As a technical leader, your job involves communication. Sometimes it’s easy to think about communication as the act of sharing our decisions down to our team. Communication is more than just top-down sharing. We need to be thoughtful and creative about who we communicate with in order to be most effective.

Who do you regularly communicate with in your job? Hopefully it isn’t a stretch to think you are communicating with your boss and your direct reports. You are regularly listening to what your direct reports needs, and working to hear from your boss what she needs. This information helps inform how you can help the organization through clarifying confusion, making decisions or clearing roadblocks. You cannot inflect these things if you are not communicating.

Communicating within the typical reporting structure is just table stakes for an effective leader. Who else should you be communicating with? Are there key leaders who own initiatives that impact your team? Sales leaders who are selling products you have to deliver? Service leaders who hear feedback from customers on your product? Consider who else you should be communicating to in order to improve your effectiveness.

Not long ago in my career, I considered my responsibility to be fairly independent of the other parts of my organization. I thought of product development as my responsibility and something I was good at leading. I didn’t feel driven to reach out and communicate outside my organization. To be honest, I just wanted to be left alone and do a good job.

I recall an incidental conversation with a delivery leader in my organization, who shared with me a perception of the product and development team that was not flattering. I did not agree with the perception. I was surprised. I realized I needed to hear the outside perspective in order to better coach and lead my own team.

As you consider who to talk to, first start with some obvious candidates like your peer group. Consider others that also report to your boss and have related responsibilities to you. Consider the lifecycle of your work and the customer relationship, and who lives upstream or downstream from you team. Consider anyone in your organization you might think of as a customer. In each of these cases, having a regular conversation and gaining insight from their perspective can make you a better leader.

I often think about the responsibility that my boss has and how I can help deliver on her goals. Certainly I want to do my job well. If we collectively still fail to deliver what the boss needs then nobody wins, regardless of my success in my role. Thinking about the higher level goals will help you find others in your organization with whom communication is key.

When you can help provide solutions to your boss, you are elevating yourself and the value you provide.