How to Use Communication to Unlock Your Career Potential in Tech
In the tech industry, communication is often overlooked as a skill to master. However, it’s fascinating to note that it is actually the most sought-after soft skill in the workplace and ranks among the top five contributors to a strong partnership.
Communication serves as a vital factor at every stage of a relationship, breaking the ice in new connections, driving the progress of established bonds, and ultimately facilitating the achievement of shared goals. In the case of The ROOM, effective communication plays a pivotal role in assisting top tech talent in attaining their career aspirations.
Talent Operations Specialist Juan Cruz Sanchez Goldar led an insightful workshop, sharing expert tips on how to harness the power of effective communication to strengthen your partnership with a Talent Agent at The ROOM. With a distinguished background in the tech and engineering industries, including experience with renowned technology marketplaces like Andela and Toptal, Juan brings decades of expertise in identifying and connecting exceptional talent with valuable opportunities.
In this webinar, he skillfully dissected goal-setting techniques and imparted value-adding communication strategies that tech professionals can explore with a Talent Agent to increase their chances of building successful careers.
At The ROOM, we firmly believe in the transformative power of relationships. We recognise that lasting impact can only be achieved through the establishment of strong foundations built on authentic connections. This guiding principle permeates all our interactions, as we encourage every member of our tech community to foster meaningful relationships, particularly with their Talent Agent.
The role of a Talent Agent at The ROOM is to open the doors of opportunity to top technology professionals like you and provide you with the resources and support you need to have a fulfilling career. This won’t be effective if you don’t have a fortified sense of partnership with your Talent Agent. And communication is key to this.
Let’s start from the basics.
What is Communication?
“Communication is a sum of all the things one person does when he wants to create understanding in the mind of another. Communication is a bridge. It includes the systematic and continuous process of speaking, listening, and understanding.”
— Louis Allen, American management consultant and author
Described as systematic and continuous, you can think of communication as a closed loop process with the goal of creating understanding between the parties involved. The successful delivery of a message from a speaker relies on its interpretation and understanding aligning with the speaker’s intentions. This means it’s crucial to foster a shared understanding with the Talent Agent, ensuring clarity and alignment on the goals of your relationship and the strategies to achieve them. This common understanding is what effective communication is hinged on. We discuss this further below.
How to Communicate Effectively With a Talent Agent
Here are some communication strategies you can employ to enhance the collaboration and rapport you have with a Talent Agent.
1. Communicate Your Goals and Aspirations
To achieve the career growth you seek, it’s important for the Talent Agent to know what you want to achieve. Be clear about what you’re looking for in the short and long-term, so the Agent can help you in the best way possible. What opportunities are you pursuing? Are you targeting the industry you’re currently working in or a different one? Answering questions like this will help the Talent Agent understand your priorities and work with you towards goal setting.
2. Establish Regular Check-ins
There are no rules surrounding how often you need to speak with a Talent Agent. It can be as often as you need it to be — weekly, monthly etc. — but agree on a time with the Agent and commit to being consistent. This cadence might depend on your current situation. For instance, communication will need to flow faster for someone who is searching for a job compared to someone who is already engaged in one and is looking for generic career advancement opportunities. Regular communication helps in reporting the progress of your goals and creates opportunities to share updates and feedback with the Talent Agent.
3. Work Together as a Team
When you consider yourself to be on the same team as the Talent Agent, the level of trust between you grows. Understand that your goal is the Agent’s goal and your success is their goal as well. Trust the Talent Agent to give you good counsel and remain open to new ideas and suggestions. Seeing this relationship as a partnership will go a long way in ensuring seamless collaboration, valuable guidance, and realisation of your maximum career potential.
4. Provide Feedback
Feedback is two-way street. In your partnership with a Talent Agent, it’s not only important for you to receive feedback, but it’s equally important for you to provide it. If something’s not working for you, or you disagree with suggestions that are shared, feel free to communicate your thoughts and how you think you and the Talent Agent can better align on your goals. This will help the Agent to understand your perspective, refine their approach, and tailor their guidance specifically to your needs.
Naturally, a substantial portion of your ongoing communication with a Talent Agent at The ROOM will revolve around your professional aspirations. Goal setting and tracking will play an important role in determining the success and value of your partnership with the Talent Agent. With this in mind, let’s delve deeper into this important aspect of your collaboration.
Goal Setting for Success
A goal can be any objective that you set for yourself and push yourself to achieve because of its personal or professional importance to you. Sometimes that goal may be simple, like waking up an hour earlier than you normally do, and other times it may be more complex, like earning a promotion.
As in any goal-setting exercise, it is advised that you use the SMART criteria to measure the effectiveness of your goals.
When setting career goals, it is crucial to avoid ambiguity. If your aim is to earn a promotion, be specific about what you want. What type of promotion are you targeting? Do you aspire to advance from a senior developer to a principal developer, or are you aiming to become a team leader? Clearly defining your desired outcome will provide a strong foundation for effective goal setting.
Secondly, your goals must be measurable because it’s important to track them. Having metrics to track your goals not only helps you and the Talent Agent working with you to know when they have been achieved, but they are also effective in keeping you motivated.
While your goals must be ambitious, they mustn’t be impossible. It’s important to set goals that are realistic and achievable to keep you focused, motivated and increase your chances of success. This might involve breaking the goals down into smaller, actionable steps to make them more manageable.
Most definitely, your goals must be relevant and meaningful. When deciding to pursue a goal, it should be directly linked to the benefits it can bring to you or your career. This criterion is also important when breaking down goals into subgoals to ensure their alignment and coherence.
Finally, keep your goals time-bound. It’s important to set a goal, but it’s equally important to attach a deadline to it to increase the sense of urgency you apply to achieving it. When you think of getting promoted, in how many months or years would you like to be promoted? How can you align those expectations with the performance review periods at your company? These are some factors you can consider.
This SMART criteria for measuring the effectiveness of goals is not foreign to most people, and is an easy way for members of The ROOM and their Talent Agents to align on how to assess their goals. However, if you want to add a layer of depth and effectiveness to your goal setting, you can consider the five principles of goal setting.
The 5 Principles of Goal-setting
Based on extensive research on goal setting and motivation, Edward Locke and Gary Latham identified five essential conditions that individuals need to fulfil in order to achieve their goals. These conditions are as follows:
- Clarity: Goals need to be clear, easily understood, as well as easy to share, in order for them to be most effective. This is especially important if you will be working with a Talent Agent to achieve them.
- Challenge: Good goals have a high enough level of difficulty that you actually have to push yourself in order to achieve them.
- Commitment: Without a high level of commitment, it is difficult to achieve any goal, especially those that are somewhat challenging. This will require you to set a schedule or a specific agenda in order to work towards your goals.
- Feedback: Whether it’s from the organisation you work at, your peers, or a Talent Agent, you need to be able to receive information about how well you are progressing towards your goal. This information can be used as a motivator or a signal that your goal is either too easy or too challenging, and needs to be adjusted.
- Task Complexity: The more complex a goal is, the more time you need to give yourself to achieve it. Good goals don’t have to be complex, but understanding how complex your goals are is an important part of planning how you will achieve them.
These principles have gained recognition in the field of organisational psychology for their effectiveness. By incorporating them with SMART goals, you can enhance your goal-setting processes, increase your motivation, and improve your overall performance.
Unlock the Benefits of Partnering With a Talent Agent at The ROOM Today!
In today’s competitive professional landscape, unlocking your career potential requires strategic partnerships and effective communication. Talent Agents at The ROOM are dedicated advocates, working tirelessly to propel the success of community members. By embracing the principles of communication and aligning your goals with a Talent Agent, you can forge a strong and collaborative partnership that will take your career to greater heights.
Don’t wait any longer to unlock your career potential. Now is the time to tap into the incredible benefits that Talent Agents at The ROOM offer. If you’re a tech professional looking to take your career growth to the next level, sign up as a member of The ROOM and embark on a transformative journey where you’ll receive personalised guidance, tailored support, and access to a thriving community of like-minded individuals. If you’re already a member and are yet to be assigned an Agent, reach out to the Support team via the member portal.
Harness the benefits of The ROOM today and let a Talent Agent be the catalyst for your professional growth. Together, we’ll navigate the path to success, one goal at a time.
Ready to unlock your career potential with a Talent Agent at The ROOM? Sign up today and embark on a transformative journey towards success. Join The ROOM now and take the first step towards achieving your most ambitious career goals.
