Write with feeling
When you have an organization with
thousands of employees spread across the
country or even around the world, your
opportunities for face-to-face meetings will
sometimes be few and far between.
Learning to write effective messages can
make a big difference.
“The trick to effective communication in
writing is to give the illusion that you are
standing there having a conversation,
especially when you are doing internal
communication with your own people,”
Bolen says.
“It’s practice, and it has to be your style. It
probably takes three times as long to do
500 words, being careful to weave in
humanity. Try to find as many ways as you
can to weave humor into the idea, unless
it’s just totally uncalled for. But have it
come across so that when people come
away from reading it, they say, ‘I know I
read what he said, but it’s almost as if I had
a conversation with him.’”
The keys to successful written communication are very similar to those for being
effective with the spoken word.
“You organize it around telling them what
you’re going to tell them, tell them and then
tell them what you told them in terms of
what it is you are trying to get done,” Bolen
says. “Overlay that with an ease and friendliness. You can develop a style that is going
to make someone want to read it and pay
attention to it because they enjoy the stuff.”
You also continue to drive home the idea that they are an important part of the
organization and that you value their role
in it.
Whether you’re writing or speaking or
even communicating through body language, it has to become part of your leadership philosophy in order for it to be effective.
“Surround yourself with people whose
opinions are going to be valuable and are
going to help mold the ultimate decision
that gets made rather than a bunch of yes-folks,” Bolen says. “Those folks aren’t
going to tolerate an environment where
they are not listened to and they don’t have
a chance to have an impact on the outcome. It becomes a business deal between
you and the kind of people you have
around you. They are going to demand it
and rightly so.”
HOW TO REACH: McCarthy Building Cos. Inc., (314) 968-3300
or www.mccarthy.com
