How do you get a group of socially withdrawn, uncommunicative techies' attention? Speaking expert Anne Warfield of Impression Management often asks them to think of the last 20 people in their company who got promoted and assess whether they were the most technically qualified. "Almost all of them will say they were not," says Warfield. To get ahead these days, techies need a good mix of technical and communication skills.

From PC support specialists to C++ coders, techies are infamous for their lack of communication skills -- and that's a polite way of putting it. Nontechies often think of technical folk as jargon-crazed, gadget-obsessed and not particularly interested in people. An extreme characterization? Yes. Unfair? Maybe. A stereotype? Sure it is, but techies have a well-deserved reputation for placing a priority on skills -- knowledge of XML, say, or Windows device drivers -- rather than personal relationships or being able to communicate what they know to others.

"They form a kind of guild mentality," says Bob Senatore, executive vice president of Comforce Information Technologies, an information technology staffing firm. "Techies feel that's part of their culture, and they must speak in this language only they can understand. That's working against them dramatically.

You Can't Survive on Tech Skills Alone

Communication skills have always mattered for technology professionals, but more so as technology becomes central to businesses and other organizations. No longer relegated to handling only back-end operations, like accounting or data processing, techies work throughout organizations with higher-ups calling upon them for advice and guidance. "You can get a job, perhaps, with just tech skills, but you cannot advance without communication skills," says Senatore.

Needless to say, not all techies match the socially withdrawn stereotype. Techno-MBA programs often train technical professionals to be adept at working as intermediaries between diehard techies and nontechie types. Still, the field does seem to draw lots of people who are introverted, reserved, analytical and data-driven, according to Joseph Weintraub, an organizational psychologist and management professor at Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts.

"They are generally less comfortable in situations that require extensive people interaction," says Weintraub, who consults for companies on team development in IT departments. "In other words, they often prefer data over people, falsely believing their technical ability alone will propel them to greatness.

Warfield often sees technical professionals trying to assess the reasons for losing out on promotions. "A lot of them are working toward management positions," she says. "They'll come to me, and they'll be shocked they were passed over.

Learn to Articulate Your Value

Communications skills come to the fore as techies have been asked to explain their work -- and its value to the company -- to those in marketing, human resources, business development and even the CEO.

"More and more technical professionals have been put in positions where they have had to apply solutions to business," says Edward Hildy, president of Systems One, an IT search and recruitment firm in Chicago. "That's forced a lot of people to communicate better. It's not technology for technology's sake.

What's the solution? Increasingly, techies or their companies turn to people like Warfield or Weintraub to help them develop their communication skills and work productively in team environments. Staffing companies, working with downsized employees, may help them develop their communication skills. At Comforce, IT professionals are encouraged to take an online course at the company's Comforce University for communication skills for techies.

Mike Foster of Foster Success teaches a course called "People Skills for Techs." The course focuses on issues such as providing feedback to management and developing listening skills. Foster often encounters resistance when he teaches the course. "We often resist what we need the most," he says.

The message is clear: Improve your communication skills, or risk losing out on advancement opportunities or even your job. Think about communication skills in terms of job security. "If no one understands what they're doing, the value is not going to be there," Hildy says. "They're the first people to be laid off.