The Secret Weapon for Getting Ahead at Work (and It's Not What You Think)

Do you ever get jealous at work? I'm ashamed to admit, but I do.?

I feel jealous of those who seem to have less work than me and keep a tidy desk. I hate that.

I'm envious of those who seem to 'have it all' with a perfect life. They're the ones on a Monday morning with amazing stories of their fun-filled-action-packed weekends paddle-boarding down a mountain for charity or something!?

Grrr...

And I get jealous of those with a full head of hair. Double grrr!

But you know who I get envious of the most?

It's that one coworker who seems to float to the top effortlessly. The golden child who nails the big presentations, wins over clients and gets picked for the choicest projects.?

What's their secret sauce?

Charisma? Workaholism? Perfect teeth?

While those all help, I’d argue their real secret weapon is much simpler: They know how to write.

Yup, writing. That thing we were all taught in primary school.

However, business writing has little to do with the five-paragraph essays and book reviews we endured throughout our school years.

Education rewards long, fancy words and complicated sentences that make your eyes glaze over.?Instead, effective professional writing is all about being clear, concise, and getting the result you want. One writing coach told me, “Good writing is good thinking.”

And in the business world, good writing pays off big time. Research shows that strong communicators get promoted faster, and companies desperately need people who translate complex ideas into simple, logical explanations.

Let me give an example from my last client in the software industry.?

When it came time to pick leads for a new product team, one of my contacts, 'Bob' (names have been changed to protect the innocent), shot to the top of the list. Was it because he pulled all-nighters or knew the most lines of code??

Nope.

The execs loved the way he wrote.

His emails were friendly yet crisp. His technical memos explained complex issues with simple analogies like "it's like having one giant pizza for 50 people instead of individual pies." And he could translate the team's ideas into PowerPoint slides that even the technically challenged CEO grasped.

Meanwhile, other guys on the team slaved away on the same projects but got overlooked time and again.?

Why?

Because while Bob was mastering the art of clear writing, the other guys assumed being smart and working hard was enough. Their loss, his gain.

So, if you want to climb the greasy corporate pole, I suggest you invest time in levelling up your writing skills.?

While an innate talent helps, and ChatGPT can help you cheat, the truth is that anyone can learn business writing.?

Here are a few tips I've picked up that you can try:

1. Know your audience. This is huge. Write with the reader's needs, interests, and knowledge level in mind. For example, an email to a busy exec should be concise, focused on key takeaways, and mention benefits to the company.
2. Organise your thoughts. Trying to write without a plan leads to meandering mush. Before diving in, take a few minutes to jot down your goal, main points, and desired outcome.
3. Read it aloud. This simple trick lets you catch rambling sentences, clumsy phrasing, and repetitive words--all things we tend to skim over in our writing.
4. Use everyday language. Business writing should be conversational and straightforward. Leave the tech-speak and jargon to the academics and geeks.
5. Cut the fluff. Prune out excess adjectives, unnecessary words, and anything that doesn't directly support your message. Every word should serve a purpose.
6. Care about the details. Fix misused words, spelling errors, and missing punctuation. Sloppy mistooks (mistakes) undercut your credibility. See what I did there??
7. Practice, practice, practice. Writing is a skill that improves with practice. You can find ways to flex those writing muscles through work emails, blog posts, and journaling.

So next time you've got an important message to share at work, don't just wing it and hope the verbal diarrhoea fairy waves her magic wand. Invest time to plan and polish your business writing.

Not only will you get your ideas across more effectively, but just like my friend Bob, you’ll stand out from the pack and pave the way to move up in your career.?

And then I'll be jealous of you too. But we can still be friends. Right??

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