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š 11 Secrets to Mastering Business Writing
We Could All Suck a Little Less at Writing

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Lost in translation
I hadnāt even sat down yet, and Susan had already grabbed me.
It was early on a Monday. She looked stressed. Whatever it was, it must have been important.
Susan got right into it: āHave I done something to upset you?ā
āWowā¦ no? What on earth makes you think that?ā
āYour email to me on Friday. It seemed off. Are you upset with me? Iāve been worrying about it all weekend.ā
āSusan, I donāt know what to say. Other than nothing could be further from the truth. You do an incredible job, and Iām grateful for all you do.ā
After reassuring her, I went to my desk and opened the email I had sent.
I must have read it a hundred times to see what could have upset her. I couldnāt find anything, it confused me.
I wanted to fix it, so a couple of days later I asked Susan if we could go through it together. She couldnāt point to anything, but there was āsomething about the tone.ā
As she explained it, I started to see what she meant. And how through a different lens, through HER lens, I could understand why she may have reacted the way she did.
It was a valuable lesson.
Intention behind communication does not matter. All that matters is impact.
I have used this principle ever since. Being intentional about what I say and what I write. Every communication gets written for impact: what do I want the person receiving this to do? How do I get them to do that?
Communication is the process of getting information from one person to another. So all that matters is how that information gets received. How it's meant is irrelevant.
I became interested in why some writing inspired more action than others. I started to read about it and learned the skill has a name: ācopywriting.ā
And some people were so good at it, they had built huge businesses off the back of this one skill.
I figured it would be a useful thing to add to my armory, so I practiced what Iād learned. Using it for memos, internal emails, earnings calls, etc.
The impact stunned me, as my writing got better I noticed two things:
My own thinking improved. The writing process made me clearer.
It became easier to get people to take action. By using the right combination of words, I could make things happen in the business faster.
It felt like a superpower.
In time, I decided to further these skills by starting this newsletter.

11 secrets to mastering business writing
August's special edition is a feature on how to write better.
Letās start with whyā¦
Why write?
"If you want to clarify your thinking, remember something important, or communicate something clearly, write it down."
Practical applications of writing in business are obvious:
Board papers
Internal emails
Memos and business cases
But the gold is not in the output. Itās in the process.
Writing captures your thoughts at a moment. It forces you to capture what you need to say in a 2-dimensional space. There is nowhere to hide.
Unlike slide decks.
In PowerPoint, the free format makes it easy to hide sloppy thinking behind a few bullet points. Or a cute change of subject. Or a tactically placed chart.
Weāve all done itā¦
For the same reason we love Excel to organize our numbers, we should love writing to organize our thoughts.
Source: David Perrell
I find it painful reading back transcripts from my early earnings calls. The voiceover on the slide deck always reads clean, crisp & clear.
And then it gets to the Q&A: "Um," "Err,""Well," "You know" etc. While the content was good, the delivery was messy. It stuck out like a sore thumb when reading the transcript.
Why, the difference?
The voice-overs were scripted. They had the benefit of hours and hours of thinking between myself and my IR team. Every chain of logic got unpacked and put back together.
That was harder to do when preparing for the free form of analyst Q&A.
I later found a way to hack this (Iāll share it in next monthās series on Investor Relations.)
But itās a nice analogy to the power of writing.
If the brain is like a messy laundry basket of unwashed clothes, the writing process takes those clothes and cleans, presses, and folds them.
Soā¦ writing is thinking. And you should get good at it, even as āa numbers guy/gal.ā
But how? Time to get tactical.
Here are 11 tips to make you a better writer:
1) Unlearn what you know
Forget what you already think you know about writing.
For many, the last time you thought about writing would have been at school.
You were taught the importance of punctuation and grammar. How to use adjectives to make sentences more interesting. And, most importantly, how to pad to hit a word count.
These principles make for good grades, but terrible business writing.
Writing for impact is a different skill. A new skill.
You need to sound clear, not clever.
2. Use short words
Long words don't make you sound clever, they make you sound like an a**hole. They are hard to read and understand.
Many of the concepts we cover in finance are technical. Some have long, intimidating names. But we don't have to wrap long words around them.
The most powerful CFOs are those that can make the complex as simple as possible. Itās how you drive impact.

Source: MedComms
3. Avoid filler words & weasel words
By eliminating filler and weasel words, it will force you to be more precise. And clarify how sure you are.
A simple (but powerful) editing hack:
Delete these filler words:
ā¢ just
ā¢ that
ā¢ very
ā¢ really
ā¢ basicallyRemoving them makes your writing less clunky.
ā Dickie Bush š¢ (@dickiebush)
1:36 AM ā¢ Nov 13, 2023
4. Cut like hell
āI didn't have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead.ā
I get the irony of this coming from someone who writes a 2,500-word blog post about finance every week. But we cut A LOT.
Never say in a sentence what can be said with a word. Never use a paragraph when a sentence will do.
Letās say we had an issue with increasing receivables. And you were writing an email to the team to communicate a problem.
You might write:
āFollowing a review of our most recent monthly accounts, I have noticed that our Days Sales Outstanding has started to trend in an adverse direction. This is a concerning development, and I would request your support in addressing this issue as follows...'
This sounds polite, but itās bullsh*t. Get to the point instead:
āOur DSO is terrible. It needs to improve by 2 days before the end of the quarter. Here's what we need to do:ā¦ā
Itās not rude to be direct. Itās rude to force someone to read a bunch of meaningless fluff.
Respect people's time. Give them only what they need to read.
5. Write in active voice, not passive voice
The person does the things. Itās not the thing being done by the person.
Active voice: The sales team delivered another 8% growth this month
Passive voice: Another 8% sales growth was delivered this month by the sales team.
6. Write like you talk
When I started this newsletter I had to make it sound different. As if I were explaining a finance concept to a friend over a cup of coffee. Not like I was writing a textbook.
Those who know me well and read this blog comment how they can almost hear me reading it. Itās my voice.
Your writing style will be different from mine. And thatās awesome. But it should mirror how you speak.
So many people flip into a faux-formality when they write. Once you do that, itās no longer you. It could be anyone.
If people can hear you say it, as they read it, it will leave 10x the impact.
7. Write for one person
Beloved radio presenter Sir Terry Wogan was on the BBC for 40 years.
He was once asked in an interview how many listeners he had for his breakfast show.
His answer?
āOneā
The truth was closer to 8 million. But with that one answer, he gave away the secret to his famous familiar, personal tone.
He never saw it that he was presenting to 8 million people. He took the approach that he was having a one-way conversation with a friend sitting next to him.
You need to do the same with your writing. If you are writing an email to 100 people in your business. Or speaking to them at a conference. Have in mind the one person to aim your words at.
Write it for them.
I guarantee many more will feel like it was written just for them too. And they will be 10x more affected by what you say as a result.
8. Write music
9. Practice
āI only write when I'm inspired. Fortunately, I am inspired at 9 o'clock every morning.ā
The more you write, the better you will get. Remember, writing is thinking, and who doesnāt want to get better at thinking?
British comedian John Cleese recently wrote a brilliant book on creativity. He talked about the importance of work ethic in creativity. And how if you write enough, eventually something good has to come out.
Jerry Seinfeld has talked about a similar principle. And the importance of consistency and work ethic to get to the good stuff.
Interlude: I can't talk about Seinfeld, without referring to one of my all-time favorite quotes. In 2017 he was interviewed by HBR and asked whether he felt McKinsey could help with his writing process.
Source: HBR
I guess thatās what you get for asking one of the most pretentious questions in the history of journalismā¦
10. Use the tools
There are some great tools out there to improve writing. My favorite is Hemingway. It helps identify weasel words, passive voice, and sentences that are hard to read. It even gives you a reading grade.
I put this piece through Hemingway, and it scored readability of Grade 3; ages 8-9.
Source: Hemingway App
That's particularly low. Probably because this is not a technical subject. But I try to keep it grade 5 or below every week. I figure if I can write about complex topics in language that could be understood by elementary school kids, then I'm sticking true to my mission.
11. Learn from the best
If you want to nerd out on the skill of writing for impact (as I decided to a couple of years ago), here are some places to start:
āThis book will teach you to write betterā by Neville Medhora is a 30-minute read, and a great place to start
Listen to David Perrellās podcast āHow I Writeā
Follow Dickie Bush on Twitter
And if you want to go further, and intend to start sharing your writing online as I have, but are worried about what people will think, or that no one will read it then check this out.
And thatās it on how to write for impact ā¦
Next week we are kicking off a new series on Investor Relations.

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Maria from Portugal asked:
I'm the FP&A manager of a small business unit (around $200M revenue/year) of a larger company ($2B revenue/year). My team is comprised of 6 people, who are allocated to the 3 different regions we operate in (1 Senior Analyst and 1 Analyst per region). In one of these regions, the Senior Analyst is a star player. However, the Analyst is the complete opposite - let's just say it was a mistake to hire him in the first place (not my decision). We live in a country where labor laws are extremely rigid (gotta love Europe) and firing him would cost a high indemnity which HQ has already refused, so it is not an option. I also don't want to move him to another region, as that would only create a problem elsewhere. The Senior Analyst at first covered up all the mess the Analyst does, but I've been giving him higher responsibilities, and with the extra workload, all the mess is surfacing. He's also showing higher signs of demotivation with this relationship. I really don't want to lose him, but I'm having a hard time balancing everything. How would you handle this situation?

Thanks for your question, Maria. Tough labor laws or notā¦ it sounds like you have a toxic influence on your team.
First question: have you given him feedback? Does he know what he is doing wrong? And what you expect him to do to change it? Do you have a performance improvement plan in place for him?
If you have given him the feedback, and he is showing no signs of changing, then he has to go.
The part of your question that concerns me the most is that your HQ has refused to pay his exit cost. That does not sound like a good organizational culture to me.
When you are put in charge of managing a team, you are responsible for the output of the whole team. If the team wins, you win. If the team fails, itāll cost you your job or worse, your credibility.
That is only a fair deal if you also have free rein to pick your team, as you see fit.
If there are internal obstacles inside the business stopping you from building the best team you can, you should feel very dissatisfied about that.
Ultimately, it will stop you from performing as a manager, and from developing.
You need to ask yourself whether you are in the right business.
You need to be in a business that expects high-performance standards. And is focused on developing talent to be the best version they can be.
Maria, please reach out (just hit reply). Your question concerns me, and Iād like to help you more with this problem.
If you would like to submit a question, please fill out this form.

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And Finally
Next week weāve got another special edition.
If you enjoyed todayās content, donāt forget to check out this weekās sponsor Sigma.
Stay crispy,
The Secret CFO
Disclaimer: I am not your accountant, investment advisor, tax advisor, lawyer, CFO, director, or friend. Well, maybe Iām your friend, but I am not any of those other things. Everything I publish represents my opinions only, not advice. And certainly is not investment advice. Running the finances for a company is serious business, and you should take the proper advice you need.

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