From Boardroom to Blog: The Many Writing Styles of Leadership
Knowing Self-Aware Leadership
Hello KSKOers
This week, through a mutual LinkedIn friend, I was connected with someone who wanted to write a book. It reminded me of this blog that’s been sitting in my ‘want to write’ pile for far too long. So, here are some thoughts on different leadership writing styles and how you can find your own voice to suit the right occasion.
Looking forward to joining you on your learning journey!
The First Word
I’ve always loved reading and writing. I owe this in part to my English teacher, who taught me about literature and language. She gave me the tools of alliteration, assonance and onomatopaeia. She opened the wardrobe door to the world of fiction and poetry and set me on a lifelong course of enjoyment. I also have to credit my brilliant history teacher, who taught me how to write a well structured essay. He taught me how to dissect exam questions and explore each element to time, to a word count with an intro and concluding paragraph neatly topping and tailing the composition.
Sadly both have now passed away, and I often regret not having rekindled my relationship with them in the years since I left school to thank them and tell them what I’ve done with all they taught me. But, I digress…
Over the years I’ve realised that there are different writing voices in which we write. This came in to sharp focus when I started writing my doctoral thesis. I realised that the standard business voice I’d been writing in for the 17 previous years was not the same as what academia needed from me now.
Academic Writing
Academia expects your writing to have a full, story like quality. At no point should there be any gaps in your writing. There should never be an instance where the reader has to
make up their own story. It should be punctuated by the neon signs of continuity and connection. If you read the introductory and concluding sections of each of my thesis chapters, you will know exactly what my process was, findings were and my methodology.
Academic writing is full of professional, niche and jargonistic terms which evidence your expertise in the subject. From this, you can’t get away. But, I decided that all of that notwithstanding, my academic writing would be as accessible as possible. In my literature review, I’d read many journal articles that were highbrow, loquacious and exclusive. They weren’t designed to be understood by mere plebs like me. They felt purposely written to ensure I knew how stupid I was. I decided I didn’t want any of my readers to feel stupid. After all, you don’t make your candle shine brighter by dimming someone else’s, do you?
Academic sentences are full and unabridged. In a doctoral thesis you can have a 90,000 word count in which to say what you need to say, so scrimping on descriptions, definitions and arguments is not necessary and not recommended.
Structurally, academic writing is a little different too. Your skeleton structure has very few limbs because your literature review, methodological choices, findings and evaluation determine your structure. For someone like me, writing from the detail to the headings is very difficult. Business reports are far easier because you generally start from the outside and work in. When the content drives the structure and you have to write from the inside out, that’s really difficult for people who need to understand the bigger picture before they understand the detail.
Business Writing
Business writing is different. If you’ve grown up in organisations where corporate governance is a huge factor in effective operating, you’ll have learnt the art of being succinct and to the point. You’ll have learnt to write a report with the quintessential beginning, middle and end. You’ll have penned your proposal in the third voice, keeping closely to facts and doing your utmost to avoid opinions and hyperbole. The aim with business writing is to remain neutral and present the best argument based on qualitative and quantitative information.
In my experience there’s also an unspoken rule that you never say more than you have to. Many a time I’ve edited a report and gasped - quickly deleting sections while my internal voice yells, “Don’t tell them that!!”. I can’t ever remember being told specifically what the ‘that’ was, but if you were gifted with political savvy and awareness of external relations your report was approved with limited editing. The one written by the person who’d had limited exposure to the concept of the Daily Mail test, was still going back and forth between senior colleagues at version 13. If you’ve ever read a paper being presented at a council cabinet committee or a paper going to an NHS Board, you’ll get the sense that there’s a lot going on between the lines.
Over the years, business writing has definitely become more accessible, with less in-speak and more plain English. But its purpose is only to tell you the specific things the author wants you to know. If you’re not sufficiently inquisitive to ask the right questions, that’s your problem…
Social Writing
Social writing, like the stuff we put out on Substack, LinkedIn and any of the other social media sites, is more personal with the purpose of connecting us with other people around the globe. This was the style in which I also wrote my book. As a leader, this is probably the riskiest form of writing. You have to show just enough of your own personality to build human connection whilst still retaining that professional stance and toeing the party line so that you don’t fall foul of your company policy and bring your organisation into disrepute.
Lucy Werner describes this as ‘showing a bit of ankle’. When I first read the phrase, I felt that it was all kinds of wrong in terms of my feminist views and anti-misogynistic stance But, I do know what she means. And it’s not exclusive to women. Male leaders need to show their human side too. I’m still not sure I like the phrase, but I do understand it: you don’t have to put your heart on your sleeve, but you do have to show a bit of yourself that you wouldn’t show in your board papers. People want to know the person behind the job title.
In social writing, I generally write as I would speak. You’ll see lots of contractions in my social writing that I wouldn’t write in my business and academic stuff. I actually get the same feeling about picking up a worm as I do reading contractions in business reports. Sad, but true. I find that reading social writing out loud is a very good way to determine whether it’s the right tone and vocabulary. I do this with business reports too. I also read my whole doctoral thesis aloud and recorded myself, listening back to it in the car for weeks and weeks….
Write for Readers
Something I did to prepare for my doctoral oral exam was to blog about my thesis and research findings. It was my way of translating my academic writing into discussion-ready phrases, sentences and vocabulary. I finished my doctorate just as Covid emerged which meant that I didn’t have an opportunity to talk to people about my research. I had very little opportunity to chit chat about my explorations and findings, meaning I didn’t know what my chapter on ontology and epistemology would sound like if I wanted to tell someone about it over coffee. Blogging helped me work out how to have conversations with people about things that I’d only written down in an academic style.
About a year ago I came across the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level readability test. I was reviewing some brochures or social media copy that my team was putting out to the public and I thought - there has to be a better way to explain this. I discovered this tool that helps you to review and edit the accessibility of your written English. The video is over a decade old now, but it’s wholly relevant to how we give people information today. I urge you to watch it. If you write anything that goes out into the public domain and you want the person on the street who you’ve never met before to read it and understand it, this is an excellent video to help you understand the kind of writing you need to achieve.
Find Your Writing Voice
To bring all of that together in a way that is helpful to you, here are five ways that you can find your writing voice to suit the right writing occasion:
Read the Right Stuff: If you want to sound academic, spend time reading journal articles, dissertations and theses. If it’s a board paper you’re writing, read other good board papers. Immersing yourself in the right examples is a bit like tuning your ear to a new accent, before long, you start to hear the rhythm and tone that fits the occasion.
Say It Out Loud: One of the best tricks I’ve learned is simply reading my work out loud. You can’t hide from clunky sentences when you hear them in your own voice. Recording yourself and listening back, even while you’re in the car or having lunch, gives you a real sense of how your writing will land with others, and whether it really sounds like you.
Turn It Into a Conversation: If your writing sounds too stiff, imagine explaining it to a friend over coffee. Blogging or journaling can help with this too. I used to practice translating academic concepts into everyday conversations and it was a game-changer. Practice and practice some more, to make sure your writing has a ‘conversation-ready’ version.
Check Your Readability: There are some handy tools out there, like the Flesch-Kincaid readability test, that can give you a quick reality check on whether your words are too dense or overly simple. They’re not the be-all and end-all, but they do help you to think about who you’re writing for and whether the message you’re trying to convey is what is likely to be received.
Play With Different Voices: When you’re drafting, try writing the same idea in two or three different ways, once as if it were an academic piece, once as a business report, and once like you’d tell the story in a social post. Lining them up side by side shows you what fits best. Over time, this exercise makes switching between writing voices feel much more natural.
The Last Word
In the end, finding your writing voice isn’t about picking one style and sticking with it forever. It’s about knowing which one to call on for the occasion. Academic, business, social, or something in between: each has its own rhythm and purpose. The important this is to practise, to listen to yourself, to try things out and see what fits.
We rely heavily on the written word to convey information, stance, sentiment, decisions, choices and so much more. I know that the world of social media and marketing is moving more towards short and long form video, but I don’t think we’ll ever replace the written word. And whilst we live in a world so heavily reliant on it, let’s make ourselves good at it. Let’s write well, let’s write engagingly and let’s write so that people of all backgrounds and professionals know what we’re trying to say. Connecting with your reader is critical. If you can help them feel invited in rather than kept out, then you’ve already found the right voice for that instance. As a leader, my recommendation is to learn to diversify your writing style and be the self-aware, adaptable leader that organisations and the people in them need.
Nia is an expert leader who talks the talk and walks the walk. She is an academically awarded thought leader in self-aware leadership and practices self-aware leadership every single day in her role as a Chief Operating Officer in a mother and baby charity.
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