08

May

Write like a Leader

Business writing can be either clear and effective, or not. Once you have the skills to write clearly and effectively, how can you distinguish yourself further? How can you write like a leader?

Take Me to Your Leader (Newsboys album)

Take Me to Your Leader (Newsboys album) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

No matter your position or title, you can write like a leader–so your emails, reports, speeches, presentations, etc. become appreciated, admired and welcomed by the entire organization. Here are a few tips for writing like a leader:

  1. Address issues proactively and clearly. Never shy away from something that needs to be brought to light–write professionally about it. When writing, it’s easy to limit the conversation to only what you, the writer, wants to discuss. This, however, breeds mistrust and poor engagement. When addressing important (or touchy) issues, you don’t need to be brash or confrontational, simply recognize them, state some possible solutions and ask your readers about their thoughts.
  2. Motivate others with encouragement and appreciation. All employees–no matter their position–want to be recognized for their talents, hard work and the challenges they deal with on a daily basis. Make sure that every piece of writing that comes off your desk includes a note of thanks for a past project and encouragement for the upcoming tasks.
  3. Write sincerely. In a business environment, employees get to know the writer’s personality by their writing’s style and tone. Your writing should represent who you are and what kind of leader you are. To do this, keep your writing professional and organized, and infused with your signature humor, energy, reflectiveness, thoughtfulness, etc.
  4. Articulate your vision. Leadership guides the organization in reaching its goals. Write like a leader by clearly explaining why and how specific tasks fit into the big picture. For example, when giving a presentation on product’s update, explain exactly why the product benefits from the changes, how this helps you reach target markets and reach long-term organizational goals. This can (and often should) be concise, but speaks volumes about your knowledge and drive.

How do you infuse leadership into your writing? Is anything missing from this list?

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19 days ago Short URL Comments

Business Writing

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12

Apr

Questions to Ask for Clearer Writing

Communication

Communication (Photo credit: P Shanks)

Business writing needs to be clear. Confusing writing causes miscommunication and keeps everyone from reaching their targets. In essence, unclear writing slows productivity.

I’m privileged to work with talented clients on diverse and interesting projects. When beginning a project, I like to ask the client lots of different questions about their goals and audiences. Next, I ask some specific questions to understand how to create crystal-clear copy that will deliver the message straight away.

Here are a few of the questions I ask my clients. When working on a new project, take the time to think through these questions and map out the answers. I promise they’ll help you craft a clearer final product that has a greater impact!

  1. How will you/I/we know the writing project succeeded? How will we know we’ve achieved our goal? Consider long-term and broad indications that the project reached its goals. These may  include generating discussion or excitement, prompting someone to think differently about a specific topic or solidifying knowledge and processes into writing. 
  2. Is there a specific event or reaction that would tell us that this writing is successful? Consider exactly how you’ll learn that you achieved your goals; think of specific events. For example, if you’re writing a blog post, a reader’s comment tells you it’s successful. If you’re writing a large presentation about the importance of work-life balance, someone telling you afterwards that they implemented a few of your tips is a clear sign that you were successful.
  3. What do you want your readers to do or think or feel immediately after reading this project? Consider what your audience (or audiences) knows and feels now, and the type or reactions you want to elicit. For example, you may want the annual report you’re writing to inspire confidence in your organization and optimism for the future.

These questions delve into the desired outcomes of the writing, giving you a better understanding of your overall goals. Armed with the answers to these questions, you’ll be better prepared to package and organize the information clearly and eloquently.

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45 days ago Short URL Comments

Business Writing

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03

Apr

Long or Short Emails? Part 2

In Part 1, I wrote why it’s a good idea to write emails the way the recipient prefers to read them. By doing this, you show tremendous consideration for them and their time and also improve productivity.

Yet, the are many times when you need to write an email to a group of people with different preferences. In this case, it’s very useful to tailor your email message to accommodate all types of readers — including those that prefer in-depth and brief descriptions. I believe this should be standard practice when writing emails to a large group — all of whom read and absorb information in very different ways.

To do this, begin the email with your central message and expectations. Consider this your “blurb” that effectively addresses the issue quickly and concisely. Make sure this addresses any specifics, such as deadlines. Next, write the details of the project indicating that these can be read at their leisure or used as reference. It’s that simple. You may want to give these sections titles or bold the “blurb” section, but this completely up to your preference.

Take a look at this example:

Hi team,

PRESSING INFORMATION: Submit your numbers from last quarter to me on Friday, no later than 2 pm.

I’ll review how well our team performed. Next week, I’ll ask for your input on the new script’s effectiveness. Then, we’ll make any needed revisions and finalize a killer script.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION: Corporate created this new script to appeal to a wider market, especially younger technicians in medical device industries. Pay close attention to how effective your sales calls have been using the new script. For example, does the conversation feel forced? Do you wish you could change a few phrases? How could the conversations’ tone be improved, especially when dealing with medical device companies?

As a team, we’ll submit our feedback and ideas for improvement to corporate by the end of next quarter. It’s important that we discuss our ideas with one another and learn how everyone feels. We will hold a few brain-storming sessions and I welcome individual feedback via email as well. Watch out for invitations to the brain-storming sessions.

Your input is vital to improving the way we talk to potential clients — and improving our performance.

Thanks,

Carol 

Readers who prefer short, deadline-orientated messages will only read the “pressing information” section, then read the “background information” section when they have more time. Readers who like to know the details surrounding the tasks you’re asking them to do will read both sections. All of your readers will be able to quickly read and absorb the information, and quickly get things done.

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54 days ago Short URL Comments

Writing/Business Writing

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02

Feb

How to Understand your Audience Better

Business writing projects often fail because they are notAudience written for the intended audience. When writers only consider their perspective, the final product confuses the readers and falls flat.

When writers do take the time to understand their audience, the final product informs, persuades and engages with great impact.

All business writers should take the time to examine who exactly they are writing to in order to be effective. This is especially true when writing web copy, reports, training materials, speeches and presentations. Consider these simple steps to understand your audiences better — and get the results you want out of your writing:

1. Articulate the audience’s major characteristics

Write down this group’s general perspective and responsibilities. If you are writing a speech to your business’ human resources team, clearly explain how their work fits in with the speech’s topic and why it is valued. Also, consider their basic assumptions that they have that will influence how they read your writing. For example, if you are writing a brochure to promote employee engagement and development, you’ll want to directly address – and overturn – the assumption that lateral career moves are not helpful for progression.

2. Articulate the central things that the audience wants

What does the audience hope to receive from the project? How would the project best help them achieve their long-term goals? Seriously consider how your writing can help them achieve something they want.  For example if you are writing a presentation that details how the business can sell more effectively to Asian markets, clearly explain why this group benefits from this, and how it will help them reach their larger goal of success.

When you take the time to consider these questions, you’ll learn more about your audience and write to them more effectively. You’ll prevent confusion and unclear messages, while also making a direct impact. In the end, you’ll get the biggest “bang” out of your hard work.

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115 days ago Short URL 1 Comment

Business Writing/Writing

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26

Jan

What Makes Your Writing Professional?

In business writing, I find that “formal” and “professional” styles often become confused, or even believed to be interchangeable. Often, people feel they need to write with a large vocabulary and formal phrases so that they “sound” professional.

Journalists must follow the Associated Press‘ rules and academics rely on The Modern Language Association or The Chicago Manual of Style. Business writers, however, have no set standard to follow. Perhaps this is because all organizations do business a little differently.

So let’s take a moment to consider what professionalism means, regardless of the type of business you work for:

  1. Responding to situations in a timely, skillful and respectful manner
  2. Acting with integrity, honesty and transparency
  3. Making decisions with sensitivity to the context and audience
  4. Shaping actions and decisions to support the organization’s larger objectives

The last two elements really speak to writing style; the organization’s unique objectives, context and audience should sculpt your writing style. Many organizations today want to be perceived as contemporary, personable and moving with the times, so a straightforward and conversational writing style makes sense. Many formal phrases — that came about when business was conducted via telegrams and letters — are no longer needed.

That’s not to say that formality doesn’t have it’s place, but it’s not always necessary for effective and professional business writing. What matters most is that you are clear, cogent and contribute to your organization’s image and productivity goals.

122 days ago Short URL Comments

Business Writing

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06

Dec

Internal Blog Topic Ideas

Whether you just began an internal blog or have been blogging for years, constantly coming up with new ideas for posts can be challenging and time-consuming. This can be painfully true for internal blogs, where it’s very easy to say the same thing over and over (and bore your readers in the process).

I’ve found a simple solution for this problem – organizing topic ideas into categories. Once you’ve mapped out the categories, you can add ideas for specific posts that fall under that category. The categories can be topics, such as “health benefits” or “career development.” There can also be posts that illustrate specific things your company or department offers. Take a look at these examples:

  1.  Resource Showcase: Highlight one resource that your business or department offers so the reader knows exactly how it benefits them and how to access this resource.
  2. Employee or Leader Profile: Interview an employee or leader to share their story, accomplishments and experiences.
  3. Customer or Client Profile: Remind your employees what it’s all about by showcasing a happy customer or client’s experience with your product or services.
  4. Reading Lists: Suggest books, articles or blogs that may interest your readers. You can post a reviews, ask readers for their reactions or promote outside resources for learning.
  5. Motivational Showcase: Challenge and inspire your readers to tackle goals by adding short, impacting posts with quotes, photos or tips.
  6. Event Showcase: Include photos and feedback from important seminars, conferences or classes. This will sustain the energy created at the event, as well as promote more attendance at the next one.

This list has only a few ideas – there are infinite possibilities. By creating these new categories and deciding on how frequently they will be published (I suggest one or two times per month for each category), you’ll be well on your way to a dynamic internal blog.

173 days ago Short URL 1 Comment

Business Writing/Writing

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17

Nov

How to make PowerPoint Better

Microsoft PowerPoint

Image via Wikipedia

PowerPoint is a much-hated and much-used tool. Business writers rely heavily on PowerPoint for presentations, training materials, recruiting, reports and more.

You can blame the program; it’s all too easy to produce cluttered and dated- looking slides, it’s cumbersome and time-consuming. But blaming the program and it’s limitations will only get you so far. Right now, business writers need to make the best of this tool to produce clear, powerful and persuasive slides.

Writing for PowerPoint is much different than any other type of writing. Instead of complete sentences, you write in bullet points and brief statements. Instead of using writing to educate and persuade, you rely on a balance of written words, images and your speaking.

How can you make your next PowerPoint presentation better?

1. Don’t underestimate the amount of time required to research, outline, write and prepare your presentation. It takes time to create a successful presentation, sometimes up to thirty hours to create a thirty minute presentation. Make sure you give yourself enough time.

2. Watch verb agreement. When writing in bullet points or short fragments, it’s easy to forget about verb tenses. Use active verbs as often as possible and make sure all the tenses agree. For example:

XYZ Division needs to:

  • Keeping costs down
  • Eliminate overproduction  (These verbs don’t agree.)

3. Edit extensively. Delete any text that isn’t absolutely necessary. Keep slides clean and streamlined by including only one or two central points. Many people prefer including extensive details in the “speaker’s notes” section with explanations, sources and prompts for discussion.

4. Create a word limit for each slide – and stick to it. Your word limit will depend on the topic, number of slides and amount of detail.

5. Keep the entire presentation consistent. Streamline the presentation by using the same font and color scheme throughout. Use a consistent tone to unite all slides into one cohesive presentation or narrative.

Do you struggle with PowerPoint? Do you have any tricks for writing PowerPoint presentations? How do you make yours appealing and engaging?

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192 days ago Short URL 2 Comments

Business Writing/Writing

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15

Nov

Engaged Writers = Engaged Employees (Part 2)

To promote and sustain employee engagement, businesses must invest in high-quality writing and communications that captivate, motivate and inspire. Developing engaged writers is a challenging process.

All businesses, no matter their size, should start by making clear writing a top priority. When supervisors demonstrate that they value high-quality writing as vital for success, employees will engage more fully in the writing they complete every day – emails, reports, notes and presentations. Another way to improve writing engagement is to offer classes, seminars and webinars on effective communication for all employees.

The fastest technique for improving engaged writing at your office, business or corporation is to practice what you preach. Use a dynamic and engaging writing style with every single writing task that you complete. You’ll promote engaging writing as your readers learn from your example and emulate your .

Develop a more engaging writing style by:

1. Using conversational style to address the reader directly. Conversational writing is easier to understand,  comprehend and more enjoyable to read. 

2. Keeping it cogent and avoiding business buzzwords, jargon and acronyms. Write only when necessary and always stick to the message’s central purpose. Use sraightforward language that’s fast and easy to comprehend.

3. Using a positive and honest tone. Your readers appreciate your understanding of their problems and concerns; don’t avoid this issues even if they can be touchy or difficult. Instead, address these topics with openness and optimism. Upbeat language goes a long way in increasing morale.

4. Converting problems or complaints into goals. When addressing these problems or concerns, convert them into goals and explain methods for reaching these goals.

5. Anchoring all writing with your high-level communications strategy. Every writing task that you complete is an opportunity to share your business’ or corporation’s communication philosophies. Leverage these opportunities to emphasize and sustain engagement.

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194 days ago Short URL Comments

Uncategorized

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08

Nov

Engaged Writers = Engaged Employees (Part 1)

KPMG’s What Makes A Top Employer Video Contest...Employee engagement is vital for growing your business’ bottom line. Improving engagement increases productivity rates, retention, morale, creativity and overall financial performance. How to actually go about measuring – and then improving – employee engagement is heavily debated.

Practically every business book, magazine or blog weighs in on how to develop an employee engagement strategy that gets results. Some suggest collaborative decision making, coaching programs or greater professional development opportunities.

Whatever strategy your business develops, make sure it includes engaged writing.

Engaged writers captivate readers. They understand the importance of their writing in strengthening the organization’s goals, brand and messaging. They develop new ideas and creative concepts to showcase their message – through dynamic social media, power point presentations or simply via email. Their energy and dedication shines in their writing. Engaged writers are foundational to any employee engagement program because clear, vibrant communications support and sustain larger (and more costly) employee engagement initiatives.

Engaged writers are not only dedicated copywriters or communications specialists – anyone who writes at work can (and should) be an engaged writer. In part 2, I’ll share simple techniques to become a more engaged writer at work.

How do you define “engaged writing”? Have you seen examples of this type of writing at your work? How did it help employee engagement?

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201 days ago Short URL 2 Comments

Business Writing/Writing

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10

Oct

Email Subject Lines that get Results

If you are like many employees and supervisors, you find it challenging to get others to respond to your emails as quickly as you need or want. It’s no wonder; they probably receive dozens – even hundreds – of emails each day.

Sign up for my e-zine for practical tips to write better subject lines. Help your email get noticed and speed up response time!

230 days ago Short URL 1 Comment

Business Writing/Writing

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