SME Strategy is a strategy consulting firm that specializes in helping organizations align their teams and operations around a shared vision, mission, values, goals, and action plans. Our strategic planning services offer guidance on how a strategic planning facilitator can provide support in constructing an effective strategic plan that ensures your strategy is communicated and implemented across your entire organization.
How often do you sit and write every day while you’re at work? The chances are that it’s probably more than you think.
Whether you’re writing text messages, instant messages, blog content, emails, sales reports, employee performance reviews, invoices, disciplinary notices, hand-over notes and project status updates, writing is a core part of your everyday life, so have you ever thought about the quality of your writing is affecting your performance?
By proactively improving your writing skills, you can take your ability to conduct effective team communication and send engaging, comprehensive, and accurate messages to the next level, helping you to streamline your days, increase employee productivity and dramatically improve the leadership qualities you already have.
Here are seven methods on how to do just that;
1. Write in Active Voice
The first step you’ll need to take is to make sure that you switch your style of writing, so you’re writing is in ‘active voice’. By writing in active voice, rather than passive voice, your words and sentences will hold so much more power since they’ll be more direct and effective.
This is an ideal concept to apply in all forms of writing, including notes, messages, emails and letters.
2. Keep Things Simple
As a strategic leader in your business, it can be easy to get caught out in your writing when you fall into the trap of using jargon and complex vocabulary. Let’s be honest, no one is patting you on the back when you use the longest words, and you’re only running the risk of people misunderstanding or misinterpreting your content by doing so.
Writing for Your Reader
Understand who your reader is and adapt your style and content for this audience. Tailoring your message to suit the exact requirements of your reader will keep them interested and engaged with the material.
3. Improve Your Skills Using Tools
The internet is a wonderful place, and it’s full of resources that you can use to improve your general writing skills and any writing-related process. Here’s a collection to get you started;
- Via Writing & Grammar Checker - Two online resources to help you improve your overall grammar knowledge
- Cite It In - A free formatting tool to help you add professional citations and references to your content
- State of Writing & My Writing Way - These two blogs are full of writing guides to help you improve your overall writing abilities
- Easy Word Count - A free online tool for accurately tracking your word and character counts in real time
- Writing Populist & Let's Go And Learn – These two websites are extensive editing and proofreading resources
- SimpleGrad & Studydemic - Two online writing blogs
Be Direct
It’s easy for us to get caught in the trap of going on and on about the point we’re trying to make, but it’s important to recognize the problems with this. Nobody wants to sit and read through pages of content for a message that can be summed up in a few hundred. Make sure you keep things short and sweet.
Re-Read Your Content
The chances are that you’ll never get things right the first time, so it’s important that you always take the time to read your work to make sure it reads well, and it makes sense to the reader. Always check facts and figures to make sure they are accurate.
Practice
The only way you’re ever going to get better at something is if you practice. Make sure you’re considering every single opportunity that you write something like the chance to improve your skills. Practice every day, and you’ll be one of the best in no time at all.
