With so many buzzwords in our workplaces and media, it’s easy to get sucked into thinking that everyone lives in your particular jargon jungle. The clever folks at Lucidchart can help you sense check your language in their ‘How to speak tech jargon’ mindmap.

Technical people are key to our survival. They have deep knowledge, specialist skills and ambitious visions that can move us forward across a range of fields and industries. Unlocking this potential often depends on who leads them and how.

Face-to-face communication is by far the most effective way to connect. When something is important, we often insist on meeting in person because it’s not just about what’s said - it’s also about how it’s said, and often about what’s not said. But for a technical expert like Tina, this form of communication is often fraught with challenges.

Ringing bells and exuberant award ceremonies are not everyone’s cup of tea when it comes to being thanked. As recognition researcher Christopher Littlefield found from speaking to 365 strangers on the Boston subway, 70% of people associate embarrassment or discomfort with the process of receiving praise. So when it comes to technical teams, why do many leaders struggle to get employee recognition right?

Sharing complex information is a complicated business. When I know something that you don’t, I share my knowledge by taking you on a learning journey. With everyday information, like directions to the supermarket, this journey is relatively short - I know what you don’t know, what I need to say and how to say it in a way you’ll easily understand. Sharing something complex, like the intricacies of blockchain, takes longer and is more of an adventure than a journey.

A climb up Auckland’s One Tree Hill on Saturday treated me with more than the usual city views.

One man and his dog stood out among all others huffing and puffing their way up the steep incline. The first thing to catch my eye was his brightly dyed yellow hair. Then I noticed that he wasn’t wearing shoes. And finally I read the text on the back of his t-shirt ‘Rocket Lab Launch Team’.

Technical experts often find themselves in a position of helping others to do things differently. How they do this matters. If they are patient and positive, they make the change more digestible and give their customer confidence to embrace it.

Experts can help us make sense of the world and find solutions to our business problems. When the expert has the solution we need, we commend them for their abilities, and show respect for their expertise and opinion. But what happens when the expert says no?

Does your team speak in a language of their own? Whether it’s system-speak, marketing-jargon or scientific-stats, we are all guilty of using special words and expressions that are understood by people in our profession but don’t make sense to anyone else. When this happens between technical specialists and their generalist customers, it leads to frustration, miscommunication and weak relationships.

Leading a technical team in today’s high-tech world demands more soft skills than technical prowess. All too often, technically inclined leaders have had years of technical training and development but have focused little on honing their people skills. Without an employer investing in them to become a great leader, they often struggle to lead their people effectively and lose confidence. .

It’s easy to assume that just doing our job is enough to succeed in the workplace, but we often overlook that part of doing our job well is knowing and understanding our customers. Taking the time to connect and build relationships is important and results in better business outcomes.

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing - but a lot of knowledge can also get you into difficulty. Can you remember what it was like not to know something? Imagine you didn’t know how to boil water and suddenly you are being given the recipe to make spaghetti - you’re stuck at the first step and can’t take in any further information.

In just four minutes, Melissa Marshall’s ‘Talk Nerdy To Me’ TedTalk captures perfectly the shameful waste of genius ideas due to poor communication, and how you can avoid it.

How often do you think before you talk? Preparing to communicate is a key ingredient for strong and trusting relationships at home and at work. Dismiss its importance and you weaken your connection with your listener by appearing disorganised, and wasting their time and yours.

The most effective teams have a healthy combination of introverts and extroverts. Extrovert Steve Jobs and introvert Steve Wozniak made it work for them. Have you figured out how to make it work for your technical team?

Every buyer likes to speak to an expert. And the quality of this interaction can make the difference between winning the business or watching it literally walk away. For technical products and services, are you supporting your technical experts to deliver a customer experience that really seals the deal?