A colleague gives you a report (or letter or proposal ...), asking for your feedback. It's now suddenly on you to make their document great. Maybe you're a team leader, who has final sign-off on everything your colleague writes. Or you might just be asked by a friend...
Rob Ashton
Plans are worth nothing without words
There aren't many corporate CEOs who put improving writing skills at the top of their action list. In fact, I've never heard of a single one who stood up at a shareholders' meeting and said, 'We're going to invest in improving how our people communicate in their...
Five unusual tips to inspire original writing
For many people, feeling they have nothing to say is one of their biggest writing challenges. (Unfortunately, there are many more who have nothing to say yet write anyway. We'll come to that in a second.) This is something that much advice on beating writer’s block –...
Grammar pedants: you’re helping less than you think
It seems to happen at least once a week. Usually it's in my Twitter feed or on Facebook. Occasionally it's on LinkedIn. Regardless, I rarely make it through to Friday without someone promoting a post on embarrassing grammar mistakes. 'Seven grammar gaffes that could...
Stop writing for superheroes. Board members are human too.
'What people don't realise,' Nick said, 'is that I'm just like them. I get tired. I worry about stuff. I think maybe I should get to the gym more. And I have too much on my plate. I'm not superhuman.' Nick is the European COO of a company that employs 130,000 people....
The 15 writing habits of people who build amazing careers
One of the great pleasures of my job is that I frequently get a chance to talk to people who really are at the top of their game. Over the last 18 years, my colleagues and I have worked with over 40,000 people. And among them have been many industry leaders who have...
‘We always write it like that.’ But why?
Sometimes we can’t remember why we do things a certain way. This is certainly the case with company reports and other documents. It may not always be the best way – far from it – but that’s the way they’re written and that’s that. ‘We must always start with two pages...
How to control email (and free yourself)
If there’s one area that unites most professionals, it’s the struggle with email. Whether it’s how to manage the daily deluge of messages in our inboxes, how to respond to them or how to write them so they don’t lead to misunderstandings, finding ways to control email...
Give up willpower this year
At this time of year, our thoughts inevitably turn to fresh starts and making resolutions for better ways to live and work. If you've pledged to give up cake or make the gym your second home, you're certainly in good company. My friend Philippa is one of many who have...
Should you always send a cover letter with your CV (résumé)?
One of our Emphasis 360 members has emailed to ask if it's always necessary to write a cover letter when applying for jobs or internships. Their view is that they've worked hard to perfect their CV (curriculum vitae – also known as a résumé) and that it should just...
Why you need to stop researching and start writing
There's no getting away from it: research is addictive. And there's a good reason for that – we're all hard-wired to search. It's a survival mechanism, programmed into us by evolution. As hunter-gatherers on the savannah, we needed something that would shake us from...
Why we created Emphasis 360™
Our courses are transformative. It's the norm for participants to leave the training room full of confidence and buzzing with ideas. This is true even for people who were initially sceptical. (In fact, they often end up as our biggest advocates.) But even the best...