We could simplify the article to a sentence: be good and clear in communication.
That's for sure valuable skill which gives you advantage over other engineers, or to say people in general :)
That's for sure valuable skill which gives you advantage over other engineers, or to say people in general :)
The older I get, I find this more important than technical skills. Technical skills are fixable by training, mentoring, or simply asking me.
I've seen bad communication causing delays, misunderstandings of business needs, developers who can't level up, and, in the extreme, fights between team members.
...And then they "forget" to tell you that they changed the requirements. And have not written down that anywhere.
...And then that happens 4 more times.
...And then a month later it's the engineer's fault that he's not part of the hive mind and does not read thoughts.
So I don't disagree, communication and other soft skills are certainly invaluable. But they don't filter out bad manager actors.