sure new technologies are emerging to dazzle and intrigue us. But the newest technology is basically one more delivery system for your messages. You will need clear thinking and good writing to succeed. The techniques presented in this book will not go out of date! But adapt them with imagination.
You may or may not remember, depending on your age, the days when a career job meant a nearly lifetime commitment for both employer and employee. That’s far from the norm now. In fact, the U.S. government estimates that someone entering the workplace now will hold ten different jobs by the age of 40. People in general stay in jobs an average of 4.4 years. So, for most of us, applying for jobs is an ongoing fact of life. This is especially true if you’re part of the Millennial generation, under the age of 35, and share with your cohorts a quick-exit tendency when a job doesn’t satisfy you.
Therefore, you need be an outstanding job applicant. I devote a full chapter (Chapter 10) to writing not just résumés and cover letters, but also successful networking messages. You’ll also find a special section on how to define and explain your own value and equip yourself for interviews.
If you ultimately hope to take a management role, I’ve got you covered in Chapter 14. Learn to establish trust, communicate with staff, share your vision, and write inspiring messages. Great leaders often have a particular skill – storytelling. Using stories as well as anecdotes, examples, and testimonials are within your reach, too. Chapter 9 shows you how to find your own story and shape it to your business needs.
This book is based on American business writing style and practice. North Americans are singularly lucky in that their English has become the international language of business, reflecting the United States’ economic dominance of the past century. But if you run a cross-national business or work for one, it’s a mistake to assume that your audiences in other cultures will read your writing in the way you wish.
Someone who learned English as a second, third, or fourth language may not find your email, letters, and websites easy to understand. Spoken language skills are much easier to acquire than written ones. Further, cultural differences may be much bigger than you think.
As with all writing, the challenge should be met on the technical level: How can you write in ways that works for other people, in this case those with limited English-speaking skills? The second aspect is psychological: How can you communicate well with someone whose goals, values, background, and experience are unlike your own, though invisible?
This question relates to the most basic premise of this book. So often we overlook how different people are from each other. You feel that you are unique – and you are. So is everyone else. We each see the world through our own filters, unconsciously constructed of innate characteristics, personal experience, cultural values, and everything we grow up with and that happens to us.
The syntax of writing – the arrangement of words, phrases, and sentences – is a tool for delivering your messages. Like all tools, it must be used well. But the message is what matters. Understanding your own goals and practicing empathy enables you to build meeting points for true communication and relationships.
Improving your writing will open up your perceptions and sharpen your thinking. There’s an aphorism that says, “How do I know what I think until I write it?” In my view, writing is the best imaginable way to grow your understanding of other people, foster your business relationships, and work toward becoming your best and most successful self.
What could be more rewarding or interesting?
You now know why improving your writing will benefit you and have already begun building the foundation to do it. The next chapter shows you exactly how to strategize every message to accomplish your goals.
Chapter 2
Planning Your Message Every Time
❯❯ Strategizing for success before you write
❯❯ Knowing your goal and audience
❯❯ Making people care about your message
❯❯ Using the correct tone
❯❯ Finding opportunities to build relationships
Think for a minute about how you approached a recent writing task. If it was an email message, how much time did you spend considering what to write? A few minutes? Seconds? Or did you just start typing?
Now bring a more complex document to mind: a challenging letter, proposal, report, marketing piece, blog post, or anything else. Did you put some time into thinking about and shaping your message before you began writing, or did you just plunge in?
This chapter demonstrates the power of taking time before you write to consider whom you’re writing to, what you truly hope to achieve, and how you can generate the right content.
Adopting the Plan-Draft-Edit Principle
Prepare yourself for one of the most important pieces of advice in this book: Invest time in planning your messages. And that means every message. Even an everyday communication such as an email can have a profound impact on your success. Everything you write shows people who you are.
I can’t count the times I’ve received an email asking for a referral or an informational interview that was badly written and full of errors. I didn’t respond. Would you? Or a long, expensively produced document with an email cover note that’s abrupt and sloppy. A poorly written email message doesn’t help the cause – whatever the cause may be.
