Justwrite.biz

As a middle manager or team leader in an organization, you’re in a position which may sometimes be very challenging. You’re facing two ways, responsible to your boss above you in the hierarchy and to your subordinates or team below.

From above, a flow of orders and demands may come your way. ‘Give me a progress report.’ ‘You’re taking too long on this job: you’ve got to get it finished by next Friday.’ ‘I know you need an extra person but we don’t have the money to employ one.’

From below, there will always be situations that require attention. ‘It’s going slowly because the machine keeps breaking down.’ ‘We order something and it takes too long to arrive.’ ‘You know we need that extra person: I’m doing a job I’m not qualified to do.’ ‘We’re all under pressure and corners get cut: what do you expect?’ Especially in times of stress, morale may slump and it’s your job to revive it.

In such circumstances, if you possess the skill of writing you have a huge advantage. If you can describe a situation succinctly in writing, if you can use the written word to express your views at precisely the right level of strength, you have the ability to exert influence that people who lack that skill simply don’t have.

Imagine! You go and see your boss to make a verbal request for more resources, and end up being sent away with a flea in your ear. You’re left feeling angry and resentful, and wondering how you’re going to explain your lack of success to your team.

Now imagine something different! You draft a memo making the case for more resources. You outline (a) the problems you’re facing now, (b) how the extra resources would help you to solve those problems, and (c) what is likely to happen if you don’t get the extra resources.  You then show this draft memo to your team and ask them if there’s anything they think should be changed or added. You then finalize the memo and take it to a meeting with your boss. You take your boss through it point by point, and leave it with him (or her).

Note the many benefits of doing it this way:

(1) It’s much more difficult for your boss to avoid giving a considered reaction to your request.
(2) It’s easier for you to keep cool in the meeting.
(3) The memo is something that your boss can pass on to his or her boss.
(4)Your team knows you have done your best.
(5) In the future, your boss won’t be able to say ‘I didn’t know it was this bad’, and you will have shown that you have behaved responsibly – and, as they say, you’ll have ‘covered your back’!

All these are benefits that come from putting your case in writing!

‘I’M NO GOOD AT WRITING’

People are always telling me ‘I’m no good at writing.’ In almost every case it turns out that they have never been taught how to write! (A resounding failure of the great British school system, as I said in my Introduction.) How on earth could you be expected to do well at something you have never actually been taught to do?

And when you were appointed to your present job, almost certainly you got the job on the basis of your technical or social skills or your practical experience: writing ability didn’t come into it.

So don’t give yourself a hard time by imposing unrealistic expectations on yourself, or by imagining that other people are entitled to have those unrealistic expectations of you.

Instead, please take a few minutes to notice all the things that you are already good at, all the skills that you already possess – try making a list – and then take on board this message:

• Learning a skill is easiest when you’re working on a task that is important to you and there is someone to help you.

• There is a ‘someone’ available to help you when you’re working on a writing task.

• The more you use and develop the skill of writing, the easier it gets to tackle writing tasks on your own.

Now read on!

GET IN TOUCH!

If you’ve read my Welcome page, you now know something of who I am and how I work. And you’ll have some idea of how I might be able to help you. If you would like more information on anything, including fees (reasonable!), please send an email to: peter.levin [at] justwrite.biz

As I said earlier, I’ll be happy to discuss your needs. If you include your phone number (landline preferred, please) in your email, I’ll be happy to give you a call and we can talk over the phone. There’s no charge for an exploratory discussion, of course. I look forward to hearing from you.

GUARANTEE OF CONFIDENTIALITY

I appreciate the need for complete confidentiality in the work I do for you. I treat everything that passes between me and my clients in complete confidence. I do not and will not disclose any information about clients, or any information that would enable a client to be identified.

Peter Levin

‘Helping you get from first thoughts to polished paragraphs’