Everybody Writes by Ann Handley

If top athletes spend hours every day perfecting their skills, why do we spend so little time improving our writing skills when everyone knows written communication is a vital skill for leadership?

Ann Handley gives you practical tips to write better, whether you are writing a letter to shareholders, a blog post, a tweet or your great American novel. There are also tips on how to improve your LinkedIn profile and posts which are so important now. 

Transcript

You are listening to the Book Judge, a podcast about books that you should read if you are interested in business. I am your host, Conrad Chua. This is your curated reading list that will give you a better grip on how to approach the complex issues that businesses face. 

Today’s episode is the book Everybody Writes by Ann Handley. Handley’s premise is that Everybody is a writer whether you know it or not. And I would add that everyone is a reader, so if you are a better writer, you will become so much more persuasive as a leader. You should read this book because it will transform your professional career by making you a better communicator.

I’ve always felt that Writing is an essential  skill that somehow we don’t bother to develop after we complete formal schooling. Sure, we write every day but unless you are a professional author with an editor, you don’t have someone reviewing your written communication, giving you feedback and tracking your improvements. Employers value good communication skills and yet, we assume that formal schooling is enough to teach us everything about writing. It is as if a top athlete never bothers to get coached after graduating from college and just turns up at competitions. 

I had my own rude awakening about my poor writing as early as college. Stanford required many of us to enroll in a freshman writing class. I had been trained in Singapore to present balanced arguments and only have the conclusion to the argument at the end. I was taught, that’s why they call it a conclusion right. All this was thrown out the window that first quarter of freshman year. I had to rewrite my brain to put the conclusion in the very first sentence because you have to assume people don’t have the time to read all the way to the end. And I also learnt about the importance of the first sentence in every paragraph. My transformation was not a complete success and I find myself slipping into my bad habits now and then. No exaggeration but every time I did poorly in a class or did not get a project proposal through, I had produced a poor piece of written work. 

Handley is not interested in making you the next James Joyce but she does introduce a lot of professional writing techniques to help you as a business communicator. I like the idea of The Ugly First Draft or TUFD. It is a recognition that no one can produce the best work on the first attempt. But if you keep your ideas in a notebook or in your head and never get down to writing the Ugly First Draft, you are not going to get anywhere. 

Handley points out that TUFD is not a pass to produce substandard work but it is a necessary part of the process to produce a good piece of work. And in one of the many memorable one-liners that she sears into your mind, Handley remind us to “Think Before Ink”. So jot down your key ideas in whatever form and don’t worry about having fully formed sentences, grammar or punctuation. Just let it rip. She also suggests putting in little reminders if you get stuck, such as need a better example here. 

After you have dumped all your thoughts on paper or in your Word document, you are supposed to. Just walk away. Put some time and distance between yourself and TUFD before you return for the rewrite. 

You will find this writing timeline great if you are writing a long text, such as a blog post, a project proposal or a letter to shareholders. I have tried it myself and it has really helped me. I tend to get stuck at the Think Before Ink stage. I work best when I say my ideas aloud. To Myself. Yes I do get stares on the street when I do this but that’s how I roll. It helps my brain structure the ideas when I talk it out. But I have always found it difficult to put those verbal thoughts into the written word until I embraced TUFD. 

This writing timeline will also help you budget your time in producing good work. None of us in business have the luxury of unlimited time to produce a written document so we need to plan for TUFD, walking away and the rewrite. This is episode 5 of the Book Judge and I have now developed that rhythm of spending a week reading a book and another week writing and recording. With some practice, you will be able to do the same whether that be a written assignment for your business class, a complete project proposal, or a blog post. 

Handley suggests setting a target to write a certain word count every day. This is what professional writers do but we in the business world can do something similar. We don’t know it but between emails, tweets, facebook posts and writing papers for meetings, you probably write more than you think. If you set yourself a target of producing a target good quality word count everyday using Handley’s principles, you will inevitably get better. You can choose whether to have those words in writing business papers, presentations or even tweets. If only President Trump would follow this advice.

Another great piece of advice from this book is to have empathy for the reader. Handley quotes Jonathon Colman of Facebook who says that “good writing requires us to understand and have empathy for our audience, their situation, their needs and goals. The best content experiences are pitched perfectly in the sweet spot, the nexus of all those human factors.” 

Adopting that advice, chances are you will declare war on almost every corporate website out there. Most of them have some goblygook about the company being leading edge, world class, responsible and transformative. What they don’t have is a customer centric approach that solves their customers problems and not just talk about themselves. 

I confess that my own organisation, the Cambridge Judge Business School, is guilty of this. I am recording this in mid September 2020. And the top of our home page has a carousel of articles we want you to read. Below that is a section that says Find the Right Programme, and below that is three swipes of articles about covid19. Nowhere on the home page do we talk about the customer, which could be a student, a prospective applicant, an alum, a company or a member of staff. So I have got work to do. 

 This is the part of the podcast where I place the spotlight on one part of the book that you can use immediately in your business, or in an interview, or just to impress your business school friends. I call this the Did You Know section. 

As a listener to this podcast, you will have used Linkedin. At the minimum to set up a profile and keep in touch with professional contacts, maybe find a new job or write articles to boost your profile. But when was the last time you visited your profile?

If you describe yourself as a successful, experienced leader, who is strategic, motivated and creative, then you are no different from literally millions of others on Linkedin. Linkedin helpfully lists out the most commonly used words in profiles so if you want to stand out from the masses, you will need a better profile. 

Handley interviewed a career expert in Linkedin Nicole Williams who suggests that you use active language, citing tangible outcomes. So avoid saying “responsible for blah blah blah” and say “increased sales by 30% in two years”. She also suggests mirroring the language of the companies you want to work for. So follow the companies you’re interested in, learn about their business plans and goals but also pick up on the words and language that they use. Adapt those words to your profile. 

I would expand that advice to CVs or resumes. You will need to review your CV regularly and you can use these techniques to improve your chances with recruiters. I read hundreds of applications to the Cambridge MBA every year and my mind just blanks out at CVs that don’t have specific outcomes, just fluff about a person’s responsibilities. Those are not CVs but a list of job descriptions. 

Handley is a big fan of Linkedin and she encourages people to “always be helping” when on Linkedin. That means producing useful content to your audience. That could mean sharing interesting articles, or writing your own articles. This last point is becoming more important as Linkedin has long moved beyond a jobs portal to being a place where people make connections and learn things. If you provide useful content, you will naturally become the go to person in your network. Opportunities will present themselves. 

So invest the time on Linkedin. It will be worth it. 

Handley has lots of practical advice delivered in bite sized chapters. If you are a busy executive you will love this book because you can dip in and out and focus on the areas that you need most help. 

You might be tempted to skip the section on Writing Rules : Grammar and Usage. Don’t do that. I read hundreds of applications and essays a year where people confuse who with whom; insure with ensure. And then there are the unwieldy sentences that confuse me the reader. These are all basic rules that even an eight year old can pick up. I know because I made my 8 year old daughter read this section to improve her writing. So if you are making mistakes that an 8 year old can learn to avoid, then don’t be surprised if you are not getting success with your business proposal or job application. And before you think you don’t need to improve your grammar because you are a native English speaker who went to universities where English was the main medium of instruction, I have found that it is precisely native speakers who make the most mistakes. 

For every book I introduce, I have this segment called the author question. One question that I could ask the author. Ann Handley has a chapter called Avoid Writing by committee. It is a very short chapter, all of 2 paragraphs and 3 bullet points. Number 1 get the sign off on the bones of the outline and then start writing. Number 2 set clear expectations on number of rounds of approval. And Number 3 is seek approval, not an opinion.  My question to Ann Handley is I can see this working if you are producing a blog post but what advice do you have for the poor person who has to get opinions from different departments and pull them together into a written proposal. I confess most of my career in the civil service was spent on work like this and I dreaded every minute writing such papers. I will tweet this question to Ann Handley  and I will let you know when she replies.  

That’s all for this episode of the Book Judge. You can subscribe to this podcast through Apple Podcasts or Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. While you are there, leave a rating. It helps others discover this show.  

If you have comments, you can tweet me @ConradChua16, or DM me on Instagram. I am chuakh there. 

Till next time this is your Book Judge, Conrad Chua