Could Anyone Have Signed This?

Here's a test I run on almost every letter I receive from a CEO. I put my thumb over the signature and ask: who wrote this?

I almost never know.

"I'm delighted to share our results for the year. It's been a year of challenge and opportunity. I want to thank our people for their dedication, and our customers for their continued support. As we look to the year ahead, we remain committed to delivering value."

That letter could come from a bank, a hospital, a mining company or a cake shop. It could have been written by anyone, which is usually a clue that it was. The only thing telling me it's from the CEO is the name at the bottom.

This matters more than most executives think. When people can't hear a person in the writing, they do one of two things. They discount it, or they stop reading. Either way, the message dies, and the leader wonders why nobody got it.

What's missing is voice. Voice is the sum of the choices a writer makes: which story to tell, which detail to include, which word to use, where to start and where to stop. Two people writing about the same results should make different choices, because they are different people. When every choice is the safe, approved, committee option, the voice disappears and you get corporate beige.

The beige is a choice too. It feels safe because nobody can object to it. But nobody can remember it either, and a message nobody remembers is the least safe thing you can send.

So how do you get your voice back?

Say one specific thing. Not "a year of challenge". Which challenge? The supplier that went under in March? The night the system crashed? Specifics are what make writing sound like a person who was there.

Write the way you talk. If you wouldn't say "we remain committed to delivering value" across a table, don't write it. Read it aloud. If it sounds like a press release, start again.

Keep one opinion in. The draft that comes back from legal and communications will have every opinion sanded off. Fight for one. A view is what makes a reader think a human wrote it.

Pass the thumb test. Cover the name. If someone who knows you couldn't guess it was yours, it isn't finished.

None of this means you can't have help. Most leaders do, and should. But a good writer helps you sound more like you, not less. If your speechwriter's work could be signed by any CEO in the country, it's the wrong speechwriter or the wrong brief.

People follow people. They don't follow letterhead. If I can't hear you, I'm not listening.