Life Skills: Crystal Clear Communication

You've probably heard the stat: 60–90% of your communication is nonverbal. Tone, facial expressions, body language, the way you lean in or cross your arms. It all carries meaning. But when your workday happens in Teams, that percentage flips on its head. You're now communicating almost entirely through text, where tone is ambiguous, body language is nonexistent, and the only thing your coworker sees is the words you typed.

If you're anything like me, you work in a "cross-functional multi-domain team with disjointed satellite offices." Your boss is in California. Your teammates are scattered across the country or abroad. Instead of knocking on someone's cube for a quick chat, you're firing off a Teams message, a Slack, or god forbid a Discord DM. In cybersecurity especially, where a misread message can turn into a missed indicator or a delayed response, clear written communication matters. A lot.

Here are four tips to communicate better in this world.

1. Open with a greeting

"Good morning!" "Howdy!" "Hello!" "Hey!" These tiny pleasantries do real work. They break tension, signal that you see the person as a human, and set a tone of basic courtesy before you ask them for something. It costs you nothing and it makes the rest of the message land softer.

2. BLUF (Bottom Line Up Front)

Put the ask near the top of your message. The mind wanders when a message starts like this:

Hey! I was running these scans and I found some assets, I reviewed them, and then I saw that one was missing out of the CMDB. I checked our knowledge base but it wasn't there either, so then I...

By the time the actual question arrives, your reader has mentally checked out. Lead with what you need:

Hey! It looks like we're missing some assets from the CMDB. Do you know if anyone is working this?

Context is still useful. Just put it after the ask. If someone needs the backstory, they'll keep reading. If they don't, you've already given them what they came for.

3. Keep it in one message

Shoutout to nohello.net. Say hello! But don't just say hello.

One of my former coworkers used to drive me up the wall with this. He'd ping my phone:

Hello

Minutes pass. I'm staring at the chat window, waiting for the actual ask.

How are you?

More minutes. I've now been yanked out of whatever I was working on to deal with... something. I don't even know what yet. By the time the real question shows up, I've context-switched three times and lost the flow state I was in.

Here's the fix: say hello, hit Shift + Enter to make a new line, then continue on with your question or request. Same greeting, same politeness, but now I can answer you in one reply instead of staring at my notifications like I'm waiting for a shoe to drop.

4. Stick to core hours when you can

Nobody wants a work message at 9 p.m. or 5 a.m. Stick to your company's working hours when possible. I know, in a 24/365 SOC or on-call rotation, that's not always realistic. If it's genuinely urgent, send it. But if it can wait until morning, let it wait. Most tools let you schedule a send; use that feature. Your coworkers' evenings (and their goodwill) will thank you.

None of this is groundbreaking. But in a world where 99% of your workday happens through a chat window, the small habits compound. Clearer messages mean fewer misunderstandings, faster responses, and less friction across the team. In security work, those small wins add up to real operational value.

Be the coworker whose messages people are glad to see.