Who Gets Promoted Higher and Faster at Work?

01 Dec 2024 #career

It’s not the best coder. It’s not the one who cranks out more pull requests or lines of code.

The one who gets promoted higher and faster is the one with the best soft skills. The best communicator. The one who’s best at explaining complex subjects to non-tech people. The best at dealing with people.

The best coders are left alone to continue cranking out code in a corner. “Ok, kid. When will you have your PR ready?”

And when the best coders, with poor soft skills, are put in charge of teams, projects tend to go sideways. They fail to communicate expectations, provide context, and coordinate people. They continue thinking in terms of lines of code and pull requests, not in team dynamics.

Start improving your soft skills by reading “How to Make Friends and Influence People.”

If you could take away just one lesson from that book: never tell anyone he’s wrong.