The Biggest Career or Business Mistake You're Making
I have a theory that folks who drive for a living are some of the most frustrating drivers on the road. Not necessarily the worst or the most dangerous, but anyone who’s held on for dear life in the back of a cab or been cut off by a bus has had that “How do they get paid for this?” moment. I don’t think those moments are because these drivers don’t understand the rules of the road, or that they lack some fundamental driving skill. No, I think they believe they are good drivers because they’ve been doing it so long, and after seeing the truly terrible and dangerous drivers out there, they look pretty good by comparison. Well, I see the same mistake happening in business writing and communication all the time.
I guarantee someone in your work life has had a “How do they get paid for this?” moment because you assume you know how to communicate merely because you’ve been doing it for years. In the 12 years I spent working as the in-house communications staff, I only saw a few people outside roles like mine intentionally learn how to be a better communicator. And it showed.
This strikes me as the ultimate irony in modern work; almost every job ad requires “excellent communication skills” but almost no one puts in concentrated work to learn those skills—especially when it comes to writing. I really mean it when I say that no matter where you work or what you do, learning how to be a good writer will make you better at your job.
See, you really can’t afford to be a bad writer anymore. We are reading far more now than previous generations did, even though we are reading for pleasure less than ever. Yes, in a world of Zoom meetings and conference calls, we are still drafting emails and text/slack/instant messages for hours every work week. But the way most people treat business writing isn’t a case of putting in lots of hours to get better—they assume that the hours they’ve already put in mean they’re good…or at least good enough. That’s rarely the case.
If you’re writing badly, you’re wasting time—yours and other people’s—and adding extra frustration to boot. In 2022, the last thing any of us need is extra frustration; regular life has baked in plenty of that already, thanks. Your career and your coworkers (and I’d bet your friends and family too) want you to be a better communicator, whether they could articulate that or not.
Have you ever had an email, chat, or text exchange that became so frustrating and confusing that you gave up and resorted to a phone call or just walking to your co-workers office to discuss?
Are you writing social media posts or sending out business offers that fall flat?
Do your written requests result in questions that seem to have obvious answers—or worse, get no response at all?
With more than a decade in an office environment and nearly five years as an entrepreneur, I have seen hundreds of examples of how bad writing makes everyone’s life harder.
So, if the sheer amount of time we spend writing isn’t improving our writing skills, what do we do? Find the specialists and make an effort to learn.
In my experience, the best results come from focused training and having an expert provide feedback your work. Sure, there are lots of books and blog posts on what makes good writing (maybe one day I’ll share some of my favourites), but any professional writer will tell you that they get better with every project—the more we do it, the more we learn about how to do it better. Especially when we work with other pros who help us improve.
Now, don’t get me wrong, you don’t need to endure years of bad-to-mediocre writing to get better. If you’re willing to give me four hours of your time and one piece of existing writing, we’ll cover what you need to know about effective business writing and you’ll start applying the concepts right away. I created the Better Business Writing Workshop to help anyone become a better writer. (This is how you know I really mean it when I say focused training and learning by doing is the way to go, because writing a book one time would be way less effort than multiple workshops every year!)
Are you ready to send better emails, draft better reports, and create better content? Sign up for the next workshop (and get a discount if you bring friends!), or contact me to come to your organization.
