Why all managers should write and write well

The mighty pen.

If you look at any job description for managers, you will invariably see 'excellent communication skills' as a required skill. Sometimes, it will say 'excellent written and verbal skills', other times, it might say 'experience communicating to executives', or it will say, 'experience communicating to technical and non-technical audiences alike' and so on. Most people don't give too much thought to that requirement when hunting or applying for managerial roles. I bet a dollar that most people look at that skill requirement and think, 'At least I have that skill nailed down.' I mean, we have been learning (and practicing) how to read and write since we were five, have we not? The way I see it, many managers and leaders out there are absolutely terrible at communicating. They are terrible not because they don't know the mechanics of putting words together in the right sequences when they write emails or when they are talking to their team. It is because they misunderstand what 'excellent communication skills' means.

Excellent communication skills in the context of managers mean something deeper. It is not so much about whether your audience understands the words but about understanding the emotion behind those words. How do you want the audience to feel after they read your email? How do you want your team to feel after you talk to them? How do you want your stakeholders to feel after you deliver the status to them? Effective communication is all about expressing the appropriate emotion for the situation. Don't get me wrong, grammatically correct sentences do matter, but the emotional strength of the words matters more than the order you write them.

So, how do you effectively communicate emotions? Most people assume the spoken word is the easiest way to transmit emotion. It is, in fact, the most commonly used approach. A deck plus a human voiceover has been and continues to be the standard. After spending decades listening to multiple leaders, I have concluded that most people are only good at verbal communication for very short bursts of time. Most people start sending incorrect emotional signals in about five minutes.

Simply put, most managers (people) are bad at long-form verbal communication.

This is why managers and leaders need to learn how to write and write well. In my opinion, a well-written document beats a verbal explanation all day, every day. I also believe that learning how to write effectively will eventually make you a better speaker and communicator. 

Why is the word more powerful than the word?

Why is the written word better at creating emotions than the spoken word? It is because our brains are excellent at filling in the blanks. When you are watching someone speak, your brain is processing not just the words coming out of their mouth but their tone, facial expressions, body language, hand movements, etc. The person's stage presence heavily influences the emotion the audience feels. The speaker has to nail all of it to ensure the right message and emotion are conveyed to the audience.

Now, contrast that with reading a well-written piece of content. Your mind now automatically adds emotion! It adds imagery and color! It adds the background characters! The charisma of the speaker is no longer a factor. Here is a simple exercise-

I am truly humbled to be a part of this team! Thank you all for your warm welcome!

Stand in front of a mirror and read that sentence aloud to yourself. 

Does gratitude and humility easily come through in your spoken words? Maybe you need to make better eye contact to make it work? Maybe you need to do a little namaste to convey the right emotion? Perhaps a softer tone in your speech will help? 

Now try just silently reading it. The emotion comes through much easily doesn't it? 

The written medium completely outshines the spoken format as the length of the content increases.

Extrapolate the same thought exercise from before to a piece of content of about five hundred words. With some editing, the right emotion can be carried throughout those five hundred words. Carrying the right emotion throughout the length of the content is almost impossible in the spoken medium. You have to be like Tony Robbins to nail a five hundred word speech. Also, It is a distinct possibility that even after repeated practice sessions in front of the mirror, you might flub it at the exact moment when you have to speak. 

How to write well?

Now that we have established that the written medium is superior, how does one learn to write well? One word: narratives. Narratives are the best way to convey complex thoughts with emotion. 

Powerpoint decks have decimated our collective ability to write narratives. Bullet points encourage what I call 'sound bite' thinking. A great example of 'sound bite' thinking are lazy movie reviews on IMDB. I am sure you all have seen this before. 

"The movie was terrible! I want my money back!". 

But what about it is terrible? Was the acting bad? Was the story bad? Was the CGI bad? Was the director Uwe Boll?? The bottom line is bullet points shortcircuit our brain's thinking. Our minds don't think in sound bites. They deal in space operas.

A well-written narrative is similar to a good movie. There is a clear beginning when the lead characters are introduced. Then, the plot is introduced, where the motives of the main characters are revealed. There is a distinct middle part where the bad guy is introduced, and it ends with an epic battle between the lead characters and the bad guy. To put it simply, if your narrative doesn't have at least three distinct sections, the setup/introduction, core message, ending/call to action, you are doing it wrong.

Here are some real-world examples of 'sound-bite' thinking expanded to narratives.

Here is an example of some good news in a sound bite format contrasted with a narrative.

Sound bite - Delivered table fixes successfully!

Narrative - The table builder team delivered three usability-related features to customers yesterday (mm/dd/yyyy), which resulted in a 5% day 1 decline in P0 customer support tickets, which used to cost the company X dollars in support hours.

The sound bite completely fails to provide any details to the reader, including failing to answer the most important question, 'So what?'. So what if the table fixes were delivered successfully?

The narrative, on the other hand, explains the 'so what? And more to the reader without requiring a voiceover from the author. 

Here is another example of some bad news in a sound bite vs. narrative format

Sound bite - Project X's release has slipped to next week, and because of that, Project Y's kick-off is also delayed.

Narrative - The X team discovered a late-breaking release blocker today (mm/dd/yy). The team worked over the weekend to fix the bug, but given the severity of the bug (a link to the bug report), they decided to spend a few more days testing to ensure all edge cases were tested. The new release date for Project X is mm/dd/yy. This will impact the kick-off of Project Y that was scheduled for this week. The new kick-off date for Project Y is mm/dd/yy. We could kick-off Project Y earlier if we split resources between Project X and Project Y, but we don't recommend that because the team believes (insert evidence here) Project X is a bigger customer priority than Project Y, and splitting resources could further delay Project X's delivery. If leadership disagrees with the decision to swarm on Project X, please contact us.

The 'sound bite' update will generate a thousand questions. The narrative will generate no further questions. The narrative projects the right emotions to its readers: a sense of urgency from the team, thoughtful decision-making, and a strong point of view of what should be done next. 

So, how does one write excellent narratives?

One of my all-time favorite authors is Stephen King. I have read all of his books, including his nonfiction books. His nonfiction book, On Writing, is an excellent read for anyone looking to become a better writer. His advice on becoming a great writer is simple, "If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot." It is as simple as that. If you want to become a better writer, take the time to read long-form books and write narratives every week. Just writing five hundred words a week will put you on the path to becoming a good writer. Pro-tip: if you want to get better at writing engaging content, read fiction.

Lastly, get a Grammarly account. It costs the same as your Netflix subscription and will immediately uplevel your writing. 

A quick note about GPT and AI-generated content. If you are getting started with long-form narratives, I recommend staying away from GPT until you discover your unique writing style. Every essay I write is uniquely me. It has my unique style, nuances, flaws, and tells that no machine can accurately reproduce until I train it to. Once you have discovered your unique style, you can jumpstart your writing with GPT and then add in your unique flair. Personally, I don't use GPT for anything I write because I enjoy the act of writing. If you, the constant reader, didn't guess that, I would be mildly disappointed :) Yeap, I put a smiley face there because I felt like it. Will GPT do that? Probably not. I rest my case.

A quick recap of takeaways from this section

• The written word is superior than the spoken word

• Good writing is clear and concise. Great writing evokes emotion in the hearts of the reader

• Narratives are the best format to convey complex topics

• As Stephen King says, "If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot."

• Use GPT, but give it your unique style. Or maybe don't use GPT for writing at all.

Coming up next week - A buzzfeed style listicle about management truths!

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