Communication skills are essential for the success of every leader and organization. Many leaders, however, equate communication only with the ability to speak and forget that they should also be able to write. Insufficient writing skills are among the leading causes of employee frustration, confusion and loss of involvement. They also delay projects and make them unnecessarily expensive, according to an interesting article on Refresher.com.
It is even rarer to find coherently and logically formulated letters, reports, e-mails and other texts written by leaders when they have subordinates who write most documents for them. When they have to write something themselves, their texts are not only full of grammatical and typographical errors, but also fail to articulate the appropriate message.
Are you a good writer?
Try asking your team members how clear they think your written communication is. Ask how much time they spend trying to find out what you want them to do or know. Once it turns out that your poor writing skills waste time, do something about it. Maybe you are even in the situation when your people have already quit trying to decipher your written communication and follow the rule that if you want something really important, you would tell them verbally.
You should also think about what impact your writing skill have on your relationships with business partners and the colleagues you cooperate with on projects. While good writing skills clearly define expectations, possible changes and important deadlines, bad writing skills only cost all of you more effort, time and money. Isn't it high time to change it?
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