If you can verbalize it, you can write it.

Almost any time I take on a writing assignment for someone, that person says, “I’m not a writer.”  I certainly understand why someone tells me that.  The nice thing is that it keeps me employed and gives me a strong sense of providing that individual or his/her business strong value.

At the same time, if you can talk, you can write.  If you are a good speaker, it is easy to become a good writer.  You have to capture what you say.  That is the essence of a quality piece of writing.

When I take on a story, I will often tell the individual I am interviewing that I cannot make their story interesting.  The story has to be inherently interesting in and of itself.  I clean up the language, give it pace and flow, activate the verbs, shorten or cut the boring parts, and in general know how to tie together the theme, grab attention and add a decent conclusion.  But the points come from the person you interview.

So, if that is you, how can you write?  1) Have someone take notes when you speak.  Afterwards, put them together into a coherent whole.  See how it sounds.  Cut out extemporaneous details.  Add compelling examples.  2) Watch and listen to yourself on video.  Capture the key points you want to get across.  Listen to your voice and write up the parts of your talk that you feel engage your audience.

If you follow those two points, you will be able to capture your voice and write up messages that broaden your audience and “speak” to your readers in a way that emulates your voice when you present in public.  That’s what good writing is all about – finding your voice.  If you already have it when you speak, you just need to capture it in your writing.  It’s not a complex task, but you do need to work at it.  If you do, you’ll expand the reach of your messages.

I’m a business writing sinner.  I don’t go back over my documents as intently as I should.  That’s a communications sin.  Years ago, as a journalist, my job was researching, interviewing, writing and editing.  We set aside time strictly to copy-edit materials, making sure grammar, punctuation and spelling were correct.  The communications jobs I’ve had since then included many other duties.  What got lost?  The editing.  And that’s not good.

As a business professional, you can’t short-sheet your editing.   Whether it’s a word spelled incorrectly or using “further” when you meant “farther,” it’s important to go back over your communications for a last look before hitting the send button on an email or signing off on a document that’s going to your entire staff.

If you’re like me, and you’ve read through a certain document 3-4 times as it makes the rounds for approval, you grow bored and inattentive to details as it moves through the process.  “Man, I’ve read this three times already, when is it going to get approved?,” is how you start to think.  You want to get it out the door and because on first glance you don’t see any changes, you only rove over it with your eyes instead of digging in.

When you get to this stage, I suggest an intervention.  If you have someone on your staff you can send the communication, enlist that person to give you a fresh set of eyes.  Tell that person you’ve looked at it several times and aren’t giving the document the attention to detail that it deserves and you’d like them to make sure all the “i’s” are dotted, and “t’s” crossed.  It’s a good way to get a younger staff member involved or someone from another business line.  In either case, that individual gets a peek at something outside the normal sphere of his/her job, and most people appreciate getting that type of opportunity.

So don’t become a business writing sinner.  Don’t neglect the editing.  If you can’t find a helper, give yourself some time to walk away and freshen your mind before you go through a final round of editing.  However you choose to approach it, the extra investment benefits you by clarifying the message, ensuring what you want to say is on target, and it is grammatically correct.  Taking that extra step is important for any leader, communications professional or corporate communication.

You know a bad meeting when you’re in it, and afterwards.  It drones on and on.  There seems to be no point.  People talk too much.  No decisions are made.  You wonder why you got invited.

When you get done, you say to yourself, “What was that all about?” 

One way to add a success marker to your meetings is to provide a written email summary to all attendees afterwards.  This requires you (as the meeting leader) or a designee to take notes.  That person must be a good listener, know the issues and how to summarize effectively what was said, and who is responsible for specific actions moving forward.

I have done this repeatedly in my career the past 15 years or so, and always hear positive feedback.  People are clear about next actions.  They recognize deadlines.  They know who is responsible for what.  That is good for your organization and your team.

Next time you have a meeting, take notes.  They don’t have to be in-depth, but make sure you capture key deliverables, new ideas and points you want to emphasize.  If you do this, then provide your write-up to attendees in a timely fashion (within a day), everybody benefits.  It’s not hard or complicated.  It just takes a few minutes of your time, and will make you a more effective leader.

“Good job.”  When someone at work says that to you, what does it mean?  You don’t know. You don’t know because it’s not specific.  “Good job” could mean anything because it says nothing.  Praise that means something to the person you deliver it to must be specific to the activity/incident/behavior and timely.

When someone says “great job” to you, your first thought is, “That’s nice.”  But then you speculate, “What did I do a great job on?  What is s/he talking about? “

To regularly and effectively get buy-in from employees and coworkers, dissect what happened, isolate the behavior you want to reinforce and provide that message directly to the individual in front of others, if possible.  Praise in public, constructively criticize in private.  Here are some examples:

·         “Joe, that report you sent me yesterday got right to the point and gave me some excellent examples to share with others.  Thank you for all the work you put into it, so that we help screen our applicants more quickly and effectively.”

·         “Winona, you did a super job super job presenting our new services to our client Wednesday, demonstrating how we can best help them grow their business.  I could tell by how you answered their questions that you thoroughly knew the material and expressed it clearly by the way they responded to you.  Thank you.”

·         “Theo, customers have come to me expressing how helpful you have been in providing them materials to fix their service problems quickly and effectively the past two days.  Handling these issues is hugely important to our future and your contributions build a stronger company for us.  Keep up that good work, we appreciate it.”

The feedback should be sincere, clear and express the positive points you want to reinforce.  That will help unit your team, foster deeper and better relationships with your people and ultimately drive your business towards greater success.

So why don’t we do this more often?  Many would argue it’s a lack of time, but how long do you think it took me to think and type those three bullets above?  Ten minutes.  That’s praise for three people on your staff in 10 minutes that makes them feel better and execute for you.

Don’t forget the praise.  It’s lacking in far too many work environments and workers crave it.   You, your employees and the business all benefit through increased mutual support, which in turn generates more creative ideas and sharing of success.  We all want that.