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šŸ“ 11 Secrets to Mastering Business Writing

We Could All Suck a Little Less at Writing

S

A word
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Lost in translation

I hadnā€™t 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: ā€œHave I done something to upset you?ā€

ā€œWowā€¦ no? What on earth makes you think that?ā€

ā€œYour email to me on Friday. It seemed off. Are you upset with me? Iā€™ve been worrying about it all weekend.ā€

ā€œSusan, I donā€™t know what to say. Other than nothing could be further from the truth. You do an incredible job, and Iā€™m 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 couldnā€™t 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 couldnā€™t point to anything, but there was ā€˜something 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: ā€˜copywriting.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 Iā€™d learned. Using it for memos, internal emails, earnings calls, etc.

The impact stunned me, as my writing got better I noticed two things:

  1. My own thinking improved. The writing process made me clearer.

  2. 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.

Deep Dive

11 secrets to mastering business writing

August's special edition is a feature on how to write better.

Letā€™s start with whyā€¦

Why write?

"If you want to clarify your thinking, remember something important, or communicate something clearly, write it down."

Jeff Bezos

Practical applications of writing in business are obvious:

  • Board papers

  • Internal emails

  • Memos and business cases

But the gold is not in the output. Itā€™s 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.

Weā€™ve all done itā€¦

For the same reason we love Excel to organize our numbers, we should love writing to organize our thoughts.

Reading vs. writing

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 (Iā€™ll share it in next monthā€™s series on Investor Relations.)

But itā€™s 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 ā€˜a 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. Itā€™s how you drive impact.

Replacements

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.

Amazon

4. Cut like hell

ā€œI didn't have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead.ā€

Mark Twain

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.

Letā€™s say we had an issue with increasing receivables. And you were writing an email to the team to communicate a problem.

You might write:

ā€œFollowing 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 itā€™s bullsh*t. Get to the point instead:

ā€œOur 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€

Itā€™s not rude to be direct. Itā€™s 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

Active voice

The person does the things. Itā€™s 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. Itā€™s my voice.

Your writing style will be different from mine. And thatā€™s awesome. But it should mirror how you speak.

So many people flip into a faux-formality when they write. Once you do that, itā€™s 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?

ā€œOneā€

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

Gary Provost

9. Practice

ā€œI only write when I'm inspired. Fortunately, I am inspired at 9 o'clock every morning.ā€

William Faulkner

The more you write, the better you will get. Remember, writing is thinking, and who doesnā€™t 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.

HBR

Source: HBR

I guess thatā€™s 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.

Hemingway App

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:

And thatā€™s it on how to write for impact ā€¦

Next week we are kicking off a new series on Investor Relations.

Bottom
Bottom Line SCFO

  1. Writing is thinking.

  2. The way you talk should be the way you write. It will show your personality.

  3. Clear, not clever when writing.

Office

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, itā€™ll 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 Iā€™d like to help you more with this problem.

If you would like to submit a question, please fill out this form.

Footnotes

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And Finally

Next week weā€™ve got another special edition.

If you enjoyed todayā€™s content, donā€™t forget to check out this weekā€™s sponsor Sigma.

Stay crispy,

The Secret CFO

Disclaimer: I am not your accountant, investment advisor, tax advisor, lawyer, CFO, director, or friend. Well, maybe Iā€™m 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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