" involves downsizing.

True, people can abuse those terms for a doublespeak effect, but they have legitimate uses.

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Re:Ask HN: How to speak like a leader, not like an engineer? by gerbilly on Sunday March 10, 2019 @03:30PM (#19353853)

> True, people can abuse those terms for a doublespeak effect, but they have legitimate uses.

Yeah, and opium sometimes has legitimate uses in pain management.

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Re:Ask HN: How to speak like a leader, not like an engineer? by srean on Sunday March 10, 2019 @01:11PM (#19352929)

That was awesome. Dilbert but in prose. Do consider creating a twitter channel with this persona, in case you dont have one already.

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