Business writing is a bit like doing laundry. You sort out through various ways of sending your message, try to pour the right tone all over it, and dry up the whole thing with as much professionalism as I can muster. You may wind up folding the whole thing away in hopes that it will be as effective as you wished.
For many, business writing is a hurdle to overcome with much effort, at times, much frustration. As women, it may be even more frustrating as we also face many challenges and biases in the workplace. I’ve certainly faced this frustration at times. However, thanks to my experience in the business world and as a writer, I have devised simple steps to help me write effectively, originally and faster (and even enjoy the process) as a working woman:
Start with the why: Is it really necessary?
How many emails, business letters, or other business communication have you received that could have been the subject of a quick phone call or simply avoided? Throughout my career and in my business, one recurring theme I noted was unnecessary business communication.
We’re all submerged by floods of business communication we don’t need. This reduces our effectiveness as business communicators, especially as women. This is especially important as our voices as women already tend to be silenced. Start by asking yourself if what you are writing is necessary. If it can be subject to a quick phone call, or if you are delivering bad news, it may be best to do it in person.
Know your audience
A crucial aspect of effective business writing is knowing who you’re writing to. One of the mistakes we often make is to tailor our writing to everyone. However, being familiar with your audience helps you adjust your writing accordingly.
An easy way to do this is to mentally picture your audience, and write accordingly.
Define your objective
Before you even start crafting your message, ask yourself what you are trying to accomplish. Whether you’re trying to share a concept, explain something, make a request, your objective must come through your writing. An easy way to do this is to reduce your message to a slogan. The simplest way you can explain your message, the better.
Tell a story (Who, What, When and Where)
As a writer, I love stories. As a career woman who’s experienced numerous business environments, I realized that stories are not just reserved to literary pursuits. Besides, women are natural storytellers, which gives us a competitive advantage.
As you craft any piece of business communication, think of it as a story with these essential components:
Who: Who are you?
What: What is this about?
When: When is the subject of your communication due?
Where: Where are you located?
You’ll be surprised how many business people forget to include vital information in their business communications. This in turn fosters lack of clarity, confusion and monumental wastes of time.
Use the KISS Principle
The KISS (Keep It Simple and Stupid) is one of the cardinal foundations of great business writing. We may think that using big words and overly complicated jargon may make us sound smarter and more effective. However, the opposite is true.
Here are a few tips to keep your business writing simple and effective:
Use simple words instead and avoid buzzwords and jargon at all costs.
Always start with the most important information
Use short sentences and paragraphs instead of longer ones.
Use clear subject lines
Break up your messages
Don’t forget to proofread your piece of writing to ensure that the final product is reliable.
Keep it Active
One of the biggest mistakes in business writing is the use of the passive voice. Instead of writing “The report will be delivered on Tuesday”, write instead “I will deliver the report on Tuesday”. Writing in the active voice is a powerful way to clarify and brighten your writing. This is especially important to assert our voices at work and in business.
Always present yourself or whoever is acting in the active voice in all your business communications.
Watch your tone
Tone plays a critical role in business writing. It’s important to strike a balance between politeness and assertiveness in your business writing. As a working woman, I have struggled with establishing the appropriate balance in my own writing.
While it’s necessary to be polite, it’s also important for us as women to be assertive. I’ve learnt to inject more assertiveness in my writing by being clear, direct and to the point.
What are your tips for effective business writing?
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Being an introvert in professional environmentsthat cater to extroverts can be a challenge. In work settings where networking, public speaking, and interviewing are considered to be crucial, there may seem to be little, or no room, for introverts.
When determining the types of jobs that are best suited for introverts, it’s important to consider the areas in which introverts excel. If you’re one of those people who enjoy working alone, one of these 7 careers may be perfect for you:
1.Social Media Manager
Social managers are responsible for managing the social media interactions of small businesses or even individuals. While they deal with countless Twitter, Instagram and/or Facebook followers, they can still maintain their privacy and alone time. Working in this “virtual bubble” allows them to recharge and be more productive, by not being in constant contact with people.
2.Artist
If you’re a quiet loner who enjoys spending days in your studio creating art, an artistic career may be perfect for you. It’s a perfect field if you’d rather cater to your creativity than interact with lots of people at once.
3.Statisticians
If you’re a number geek who loves to let numbers speak, then being a statistician may be the perfect career fit for you. In this career, you could immerse yourself in spreadsheets and calculations, and avoid small talk altogether. It’s also a pretty lucrative career with a median salary of $70,000 per year.
4.Chef
Private chefs spend most of their time preparing foods for different sizes of audiences. However, they don’t have to deal with people in the process, which makes it a top career for introverts. Most private chefs are actually female, which is also an anomaly.
5.Video Game Artist
If there’s any career that combines fun with virtual reality, it’s being a video game artist. While they help create virtual experiences, they don’t have to interact with people.
6.Actuary
If you’ve got a head for numbers, then actuary may be a top career for you. This work entails analyzing the costs of risks and uncertainty using financial theory and mathematics. It’s based on assessing the risk that certain events will occur, that risk-based policies for businesses and clients are developed. The best part? The median salary for actuaries is $95,000.
7.Technical Writer
Having a good understanding of technology and being able to put complex information into simple, understandable terms, technical writing could be a great career for you as an introvert. It involves independently researching various technology topics to write instruction manuals and supporting documentation.
As our careers and lives get busier by the minute, self-care is becoming a priority for most of us. Constant work demands, fast-paced environments, and distracting social media leave us perpetually frazzled and stressed.
Yet, one of the biggest obstacles to practicing self-care is finding the time to actually do it. Since most of us spend the majority of our time at work, here are 7 steps to practice self-care right in our work environment:
Give yourself a break
We tend to be our harshest critics, which takes a toll on our mental and emotional well-being. Instead of constantly criticizing yourself, start seeing the positives. Would you be as hard with your fellow co-workers as you are with yourself? Refrain from judging yourself or your work harshly. It will boost your confidence and lessen the weight of self-doubt on you.
Change your workspace
It’s no surprise that your work environment has a huge impact on your productivity. Instead of being surrounded by clutter, consider cleaning your desk periodically. It will help you gain more clarity while eliminating unwelcome distractions.
Get inspired by putting up pictures, images and artwork representing people and things that matter to you. Overall, if your workspace is not a reflection of yourself, it may be time for an update.
Surround yourself with the right people
A crucial component of self-care is being around the right people. You must surround yourself with healthy, supportive and positive relationships that push you to reach higher.
Is your team supportive of your goals? Who around you at work drains you? Who, on the other hand, motivates and feeds you? Spend more time with those co-workers and colleagues who inspire and support you. The same goes for your relationships outside of work as well. Nurture these relationships by taking time to check on your loved ones.
Manage your emotions
One of the biggest mistakes so many of us make at work is to repress our emotions. Instead of avoiding the reality of your feelings, acknowledge and learn to manage them. Emotions are here to guide us to better understand ourselves. The more authentic you can be, the more fulfilled and successful you’re likely to be.
Honor your value
In any given workday, other people will make demands on us. Whether they require our time, energy or resources, frequent external requests will leave us distracted and frazzled. As a result, we end up not taking care of ourselves or tending to our priorities.
Take some time at the beginning of each day to set out and write down your goals for the day. Make a decision throughout the day as to which requests from others you can afford to attend to. If they go against your priorities and goals for the day, you may want to start saying no!
Recharge!
You simply cannot function on empty. Your cup has to be filled in order to contribute to your life, career and other responsibilities to the best of your potential.
Refill your tank by getting the adequate amount of sleep every night. Consider taking frequent breaks during the day. If possible, take lunch breaks away from your desk.
Learn to celebrate yourself
Many of us fail to celebrate our accomplishments and victories, in life and at work. We’re simply too busy to stop and ask ourselves: “What did I do well today, last week, last month, or even last quarter?” Consider asking your team and colleagues at work the same question.
Celebrate the positives, and learn from the areas in which you can improve.
Have you attended a meeting at work and felt like somehow, you didn’t quite belong? Or landed a promotion that you didn’t feel you deserve? I know I have, and you may have as well as a working woman who’s ever experienced the Impostor Syndrome at work. This is an issue that has always affected women, and also does racial minorities as well as minority groups.
It doesn’t matter how competent, qualified or driven you are. We’ve all felt this way, at one point or another in our careers. According to this Behavioral Science Research Institute’s study, around 70 percent of people have experienced the Impostor Syndrome at work.
Impostor syndrome, also known as “fraud syndrome”, occurs when we don’t feel like our successes are deserved. Instead, we tend to attribute our achievements to external circumstances, like timing, coincidence or sheer luck. Most people affected by it worry they’ll be exposed as a fraud, and are likely to experience strong anxiety, fear and distress as a result.
I started feeling the Imposter Syndrome as early as my college years. I never quite could shake the feeling that I didn’t deserve to be in those upper-level Accounting and Finance classes, or that I could actually graduate as an honor student. Even as I walked across the stage on Graduation Day after completing my Master’s degree, there was a sense that I had only been fortunate to have gotten that far. This sense of sheer luck rather than deserving accomplishment followed me in my career as I would unconsciously sabotage my progress at times for fear to be discovered as a fraud.
Ridding yourself of the Impostor Syndromeis hard! After all, it’s a mindset buried under years of faulty self-belief about who you are, what you’re able to accomplish, and what you really deserve in life. Yet, you can fight it and use it instead as fuel to succeed at work again, this time on your own terms and with a smile on your face. As women, we carry so many societal and social expectations that it can easy for us to succumb to the pressures of feeling like a fraud in and outside of work.
Here are five ways you can fight it at work, and even beyond your career:
Acknowledge the problem
You’ve heard it before. You can’t solve a problem unless you acknowledge it first. Many of us have a hard time taking an honest look at ourselves, and recognizing that we do suffer from Impostor Syndrome. Instead, we use excuses to make ourselves feel better.
Where are you undervaluing yourself? Which of your successes are you attributing to luck or favorable circumstances? Do you think you’ve only gotten the promotion because the boss likes you? Or that you’ve been invited to this high-visibility infrastructure project at random? Do you feel like you don’t deserve to manage that project because you’re not experienced enough?
Pinpoint those areas where doubt is creeping in and your confidence is crumbling. Be honest about them, and write them down on paper to really identify the problem at hand.
Get Your Success Box Out!
One of the most powerful lessons that one of my mentors taught me is to always remember to get your Success Box out! You may be wondering: “What is this Success Box?” It’s made out of all your past accomplishments, everything you have ever done successfully in your life.
There’s something about reminding yourself of how far you’ve come, and how much you’ve done, that restores your confidence back. Whether it’s the college degrees, the certifications, the positive feedback, the personal journey, whatever it is that shows that you’ve done it before, is proof that you can do it again! I suggest keeping an actual box where you write down on pieces of paper your recent successes and take it out every time you need that confidence boost!
Sharing is Caring!
Sharing your expertise and journey is also a great way to remind yourself of your competence and ability! Find someone who needs help in an area that you’re knowledgeable about, and engage them to see if you can help or mentor them. It may be a more junior employee, a family member or a friend in need.
I find that every time I can help someone else by sharing my expertise, I end up realizing how much I know and am capable of. I also learn through the process about myself, my strengths and other areas I can develop.
Consider also sharing your experience with the Impostor Syndrome with trusted friends, family members and colleagues. It’s also an empowering way to recognize the problem, and courageously face it by talking about it.
Ask yourself: What Would You Do If You Weren’t Afraid?
The biggest culprit with the Impostor Syndrome is the resulting fear. Try reversing this angst by asking yourself this question: “What would I do if I weren’t afraid?” I actually have a Post-It note on my desk with this question on it. Every time I feel the fear creeping up in me, I look at it and loudly ask myself the question, over and over again.
What would you do? Would you go for this exciting career opportunity abroad? Would you apply for the promotion or ask for that raise? Would you create that business? Ask yourself the question, and let the answers lead you towards the success you deserve!
Change your words!
A mentor of mine once told me: “Your words are your life!” In other terms, your language is a preview of who you are! It also tells others about how much you trust yourself. Phrases like “I think”, or “I feel” indicate a lack of assurance in your ow potential.
Instead, change your words to reflect a more confident personality. Use language that conveys the fact that you believe in yourself, your competence and your ideas.
Watch this YouTube video as a recap:
Now your turn: How do you fight Impostor Syndrome at work?
Welcome to our weekly career, entrepreneurship, lifestyle and fashion news roundup! Think of it as your online watercooler/work gossip station/coffee break spot for now…Want to add anything to our list? Email us at corporate@thecorporatesister.com!
Work It Daily shares how to dominate the job market after graduation;
Workology shares what we can learn from Starbucks closing its US pay gaps;
Glassdoor shares how to get a promotion when you’re an introvert;
Recruiter shares 20+ skills that will look great on your resume;
Summer is coming! Making Sense of Cents explains how to save thousands for your next vacation;
The Daily Muse tips us off on the stupid easy way to make your phone less distracting at work;
Our Workwear feature presents various pieces of work-appropriate attire at different price ranges and sizes.
This fun yet professional shirtdress from Ann Taylor is perfect to transition from winter to spring. The romantic ruffle front adds a great touch of femininity to this number. The long sleeves are weather-appropriate, while the classic cut effortlessly takes you from desk to dinner. It’s available at Ann Taylor.
