Are you an enemy of writing?

Managers can unintentionally hinder their team’s writing by not providing clear standards, dedicated time, and constructive feedback.

Many managers and business owners don’t realize they’re the villains when it comes to their team’s writing processes. You may be saying, “That’s not me. I’m not a villain.” Really? Let me ask you a few questions before you commit to that answer.

Are your writing standards and expectations (yes, there’s a difference) clear and codified for your team? Do your team members have time for focused writing during their workdays, or are they trying to eke out time to write in between constant distractions? Do they have to write at home? Do you expect your team members to fix their colleagues’ writing? Is your organization’s document review process hazy, confusing, or, worse, nonexistent?

Don’t worry, I won’t make you say your answers aloud.

The hard truth is that many enemies of writing don’t realize they’re enemies. They hold positive feelings in their hearts and intend to create supportive work environments for writing. But, you know the old saying about the road to hell being paved with good intentions?

So, how do you turn things around? Is there a 12-step program for reformed writing villains? Indeed, there is a path toward writing redemption.

To start, you must identify what leadership mistakes you and your organization are making when it comes to writing. Here are six of the most common mistakes and their solutions:

1. No writing time built into project timelines. Project timelines are nothing new. You have the research occurring during these dates, the data analysis conducted by this date, etc. Yet, many teams don’t build in time to write the proposal, report, executive summary, and whatever else needs to be written. I hate to burst anyone’s bubble, but no fairy godmother is going to come in and – poof – the writing is suddenly done. Written deliverables and their drafts need deadlines, and writers need time within the project timeline to get the writing done.
2. No time scheduled for focused writing during the workday. Team members need time within their workdays to write without distractions. The time doesn’t have to be every day, but focused writing time needs to be part of the workweek if you expect your team to produce documents that aren’t cringe-worthy. Research shows that distracted writing produces inferior documents when compared to focused writing.
   But one small phone call, one little email, or one tiny question from a colleague wouldn’t hurt, right? Wrong. Research finds it takes approximately 23 to 25 minutes for people to get back on task and into the swing of writing after attending to a distraction. So, if your team member sets aside one hour for “focused writing” and they get distracted twice, then they probably enjoyed a whopping 13.5 minutes of productive writing time.
3. No clear standards and expectations for the writing. Standards and expectations are different. A standard is a level of quality, something that is accepted as a norm, and generally used as a basis for judgment. An expectation is a belief something is going to happen or a feeling someone is going to achieve something. Standards are the stepping stones to reach desired expectations.
   For example, you can have both a standard that your writers adjust the technical language in their documents to meet their target audience’s knowledge level and a standard of defining any unfamiliar jargon for the target audience. Those standards can then guide your writers to achieve expectations for writing a “clear” document.
   The problem arises when expectations may be expressed, but standards are implied or missing. You can, and should, have expectations. But your team needs clear, overt, and written standards if they are to meet expectations.
4. Unclear and/or unreasonable expectations for reviewers. Expecting reviewers to “fix” writing doesn’t give reviewers standards by which to judge written documents, provide feedback, and help writers improve. Mostly, it frustrates and confuses.
   However, having clear, overt, and written standards and expectations for writers (hence No. 3 in this list) will help with this problem because it takes a “free-for-all” review and forces it to be focused, giving writers and reviewers laser-like aim on clearly defined, shared goals.
5. No dialogue between reviewers and writers. Writers and reviewers need to talk with one another. A quick sit-down or phone call to discuss why the writer made certain moves and why the reviewer thinks something should be changed is much faster (and more efficient) than multiple emails going back and forth trying to decipher what the other person means.
   But isn’t that what track changes and comment bubbles are for? In part, yes. Yet, miscommunications happen, and if the feedback isn’t on point to begin with, your writers and your reviewers will be thrown into a cycle of miscommunication, frustration, and inefficiency.
6. Little (if any) constructive feedback on the writing. Bad feedback is often generalized feedback. “Reword,” “unclear,” and “awkward” are examples of bad feedback because they aren’t specific or constructive and don’t provide the writer a path forward for revision. Instead, writers must guess what the reviewer wants and hope they guess correctly.
   Still, perhaps worse than bad feedback is no feedback. Writing isn’t an arena in which no news is good news. Writers need specifics, and they need to know what should be changed, how to change it, and, more importantly, why it should be changed. They also need to know what they’re doing well so they can continue with those positive behaviors. The more constructive the feedback, the more the writer will learn, and the better their documents will be.

Resolving leadership mistakes in your organization’s writing processes can take you from villain of the story to heroic champion of your team’s writing. The change will take time and work, but the benefits are worth the effort. Besides, everyone loves a good redemption story. 

Elizabeth Preston, Ph.D., is an executive consultant for Hurley Write and the producer and co-host of The Writing Docs podcast. Connect with her on LinkedIn. For more information, contact info@hurleywrite.com.