Presenter
Deborah Dumaine
By applying our proven process, The Six Steps to Reader-Centered Writing®, you will:
- Communicate more strategically in writing
- Empower and motivate your people
- Be clear and succinct
- Write faster
- Manage more productively
Key Takeaways
- 1.Effective leaders use daily writing to communicate strategies, manage change, and achieve results.
- 2.The modern virtual workplace requires leaders to provide coaching, direction, and difficult news through written communication.
- 3.Leaders who write well are more likely to be recognized and promoted for their competence.
- 4.Successful writing for leaders is personable, non-judgmental, brief, and tactful.
- 5.Strong writing skills allow leaders to deliver sensitive messages effectively and reframe negatives into positives.
- 6.With high volumes of email, the risk of communication blunders that can quickly damage an organization is higher than ever.
The Challenge of Virtual Leadership Communication
In today’s virtual and hybrid workplaces, writing has become a primary instrument for leadership. Leaders must convey strategy, manage organizational change, and drive results using written communication, particularly email. The absence of face-to-face contact means that coaching, direction, encouragement, and even difficult news must be handled effectively through writing. The high volume of daily email increases the risk of communication blunders that can have immediate, negative ripple effects across an organization.
How Effective Leaders Use Writing
Leaders who are recognized and promoted often share a common skill: they write well. They use writing as a tool to empower and motivate their teams. This webinar, featuring insights from Deborah Dumaine, explores the techniques that set these leaders apart.
Key Writing Behaviors
Successful leader-writers consistently:
- Write personably and non-judgmentally: They craft messages that build trust and maintain morale.
- Communicate with clarity and brevity: They get their point across on the first read, respecting the recipient's time.
- Deliver sensitive messages with tact: They handle difficult topics with empathy, turning potential conflicts into constructive dialogues.
- Turn negatives into positives: They frame challenges and directives in a way that inspires action and creates opportunities for growth.
Practical Applications for Your Leadership
Leaders can immediately apply the principles from this session to improve their impact:
- Prioritize Clarity: Ensure all written communications are direct and to the point.
- Cultivate a Positive Tone: Consciously review messages to ensure they are personable and non-judgmental, especially when delivering difficult news.
- Practice Tactical Communication: Use specific, empathetic phrasing and structure when delivering sensitive information.
- Use Writing for Motivation: Frame challenges and directives in a way that inspires action and transforms perceived negatives into opportunities for improvement.
In today's virtual workplace, writing serves as a critical leadership instrument, essential for conveying strategy, managing change, and driving results. This session, featuring insights from Deborah Dumaine, explores how to leverage daily writing to enhance leadership effectiveness and avoid common communication pitfalls.
What you'll learn
- How to utilize written communications, particularly email, as a powerful tool for leadership.
- Techniques for articulating strategies and managing change through clear, concise writing.
- Methods for delivering coaching, direction, and even difficult news effectively in a virtual environment.
- Strategies employed by successful leaders to write personably, non-judgmentally, and with impact.
- How to convey sensitive messages tactfully and reframe negatives into positives in writing.
Who this webinar is for
This webinar is ideal for:
- Leaders at all levels seeking to improve their communication skills.
- Managers responsible for guiding teams in a remote or hybrid work setting.
- Professionals who rely heavily on email and written documents to influence outcomes.
- Individuals looking to advance their careers through enhanced communication competence.
Why it matters now
The modern workplace, characterized by distributed teams and high volumes of digital communication, makes effective writing more crucial than ever for leaders. Without the benefit of face-to-face interaction, written words bear the full weight of conveying intent, tone, and direction. Communication blunders, especially via email, can ripple through an organization rapidly, underscoring the need for clarity and precision. Leaders who master this skill can articulate vision, foster engagement, and navigate complex situations with greater success, directly impacting organizational culture and productivity.
How leaders can apply this
Leaders can immediately apply the principles discussed by:
- Prioritizing Clarity and Brevity: Ensure all written communications, from emails to reports, are direct and to the point, respecting the recipient's time.
- Cultivating a Positive Tone: Consciously craft messages to be personable and non-judgmental, even when delivering challenging news, to maintain morale and trust.
- Practicing Tactical Communication: Employ specific phrases and structures to deliver sensitive information with empathy and tact, turning potential conflicts into constructive dialogues.
- Using Writing for Motivation: Frame challenges and directives in a way that inspires action and transforms perceived negatives into opportunities for growth and improvement.
- Regularly Reviewing Communications: Before sending, leaders should review their written messages to ensure they align with their leadership objectives and organizational values.
About this session
Key takeaways
Watching this webinar gives you grounded, practical perspective on Competence. Expect ideas you can use in leadership conversations, not abstract theory, drawn from Deborah Dumaine's direct experience.
Who this is for
CHROs, HR business partners, talent leaders, executive coaches, organizational development practitioners, and senior leaders who are responsible for killer achievement inside their organization.
Why it matters now
Workforce expectations, hybrid work patterns, and AI-driven change keep raising the bar on culture and leadership. Sessions like this help leaders make smarter, more evidence-informed decisions about Competence.
How to apply it
Use the ideas here to challenge a current assumption on your team, design a single concrete experiment in the next 30 days, and bring one finding back to your leadership group for discussion.
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