The Mobile MBA: 112 Skills to Take You Further, Faster (Richard Stout's Library) (25 page)

No writer should ever write about how to write. It is an invitation to ridicule as readers see the writer is breaking all his own rules. So feel free to chuck the rotten tomatoes and custard pies in my direction as I share what I have been taught about writing. As ever, theory is easier than practice.

Fortunately, we do not have to write like Shakespeare. But by following a few simple rules it will make it easier for us to write persuasively. After years of being beaten up by one editor, I figured out he always called me out with five rules. Here they are:

1. Write for the reader.
Do not write what you want to write. Work out what your reader needs to hear and why they need to hear it. Then craft your message for that reader. You will find you can reduce your document dramatically this way.

2. Tell a story.
Marshall your facts into a clear and consistent argument. It should have a beginning (this is where we are, the challenge we face) an end (this is where we are going to) and a middle (this is how we are going to get there).

3. Keep it simple.
Simple means short words and short sentences. Short is easier to understand than long, and is more likely to be read.

4. Make it active.
The passive tense is boring and pompous; the conditional sounds uncertain and weasel-like. Use positive language, positive tense.

5. Support assertions with facts.
The easiest way to kill your credibility is with a false fact or number: once the reader sees one mistake they will assume the worst. In the words of Warren Buffett: “There’s never just one cockroach in the kitchen.”

Shakespeare probably ignored these rules. But he was a genius, he did not have to write business documents, and he did not have my editor beating him up.

We have a problem. You are reading this (although possibly for not much longer), so why on earth should you read about how to read when you can already read? Because there is a huge difference between reading for pleasure and reading for business.

I thought I knew how to read, until I came across Andrew. We were all sitting in the old-fashioned partners’ office. We thought we were all pretty bright, except for Andrew. If we shone as brightly as a hundred-watt bulb, he was a solitary, spluttering candle. But much to our annoyance, all the staff reckoned that Andrew was brighter than the rest of us.

One day, I saw Andrew scribbling away. I asked him what he was doing. “I have some associates coming in with a paper to test me,” he said. I had always thought that was our chance to test them, not the other way around. “They want to see if I can add any value to their draft. So I am making some notes.” He then patiently explained to me how he would pass his associates’ reading test. He had three rules:

1.
“Make a note of my point of view on the paper. They are all smart, and I do not want to get caught up in their internal logic.” That hurt. I was always getting caught up in the internal logic of what I was reading: I would then find it hard to come up with an original insight.

2.
“Make a list of all the topics that I expect to see covered. That helps me see the invisible: what they have not covered in their paper.” I was starting to see why they thought Andrew was so smart. I never spotted the invisible until too late: after they had left the room.

3.
“Outline a few coaching points I can cover, so that they feel they have gotten something out of me.” Now I started to see why they not only thought Andrew was smart, but they liked him as well.

reading for business means reading with prejudice and purpose

I had discovered that reading for pleasure and reading for business are completely different. Reading for pleasure means reading with an open mind, and enjoying the journey of discovery. Reading for business means reading with prejudice and purpose. Eventually, I found that just a couple of minutes’ preparation before seeing a paper
or hearing a presentation would make me a much more critical and effective reader and listener. Some people even started to think I might be smart. Getting to be liked was an entirely different challenge... .

Should you communicate in person or electronically: by email, phone, video conference? Because we have the technology we like to use it. That is a universal but unsound human instinct, as demonstrated by the existence of nuclear weapons. We should only use technology when it is appropriate.

There is a simple guiding principle for when to use technology for communicating:

• Transactions can use technology, but

• Trust requires face-to face-communication.

The most common mistake is to use technology to communicate when trust is required, for instance:

• Sending an email to make your position clear on a sensitive issue: you then leave an electronic trail which vindicates you if things get worse. But it does nothing to resolve the issue: talking to the other party might solve the problem, rather than covering your backside.

• Setting a video conference with some key partners/suppliers/customers or vendors in another country. Very efficient and it saves money. But it is ineffective, however good the video conferencing technology is. Seeing someone does not build trust. The small side conversations, the chance to catch a meal with the partner, the get-to-know chit-chat are all lost in a formal video conference. If you want to build a relationship, you have to invest in it: buy a plane ticket and visit them.

• Giving some bad news to the boss over the phone: it has the advantage of being quick and you do not have to confront the ogre face to face. But you miss the chance to gauge the reaction properly. And if you meet face to face, the boss cannot put the phone down on you: you will probably stay until you have worked out a way forward.

If your meeting is about using or building trust, meet the person face to face.

Miscommunication is at the heart of too many conflicts and crises in the workplace. We all like to think that we communicate well (speaking and listening) and that other people are at fault: they do not say clearly what they mean and they do not listen. Ultimately, we are all part of “they.”

Effective communication requires hard work. Here are five basic principles to follow:

COMMUNICATE EARLY
Anchor the discussion where you want it to be anchored. If a rival agenda anchors itself before yours, you will find it hard to shift.

COMMUNICATE OFTEN
Repetition works. I use the rule of seven: I do not expect people to have heard, understood and to act on what I have said until I have said it seven times, here is why:

• First time: they literally do not hear what was said.

• Second time: they hear what was said but ignore it.

• Third time: they no longer ignore it, but think it is not important.

• Fourth time: they realize it may be important, but are not prepared to act on it.

• Fifth time: they might want to act on it, but do not yet understand what they must do.

• Sixth time: they now understand what to do, but have other things to do.

• Seventh time: OK, I surrender, I will do it. Now.

BE CONSISTENT
Say the same message time and time again. If your message deviates slightly, once, rest assured that everyone will pick up on that and start the game of “I thought you meant....” Assume that anything you say will be misinterpreted. People hear what they want to hear, not what you want them to hear.

KEEP IT SIMPLE
You know what you mean and it is obvious to you. Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately) your colleagues are not psychic and cannot read your mind. And they have other things to think about. Anything you say will not just be misinterpreted: it will be misunderstood. Assume you are
explaining your idea to a classroom of primary school children, and then simplify your message further.

USE DIFFERENT MEDIA
Some people love email, others do face to face, some prefer the phone, some listen more in the morning than the evening (or vice versa). If the message is important, do what it takes to get the message across in a way that ensures it will be heard.

Nothing pleases a newspaper editor more than a good scandal, preferably involving a celebrity. Many political careers, carefully nurtured over decades, have been wrecked overnight by a moment of indiscretion. Your indiscretion may not make the front page of the newspapers, but unlike a celebrity scandal, it is unlikely to be a career enhancing move. Too many careers have been wrecked needlessly: the pain and expense of the MBA and all the late nights wasted.

Even minor indiscretions are damaging. When it comes to promotion time, you will be competing against a horde of other people all of whom have single-handedly transformed the universe, if their promotion packages are to be believed. So you need something distinctive, something by which senior management can remember you. If they remember you for that unfortunate episode at the Christmas party, kiss promotion goodbye.

Here are the three basic principles of “professional guard”:

1. Anything you do, say, or write will be seen by the person you least want to see it.
This includes anything from your social life: Facebook is dangerous. When writing an email assume that the one person you do not want to read it is sent a copy. Gradually, you will find that this principle forces you to be positive and action focused in what you do; being negative and political is simply too dangerous, besides being a waste of time.

2. Public places are dangerous places.
You do not know who is listening to your phone call on the train, or who might read the documents spread out in front of you. I have benefited greatly over the years with suppliers and rivals from their failure to protect confidence.

3. Negative comments and actions make you look negative.
It is very easy to slip into gossiping and talking about how terrible the boss is, your colleagues are, etc. Occasionally I interview people who tell me how dreadful their previous employer was: I do not want to work with someone so negative, so indiscreet and who is going to talk behind my back like that. Even if you had a massive falling out, focus on the positives.

Business etiquette is not about knowing what to do with the salad fork. It is about treating people in a way that gets the most out of them. For some managers, this means that etiquette is about bullying, shouting, cajoling, threatening, and demeaning. For the rest of us, there is a better way.

Etiquette is not about the big things like motivation and dealing with conflict. It is about the small things, the everyday incidents of office life. For instance, do you really want to work with someone who is always late, puts his feet up on the table, interrupts meetings to take phone calls, starts texting when you start talking, and never says thank you?

all the small courtesies of business life do not cost you much

Little things count. In Japan, I was struck that my hosts would always escort me personally to the front door on the way out, even the CEO if I had been meeting the CEO. They convey the appearance of caring and making you feel wanted. Ultimately, there is a golden rule to business etiquette: “Do unto others as you would have them do to you.” Being prompt, saying thank you and all the other small courtesies of business life do not cost you much. Work out how you like to be treated, and then treat others the same way.

Who do you trust most:

• The well groomed and well dressed person in a tailored suit?

• The wild eyed person with matted hair who looks like they have slept in their clothes for the past week?

If you chose the person in a suit, you may well have chosen an expenses cheating politician, a convicted financial fraudster, a megalomaniac dictator, or a greedy banker. And the wild eyed person might be the IT geek who has spent all night working miracles to fix your IT system to prevent it collapsing at the start of business in the morning.

We should not judge people by their appearances and we should not judge books by their covers. But we do.

Traditionally it used to be easy to know how to dress. In the army, you wore the uniform and had the braid if you were a chief. In the highlands of Papua New Guinea, the chief is the one with the big feathers. In the army, you can wear your medals and get respect. In the office, if you wear your MBA degree on
your chest, you will not get respect. In the office, as in the army, there used to be a uniform. But the conformity of uniform has been replaced by the uncertainty of choice. The IT firm may want to look funky, laid back, and creative to recruits, and buttoned down, risk free, and powerful to clients: what to wear? In advertising agencies, creative types have one set of rules and account executives have another set of rules.

Short of calling in the color consultants who will divine your perfect color and color coordinate your entire wardrobe in a delicate shade of mauve, we need some simple principles to follow. There are just two main principles:

• Conforming

• Conservatism

Conforming means dress for your context. If everyone else at the conference is going to be in jeans and T-shirt, you will look like a stuffy old fart if you cling to your suit. Like Superman, you need to be able to change wardrobe according to circumstances. Unlike Superman, you should not wear your underpants outside your trousers.

If in doubt about the context, err on the side of being conservative. Within your office, notice how people one or two levels above you dress: take your cues from them, not from your peers. The chances are that your bosses invest more in their appearance than your peers. And if you want to be part of the boss club, it pays to dress by club rules.