Entrepreneurs must be a variety of things: diligent, creative, risk-tolerant and prudent. But do they need to be good writers? Of course. Good writing isn’t just about knowing the rules of grammar but also about being able to well structure your thoughts and expressing yourself in an engaging manner.
While good writing is something that businesses appreciate, value and claim to practice, most often don’t put their money where their mouth is. It’s common to come across badly-written emails and writing pieces that are replete with poor grammar and jargon. A survey in the Harvard Business Review revealed that out of 547 business people, 81% said that poor writing squandered their time. Communications that lack focus and don’t resolve questions end up turning conversations – that should be two emails – into twenty, which ultimately diminishes productivity.
An Indispensable Skill in Remote Teams
Indubitably, clear, persuasive communication is the bedrock of a successful professional. Ask any management consultant and they will tell you that communication skills are critical to succeed as an entrepreneur, and now that we’re communicating digitally more than we ever after the COVID-19 pandemic, you need to make sure your written messages have the impact you want. Whether you’re communicating with customers or coworkers, your writing will influence how people view both you and your company. Successful remote work hinges on the ability to communicate effectively with the rest of the work team. As employees experience Zoom fatigue and struggle to communicate about their work in a remote setting, clear and crisp writing seems to the antidote.
In the competitive realm of business, you only have one chance to make a great impression – and you definitely don’t want to blow it. Be it writing the copy for your website, newsletters, business proposals, sales pitches, keynote decks or simply work emails, you should be able to communicate what you do and what sets you apart.
That being said, effective writing needs to be an organisation-wide endeavour. In an article by Harvard Business Review Your Company Is Only as Good as Your Writing, Kyle Wiens says that “the practice of good, collaborative writing makes the difference between great business and bad business — a sale or no sale.” If the marketing department misses a typo while writing about a product, the packagers should be able to catch the error. If the software engineers are inconsistent with a tool’s name capitalisation, the designers should be able to spot it. However, what you need to remember is that as a leader you set the standard for company communications, so it depends upon you to make sure you set the bar high.
HERE ARE FOUR TIPS TO POLISH YOUR WRITING SKILLS:
- The Portuguese Nobel prize winner Jose Saramago was asked about his daily writing routine. His answer was, “I write two pages. And then I read and read and read.” The best way to become hone your writing skills is to read. So read on your commute. Read before bed. Basically, read whenever you have time.
- Use simpler words to minimise misunderstandings. Others don’t want to sort through a word salad for the important points. Make sure you get your point across in the easiest way possible.
- In the current business world of data overload, brevity is gold. People will tune out if they fail to quickly decipher a relevant purpose for your message. I recommend you get to the point as soon as you can.
- Read your writing out loud to find your mistakes. Psychologist Tom Stafford, of the University of Sheffield, says that it’s hard to catch your own typos and other sentence-level problems. Reading out loud gives your brain information in a new way, and thus helps you notice things that you didn’t see before.
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Paul Keijzer is the CEO and Founder of Engage Consulting and the co-Founder of The Talent Games, which aims to transform HR by digitising talent processes and creating more engaging and productive workplaces through gamification and mobile technology. As a global HR and Leadership Management expert, Paul knows how to combine business insights with people insights to transform organisations and put them on the path to growth.