Successful Speaking for Technical Professionals

Welcome to “Successful Speaking for Technical Professionals,” the podcast dedicated to helping you shine in the spotlight and deliver your technical expertise with flair. I’m your host, Frank DiBartolomeo. In each episode, I will draw from my over 40 years experience as an engineer and over 30 years experience as a Toastmaster to explore the nuances of presenting complex information in a way that resonates and engages. Whether you're a software engineer, data scientist, or any tech professional eager to polish your presentation skills, this show is for you. We’ll tackle everything from crafting clear and compelling narratives to mastering the art of visual aids and handling challenging questions with poise. Join us as we speak with seasoned presenters, communication specialists, and industry insiders who will share their secrets for making your technical presentations not just informative but unforgettable. If you’re ready to t

Successful Speaking for Technical Professionals is a education podcast hosted by Frank DiBartolomeo, with 57 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80.

Frank DiBartolomeo hosts Successful Speaking for Technical Professionals, a education show with 57 episodes published.

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  Episode #57

  57. How Engineers Can Convince Executives That Technical Debt Is a Business Problem

  Sep 23, 202610 minS3

  “The extra effort that it takes to add new features is the interest paid on the debt.” — Martin Fowler, British software developer, author of Technical Debt , 2019, and international public speaker on software development Engineers contend with technical debt daily. But what exactly is technical debt? Technical debt is the future cost created when an organization chooses a quick or suboptimal technical solution today instead of a more sustainable one. Like financial debt, the initial shortcut may provide an immediate benefit, but carrying it can create recurring “interest” through additional maintenance, rework, delays, and complexity. Schedule pressure, changing requirements, outdated technology, architectural decisions, inadequate testing, and deliberate shortcuts can all create debt that becomes increasingly expensive as a system evolves. Engineers must learn to convince executives that technical debt is a business problem. But how can engineers do this? Explore three ways to do this in this podcast. References Ozkaya, I., & Nord, R. — Carnegie Mellon University Software Engineering Institute. Managing the Consequences of Technical Debt: 5 Stories from the Field , May 13, 2019. Defines technical debt and explains how short-term design and implementation decisions can increase future costs and impede system evolution. Besker, T., Martini, A., & Bosch, J. “Software Developer Productivity Loss Due to Technical Debt—A Replication and Extension Study Examining Developers’ Development Work.” Journal of Systems and Software , 2019. The study reports developers losing an average of approximately 23% of their working time because of technical debt. McKinsey & Company. Breaking Technical Debt's Vicious Cycle to Modernize Your Business , 2023. Examines technical debt as a business and financial issue, including its effects on engineering capacity, modernization, operating costs, and organizational performance. Carnegie Mellon University Software Engineering Institute. 5 Recommendations to Help Your Organization Manage Technical Debt , 2024. Discusses technical debt at the program level, including architecture, testing, documentation, technology refresh, sustainment, cybersecurity, and lifecycle consequences. McKinsey & Company. Tech Debt: Reclaiming Tech Equity , 2020. Recommends that organizations treat technical debt as a business issue rather than merely a technology problem and link technical-debt reduction to business value, strategic priorities, and risk reduction. ___________________________________ Being a confident, engaging, and effective technical speaker is a vital personal and professional asset. With more than 40 years of engineering experience and more than 30 years of award-winning public speaking experience, I can help you reduce your presentation preparatory time by 50%, overcome your fear of public speaking and be completely at ease, deliver your presentations effectively, develop your personal presence with your audience; and apply an innovative way to handle audience questions deftly. Working closely with you, I provide a customized protocol employing the critical skills and tools you need to create, practice, and deliver excellent technical speeches and presentations. Let's connect and explore how I can help you become the exceptional speaker you were meant to be. Please reach out to me at frank@speakleadandsucceed.com or 703-509-4424 for a complimentary consultation. Schedule a meeting with me at calendly.com/frankdibartolomeospeaks . © 2026 DiBartolomeo Consulting International (DCI), LLC. All Rights Reserved. May not be used without permission.

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  Successful Speaking for Technical Professionals

  54. How Engineers Can Present Risk Without Sounding Alarmist

  Sep 2, 202610 min

  “Plans are worthless, but planning is everything.” — Dwight D. Eisenhower, General of the Army and 34th President of the United States You deal with risk every day. You deal with risk when you drive to work. You deal with risk every time your son or daughter plays soccer. You deal with risk as an airline passenger. And you deal with risk every day as an engineer. Risk management is part and parcel of your job. You face major risks when you embark on hardware and/or software development. Your ability to identify, analyze, and recommend how to proceed with these risks determines your performance as an engineer. So how can you present these risks without sounding alarmist? In this podcast, you will discover three ways to do this. References NASA. NASA Systems Engineering Handbook, Section 6.4: Technical Risk Management. Defines risk through scenarios, likelihood, consequences, and uncertainties and discusses mitigation, contingency actions, trigger thresholds, monitoring, and communication. NASA Technical Risk Management Institute of Medicine. (2013). Environmental Decisions in the Face of Uncertainty , Chapter 6, “Communication of Uncertainty.” Washington, DC: National Academies Press. DOI: 10.17226/12568. Discusses numerical, verbal, and graphical communication of probability and notes the ambiguity inherent in terms such as “likely” and “unlikely.” National Academies — Communication of Uncertainty National Research Council. (2006). Completing the Forecast: Characterizing and Communicating Uncertainty for Better Decisions Using Weather and Climate Forecasts. Washington, DC: National Academies Press. DOI: 10.17226/11699. Explains problems with verbal probability expressions and the advantages of numerical probabilities and relative frequencies. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. (2017). Communicating Science Effectively: A Research Agenda. Washington, DC: National Academies Press. DOI: 10.17226/23674. Reviews evidence on communicating scientific uncertainty and how audiences interpret numerical and probabilistic information. McGuire, M. (2023). Lessons Learned With Risk Management: A Systems Engineer’s Perspective. NASA Technical Reports Server. Emphasizes risk management as a communication mechanism that allows engineering teams to identify concerns early and implement mitigation before risks become failures. ___________________________________ Being a confident, engaging, and effective technical speaker is a vital personal and professional asset. With more than 40 years of engineering experience and more than 30 years of award-winning public speaking experience, I can help you reduce your presentation preparatory time by 50%, overcome your fear of public speaking and be completely at ease, deliver your presentations effectively, develop your personal presence with your audience; and apply an innovative way to handle audience questions deftly. Working closely with you, I provide a customized protocol employing the critical skills and tools you need to create, practice, and deliver excellent technical speeches and presentations. Let's connect and explore how I can help you become the exceptional speaker you were meant to be. Please reach out to me at frank@speakleadandsucceed.com or 703-509-4424 for a complimentary consultation. Schedule a meeting with me at calendly.com/frankdibartolomeospeaks . © 2026 DiBartolomeo Consulting International (DCI), LLC. All Rights Reserved. May not be used without permission.

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  Successful Speaking for Technical Professionals

  53. How Engineers Can Disagree with Executives Without Damaging Their Credibility

  Aug 26, 202611 min

  “Bad news isn't wine. It doesn't improve with age.” — Colin Powell, American U.S. Army general, diplomat, and statesman Are you intimidated by the idea of disagreeing with an executive in your company? Many engineers are. You may feel that disagreeing with an executive will hurt your credibility, your chances for promotion, or even keep you from keeping your job. When done the right way, disagreeing with an executive when warranted will usually have the opposite effect. Successful executives know that they don’t have all the answers. And they usually don’t tolerate “yes men and women.” In fact, they prefer engineers who tell them the unvarnished truth, even when it conflicts with the executive’s own view. In this article, we will explore three ways engineers can disagree with executives without damaging their credibility. References Gallo, Amy. “How to Disagree with Someone More Powerful than You.” Harvard Business Review , March 17, 2016. Discusses assessing the risks of speaking up, connecting disagreement to shared goals, asking permission to dissent, avoiding judgmental language, and respecting the decision-maker's authority. Edmondson, Amy C. “Psychological Safety and Learning Behavior in Work Teams.” Administrative Science Quarterly , Vol. 44, No. 2, June 1999, pp. 350–383. The study of 51 work teams established psychological safety as a shared belief that a team is safe for interpersonal risk-taking and connected it with learning behavior. Nembhard, Ingrid M., and Amy C. Edmondson. “Making It Safe: The Effects of Leader Inclusiveness and Professional Status on Psychological Safety and Improvement Efforts in Health Care Teams.” Journal of Organizational Behavior , Vol. 27, No. 7, 2006, pp. 941–966. Examines hierarchy, professional status, leader inclusiveness, and employees' willingness to speak up Nembhard, Ingrid M., and Amy C. Edmondson. “Psychological Safety: A Foundation for Speaking Up, Collaboration, and Experimentation in Organizations.” The Oxford Handbook of Positive Organizational Scholarship , Oxford University Press, 2012, pp. 491–504. Reviews evidence linking © 2026 DiBartolomeo Consulting International (DCI), LLC. All Rights Reserved. May not be used without permission. © 2026 DiBartolomeo Consulting International (DCI), LLC. All Rights Reserved. May not be used without permission.

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  Episode #52

  52. How Engineers Can Communicate Uncertainty Without Sounding Uncertain

  Aug 19, 202610 minS3

  “When you can measure what you are speaking about, and express it in numbers, you know something about it.” — William Thomson, Lord Kelvin, was one of the most influential physicists and engineers of the 19th century Engineers routinely work with probabilities, assumptions, incomplete data, forecasts, simulations, and technical risk. The challenge is to acknowledge what is unknown while remaining clear about what should be done. Research on risk communication consistently supports communicating uncertainty rather than hiding it—but tying that uncertainty directly to its significance for the decision. In this podcast, you will discover three ways you can communicate uncertainty without sounding uncertain. References National Research Council. Improving Risk Communication. National Academies Press, 1989. The report recommends explicitly disclosing meaningful uncertainties, data gaps, confidence levels, and disagreements while avoiding both minimizing and exaggerating uncertainty. Institute of Medicine. Environmental Decisions in the Face of Uncertainty. National Academies Press, 2013. Chapter 6 examines how uncertainty should be communicated in decision-making, including confidence, risk estimates, audience characteristics, and the effect uncertainty has on decisions. Spiegelhalter, David. “Risk and Uncertainty Communication.” Annual Review of Statistics and Its Application , Vol. 4, 2017, pp. 31–60. Reviews methods for communicating numerical risk, probabilities, verbal expressions, graphics, and deeper forms of uncertainty. Sudret, Bruno; Podofillini, Luca; and Zio, Enrico. “Treatment of Uncertainty in Risk and Reliability Modeling and Decision-Making.” ASCE-ASME Journal of Risk and Uncertainty in Engineering Systems , Vol. 5, No. 3, 2019. Emphasizes that uncertainty modeling, decision-making under uncertainty, and communication of uncertainty should be integral to engineering risk management. NASA. NASA Risk-Informed Decision Making Handbook , NASA/SP-2010-576, 2010. Provides a structured framework for evaluating alternatives and making engineering and program decisions when significant uncertainty exists. © 2026 DiBartolomeo Consulting International (DCI), LLC. All Rights Reserved. May not be used without permission.

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  Episode #51

  51. Three Reasons Why Excellent Presentation Skills Lead to Faster Prom

  Aug 12, 20269 minS3

  “If you can’t communicate and talk to other people and get across your ideas, you’re giving up your potential.” --- Warren Buffett, Chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway Technical competence may earn professionals credibility, but strong presentation skills help decision-makers see, understand, and trust that competence. For engineers and other technical professionals, presenting effectively can demonstrate the communication, influence, strategic thinking, and leadership capabilities expected at higher organizational levels. In this podcast, we will explore three reasons excellent presentation skills lead to faster promotions. References National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE). “Career Readiness Competencies: Communication.” Revised March 2025. NACE defines workplace communication as clearly and effectively exchanging information, ideas, facts, and perspectives and specifically identifies persuasion, influencing, organized communication, and verbal and nonverbal abilities as important workplace behaviors. NACE Communication Competency National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE). “Career Readiness Development and Validation.” 2025. In NACE's foundational employer research involving 606 employer respondents, 91.6% identified oral/written communication as essential or absolutely essential , placing communication among the most highly valued workplace competencies. NACE Career Readiness Research National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE). “What Is Career Readiness?” NACE identifies communication, critical thinking, leadership, professionalism, teamwork, technology, and career/self-development among the core competencies associated with workplace and career success. Its communication behaviors specifically include persuasion, influence, clarity, organization, and adapting communication to others. NACE Career Readiness Competencies Project Management Institute. “Power Skills and Project Success.” PMI. PMI identifies communication, problem-solving, collaborative leadership, and strategic thinking among the most important power skills and connects these interpersonal capabilities with successful organizational outcomes. These are precisely the capabilities professionals can demonstrate visibly through effective presentations. PMI Power Skills and Project Success Rabelo, Dannilo, et al. “Communication Skills in Software Engineering: A Multivocal Review.” 2026. This recent review of academic and professional literature found strong agreement that communication is a core competency in software engineering , reinforcing that technical expertise alone does not define professional effectiveness. © 2026 DiBartolomeo Consulting International (DCI), LLC. All Rights Reserved. May not be used without permission.

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