What You Need To Know About Effective Written Communications

What You Need To Know About Effective Written Communications

Communication skills have become more essential than ever. Many job postings and job descriptions have a requirement for strong communication skills. The key to communicating is being able to communicate effectively. All communication is not created equal—there is good communication and better communication. How do you rate yourself?

Communication can be verbal or written. When verbal, you can see facial expressions and body language to make sure you’re sharing and exchanging information effectively. If the other person gives you a confused look, you know to stop talking and maybe repeat/explain your statements to minimize any misunderstandings. You don’t have the luxury of a “do-over” with written communication—you need to get it right the first time. So, take the time to make sure your document’s message is clear.

3 Things To Consider For Effective Written Communications

audience concept

Here are three things to consider for effective written communications:

1. The first thing you want to do is know your audience. Are you soliciting feedback from your customers, developing training materials for the employees, or writing an audit report to the board of directors? Or is the CEO/president posting a blog on social media You want to tailor the information to the audience.

2. Level of formality (such as formal, business, conversational, or casual) which may coincide with who your audience is. The level of formality may depend on your relationship with the individual. Is the person your boss? Colleague? External customer? Personal friend?

3. Different document types lend themselves to different writing styles (such as expository, narrative, persuasive, or technical):

  • User Manual – step-by-step procedures with screen prints
  • Process Workflow – utilizing a Visio graphic because sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words
  • Excel Pivot Table – a report summarizing large amounts of data that can be analyzed
  • PowerPoint slideshow rotating on a flat-screen TV (e.g. in the HQ lobby welcoming guests) – short, bulleted info, and graphics so that the message can be viewed quickly

There are some best practices that typically apply regardless of the writing style:

  1. Spell out acronyms the first time; some acronyms have more than one definition.
  2. Be careful using technical jargon and slang.
  3. Use white space, which gives your eyes a break especially when there is a lot of dense text.
  4. Don’t write in all caps unless you’re emphasizing to make a point or “yelling.”
  5. Check for typos, punctuation, and grammar.

Resources & Tools

web apps concept

Invest in your personal development. Some resources/tools to help you with your written communication skills:

1. Microsoft Word has several built-in features such as:

  • File 🡪 Options 🡪 Proofing lets you configure how you want Word to automate proofing your documents.
  • Review 🡪 Editor to not only check items such as spelling, grammar, clarity, and conciseness, but also check the level of formality—formal, professional, or casual.
  • Review 🡪 Check Accessibility to check how accessible your document is so that it’s inclusive.

2. There are multiple books you can purchase to improve your writing. I like The Elements of Style by William Strunk, Jr. and E.B. White. I think it’s such a great resource that for years I’ve even given copies of the book to my teams.

3. Take a writing class either in-person or online. Even if you consider yourself to be a fairly good writer, classes can provide good reminders, and maybe you’ll pick up a couple of new points. For example, did you know that there are email etiquette best practices?

  • Check with your organization’s training team to see what writing-related courses they offer.
  • There are many online courses to develop your writing skills such as those on LinkedIn Learning.

When you’re done writing your document, re-read it to make sure it reads well. Depending on the importance of the message, maybe have someone else read it too. Being able to share and exchange written information effectively is fundamental for both your work and personal life.

For more information on the importance of written communications, follow me on LinkedIn!

Why You’re Struggling To Change Careers

Why You’re Struggling To Change Careers

Changing careers is not for the faint of heart. But there are certain things you can do to make that change a lot easier. Unfortunately, I see a lot of job seekers make this one mistake when trying to change careers.

Here’s why you’re struggling to change careers…

You’re Not Conducting Informational Interviews

@j.t.odonnell Here’s why you’re STRUGGLING to change careers @uopx #UniversityofPhoenix #adsponsored #sponsoredad #jobtok #careertok #edutok #careerchange #careers #jobs #careeradvice #careermode #worklife #joblife #jobsearch #careertips #jobsearchtips ♬ original sound – J.T. O’Donnell

If you are struggling to make a career change, then you need to be doing something called informational interviewing. An informational interview is not a job interview. It’s an interview with people who you respect and trust, who work at the companies on your interview bucket list. It’s an interview where these people help you connect the dots and figure out how you’re going to take yourself from where you are right now to that new career.

Conducting informational interviews is really important because most people think they can’t make a career change, and they feel trapped. The truth is, in order to successfully change careers, you need to have a game plan, and informational interviewing is at the center of it.

The University of Phoenix actually has a free resource that walks you through all six steps of the informational interview process. First, they walk you through how to figure out who to interview. Then, they tell you what questions to ask so that you can get the correct information. And lastly, they even tell you how to follow up so that you can look professional and build your network.

So, if you’re struggling to change careers, try conducting informational interviews in your job search. I promise it’ll make your career change a million times easier.

Need more help with your job search?

I’d love it if you signed up for Work It Daily’s Power Hour Event Subscription! I look forward to answering all your career questions in our next live event!

4 Tips To Change Management You Might Not Know

4 Tips To Change Management You Might Not Know

The world has changed considerably since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. We’ve been going through so many changes, on various levels. Still, change is hard for so many reasons and people respond to it quite differently. The change management tips to know are about people, technology, self-awareness, and sustainability.

1. People

Coworkers meet about a project

​For enterprise-level systems or technology change projects, there are so many moving parts. Companies could forget to engage their most valuable resources, the people who will be impacted by the change. In that case, there’s confusion about why the change is valuable and how the change affects the day-to-day work.

When change is communicated properly and messaged in a clear way, it can be empowering. The stakeholders understand the purpose of the change and directly how it will influence them. This could be managed by conducting a stakeholder impact and analysis, creating a stakeholder engagement committee, and nominating change champions throughout the company.

2. Technology

technology, laptop

Naturally, technology is continually changing, and change is still hard for most people. Although the business knows some changes (such as year-end upgrades) are required, it will still make some groups anxious and put them on edge. Having a strong change management process is critical to ensure the change is successful.

Identify the change details such as the purpose, impact, timing, etc. Communicate this information to make sure the business has a clear understanding. Then get the key stakeholders to approve the change. Once the change has been implemented, you want to review to make sure the desired results were achieved. Make sure you report the results (successes) to the organization. With each successful change, it will make the organization more comfortable with the next change.

3. Self-Awareness

self-awareness concept

Experiencing change, it’s not just for everyone else. Many times, you will experience change, as well as manage it. And it’s not as easy as we preach. We all have our own things that we hold on to and it’s somewhat surprising when you find yourself in the resistance category. Not only is it surprising, but it’s also difficult to recognize in ourselves.

Are you avoiding attendance to a training session? Are you leaving out pertinent information to messages? Or—my favorite—are you having trouble making definitive decisions related to the change? These are only a few signs of change resistance but taking a few moments to reflect on our own behavior will alert us to any of our own resistance and then we can take steps to figure out what we need to move forward.

Many times, resistance is centered around losing control of something we have invested in emotionally. Recognizing this fear helps us deal with our emotions constructively, find ways to honor our investment, and then enter into a new change mindset that is open to new emotional investments.

4. Sustainability

change concept

Building on the change—the change work isn’t done when everyone celebrates the “go live” day. To get the full value of the investment and have the change stick, an organization must plan and execute for ongoing commitment, consistency, and keeping value creation in focus. Among companies that report successful completion of change initiatives, most will report 1-2 years later that the success wasn’t sustained, or it looks measurably different from what was first celebrated. Why is that? If people don’t see and experience the promised value of changes, they have no reason not to go back to what they were familiar with before. If the new way isn’t line of sight, relatable, and delivers consistently better results for ALL the stakeholders involved, then disappointment will lead to confusion, followed quickly by abandonment.

Yet it doesn’t have to happen this way. Understanding that change is a process, not an event, and putting into place “scaffolding” that supports the right conditions for the change to take hold and visibly produce value makes all the difference. Every change project is an opportunity to build the capacity for adaptability and responsiveness within an organization because there will be more changes to come in the future. Organization leaders and project sponsors who make clear the importance of the change and remain present not just for accountability but also for engaging in sense-making conversations create confidence that the change is driven by a ”why” and not just a “what.” When people connect these dots together, they see a way to collaborate and win as a team, and who doesn’t enjoy winning?