August 07, 2025

Neil Thompson - Why Your Best Tech Talent Needs Better Speaking Skills

31 minutes

In this episode, we welcome Neil Thompson, founder of Teach the Geek, to discuss the critical need for developing speaker training programs for technical staff within an organization. Neil shares his personal story of struggling with public speaking as an engineer and how it inspired him to help other technical professionals improve their communication skills. He breaks down the common challenges technical experts face when presenting to non-technical audiences and offers practical strategies HR departments can implement to foster better communication across the organization.

[0:00] Introduction

Welcome, Neil!

Today’s Topic: Developing Speaker Training Programs for Technical Staff

[6:59] Why is it so important for technical staff to be strong public speakers?

How a lack of communication skills can lead to being overlooked for promotions and raises.

The benefit of having the person with the expertise communicate it directly, rather than risk information getting lost in translation.

[13:33] What are the biggest challenges for technical people presenting to non-technical audiences?

The importance of remembering what it was like before becoming a technical expert and tailoring the presentation accordingly.

The challenge of making assumptions about what the audience already knows.

Strategies for understanding the audience before delivering a presentation.

[20:32] What role can HR play in developing presentation and communication skills for technical staff?

Involving technical staff in the creation of the training or presentation to ensure it meets their needs.

Using feedback questionnaires to measure the effectiveness and improvement of the training over time.

[28:52] Closing

Thanks for listening!

Quick Quote

“A lot of times, technical people, we think that us being excellent at our jobs is good enough, and unfortunately, that's not the case. If you're not good at advocating for yourself, you're not good at communicating your worth to an organization, you get overlooked.”

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