Brett Rutledge Editorial August 2010

The Australian election is over, the people have spoken and the result on election night is we still don’t know what we want. Fitting really, given that those competing for power spent the entire election campaign unwilling or unable to articulate what they were offering. At the time of writing Australia look like having only their second hung parliament since 1940 and only now are we starting to appreciate the full horror of what might be about to unfold – the potential combination of a hung parliament and a Prime Minister with a fondness for speedo’s.

And how have we arrived at this outcome?

Through one of the most common shortcomings and failings of the corporate (as well as the political) world and the subject of this months editorial – the abdication of the individual voice in favour of homogenized, impersonal corporate speak.

You know it’s me ‘cause I signed my name

This is an absolute non-negotiable. Everyone’s writing needs to be different from everyone else’s. And the only way that happens is if writers make different choices when they write, choices about the topics they pick, the words they use, the details they include, different beginning and ending strategies, and so on. The set of all the different choices a writer makes determines what is often called the “voice” in a piece of writing.

Voice, sometimes referred to as “tone” or “mood” or even “style,” tells the reader about the writer’s personality.

Because each of us has a unique personality, each of us has a unique voice in writing, and that is what makes our writing unique. The trick is in letting that voice come through. And the only way that happens is if we make different choices in our writing than other writers make in there’s, choices that reflect who we are inside — our original thoughts and personal feelings, our particular way of seeing things and interpreting them — and writing it all down.

When I read something sent out by a CEO or corporate leader I should be able to have the feeling that no one else could have written it. Their individuality and their personality should come through. If I don’t know them then I should be able to feel that I am getting to know them and if I do know them I should be able to imagine them saying the things that they have written.

Sadly, in the vast majority of the correspondence or marketing materials I read that are reputed to have come from a specific source the only way I can tell that is because they have attached their name to it. It could have, and probably was, written by anyone. The result is we discount the importance of what is being said… if we bother to read it at all.

More disturbing than the disappearance of the individual voice when writing however is it’s increasing absence from speaking. Too often our leaders and CEO’s seem to be interchangeable, spouting exactly the same kind of meaningless rhetoric using exactly the same kind of meaningless phrasing. I find myself looking to see if Jim Henson is standing behind them somewhere working their arms!

If only Kevin had learned from Simon and Lord Robert. Although, as I recall, Jenny Shipley committed suicide in similar fashion when the New Zealand public unceremoniously booted her and her government out of office. I wonder if Julia Gillard will be any different.

And when the homogenised approach invariably fails we hear, as we did from Julia Gillard during the election campaign, that they are now going to ‘take charge’ so that we might finally be able to experience the ‘real person’. This is quite possibly the most idiotic statement anyone could make. Think about what is really being said:

“I’ve been lying to you all this time. It is apparently no longer working. So, I am going to stop this charade and just be myself since the lying thing wasn’t going so well. You can trust me from here on in… honest!”

It’s too late. Not only have you confirmed what we all suspected but you have also validated our distrust. We will now attach even less importance to anything you say and we have zero faith that you are capable of any form of honesty or authentic leadership.

As far as we are concerned you should be bloody well hung and in the case of Australian politicians it appears that they are.

We cannot continue to eliminate the individual voice from our communication. It is absolutely crucial to not only getting your message across in some sort of meaningful way but also lies at the very heart of authentic leadership. If you don’t think being yourself is good enough in the circumstances to lead other people then you are probably not good enough in any circumstance and should simply get the hell out of the way.

Two words I need to get off my chest

While we are on the subject of personal voice and the use of language here are two words that are commonly misused that I would like to see eliminated from the lexicon:

Action — to act

A verb created from a noun not previously lacking in a root verb, namely, to act. Favoured by lazy administrators as a way of making their mundane tasks seem more consequential or deliberate. “When we have received the report from management, we will action their recommendations immediately.” Apparently, act (on, upon) or implement doesn’t create enough of an illusion that something will actually happen. By forcing the word action into their speech, they foolishly believe it evokes images of thrilling car chases and back-alley shootouts, rather than somniferous pencil-pushing. When you hear action used as a verb, you can expect to see very little actual action in the form of a noun.

Allegedly

A sloppy word misused by lazy journalists under the false belief it frees them from libel. A person cannot allegedly do something; rather someone else has to allege the crime. Wrong: “Bob Jones allegedly stole the car.” Correct: “Police allege Bob Jones stole the car.”

Seriously…get in touch

If you have any words you are sick of hearing from or an opinion on the deliberate banishment of the individual voice then I would love to hear it. Politics will be taking a break from the Editorial for a month or two but with finals season fast approaching in the sporting world it might be time to turn our attentions to the efforts of sports stars to string a sentence together! See you next time.