Does it ever feel like you’re never holding a business meeting outside of the closet space?
No One Gets What You Do — Here’s How to Fix That
Let’s be honest — you’ve sat in a meeting explaining some backend miracle you pulled off and watched blank stares roll back at you like fog. You solved the thing. Prevented the fire. Launched the tool. And still, it’s like you’re invisible. Or worse, they think you just clicked a few buttons. Here’s the deal: if they don’t get what you did, they won’t fund it, trust it, or tell your story when you’re not in the room. This isn’t about impressing people. It’s about survival. It’s about making your work undeniable. And yeah, that means learning to speak “non-tech” — without turning into some watered-down corporate cheerleader. Here’s how I’ve learned to do it (the hard way).
Start Where They Live, Not Where You Work
The worst habit we have? Leading with what we think is impressive. Uptime, patch coverage, “deployed the new container infrastructure” — cool, but… not to them. They care about pain points. Risk. Revenue. Politics. Not packets. If you want your work to land, gain insight into stakeholder priorities first. Not just “what do they care about,” but: what keeps them nervous in meetings? What gets them praised? What are they scared to admit they don’t understand? If your project lowered customer complaints or made the compliance guy sleep better at night, start there. Speak to their world. Let the tech part come second.
If You Want Them to Respect It, Get Trained to Defend It
Last year I had to justify a big shift in our security approach. And I’ll be honest — I wasn’t fully prepped for the questions I got from legal and finance. That’s when I realized: the more I learn to frame my work in their language, the more effective I become. Programs like a cybersecurity degree online don’t just teach you tools — they teach you how to make a case. Risk, compliance, policy, executive talk. It’s not about being fancy — it’s about being fluent in the stuff that gets funded.
Kill the Acronyms Before They Kill the Conversation
I know — some things just are technical. But if your explanation of the fix includes more than two acronyms, you’re not helping yourself. I’ve sat across from perfectly smart people who freeze the second they hear “IAM role misalignment” or “containerized CI/CD stack.” It’s not their fault. They’re trying. You’re just not making it easy. The real flex? Being able to cut out technical acronyms and jargon without losing meaning. Say it like you’d explain it to a teammate’s cousin over drinks. Real language, with metaphors if you need them. You’re not dumbing it down — you’re translating.
Make the Numbers Mean Something or Skip Them
“CPU utilization dropped 18%.” Okay… and? Unless you connect that to something human — fewer crashes, less overtime, smoother Zoom calls for the sales team — it’s trivia. You’ve got to translate results into business impact. Always. Did it save time? Did it save face? Did it stop someone from getting yelled at? THAT’S the win. Use the number if you want, but only if it helps paint the picture.
Tell the Damn Story
Nobody remembers the bullet points. They remember the drama. We were down. Everyone was panicking. You locked in, isolated the issue, got the thing running with five minutes to spare before payroll went out. Boom. That’s a story. Even your boring projects have arcs — things were one way, you did something, now they’re better. If it helps, turn your technical work into memorable stories. Give your update a main character. Add tension. Add relief. It sticks.
Shut Up Sometimes. Let Them Talk.
This one took me years: communication isn’t just what you say — it’s how you listen. I used to steamroll meetings trying to prove the value of our work. But when I started pausing and just asking, “Does that make sense?” — magic happened. People started opening up. Asking real questions. Telling me how they thought about the problem. You want them to want to hear you? Build relationships through active listening and feedback. Be the person who makes it okay to say, “I don’t follow.” That’s where the real trust lives.
Show. Don’t Just Say.
One of the best things I ever did was set up a shared kanban board. No status report, no explanation — just clear visuals that showed what was happening. Anyone could glance at it and see: we’re moving, here’s where it’s stuck, here’s what’s done. Want to cut down on miscommunication and email bloat? Use visual boards to simplify project status for stakeholders. No one has to “understand IT” to track a column moving left to right. Make your progress seen, not just explained.
You can build the best solution in the world — but if no one understands what you did or why it mattered, you’re still the “IT guy” who “fixes email.” Don’t let your work get lost in translation. Start small. Be real. Drop the buzzwords. Learn their language. And when you talk about your wins — tell it like it matters. Because it does.
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