Why you need to articulate more?

You need to communicate your ideas, thoughts and progress whether you are a tester, a manager or the CEO of your company.

What is the benefit of articulating your thoughts? When people hear from you, they come to know where you are coming from, what your approach is and what are the actions that you are going to take? Once they understand your position, they tend to support you. Why is this? This is because your communication makes them think in a way similar to yours.

A person with the same knowledge as you but who does not articulate their thoughts receives none of these benefits. If you don't believe this, go back to your school days. Think of the popular students. Were they the ones who always stayed silent or were they the ones who had interesting things to say to the teachers and in your friend circle?

But, what happens when you articulate more? You influence more people and in a deeper way.

1. Tester: A tester who speaks of new test ideas in team meetings and writes informative bug reports and test reports is perceived well by his colleagues and manager. The team and the manager are impressed by the tester and increasing responsibilities/ authority come his way.

2. Manager: A manager who clearly conveys the objectives of the project to his team members and updates the management effectively runs a more successful project. The management is eager to assign bigger and more important projects to him.

3. CEO: A CEO who pitches the strengths of his organization well in front of the clients tends to win their confidence (and more business for the company). When the same CEO outlines the company strategy clearly to the employees, he aligns the employees to the company objectives well.

When you articulate more, you:

a. Force yourself to think about more topics of interest.

b. You study/ research these new topics. You learn.

c. You plan according to the objectives of your communication.

d. You design what you are going to say in structure and words suitable to your recipients.

e. You overcome shyness when you actually communicate.

f. You become mentally agile to answer your recipients' questions well.

g. You become faster and more effective in each step of the communication process.

So, seize every opportunity to articulate. And, articulate better than you have ever done before. Get more and more benefits.