Write Like a Leader
The more I read about history’s greatest leaders, the more a single defining habit stands out: writing.
Being a great writer helps you become a great leader for two main reasons.
The first—the obvious—is the ability to communicate clearly with others.
Clear Communication
General James Mattis, a four star Marine General, CENTCOM Commander, and Secretary of Defense, preaches decentralized leadership, where the commander sets the mission and tone, but subordinate leaders make decisions. They are closest to the problems, best equipped with the information to solve them, and should be empowered to do as they see fit to accomplish the mission.
The key to decentralized leadership is the leader at the top clearly communicating his intent to subordinates so they can choose how to execute and achieve the intent.
Mattis would famously write one-page letters to his men before major campaigns. He wanted every Marine—all the way down to the 19 year old private—to have a clear mission he could fold up and carry into combat.
Clarity and brevity were the most important factors.
Before the invasion of Iraq in 2003, Mattis wrote one such letter to convey his core principles for the operation: ‘don’t stop’ and ‘keep your honor clean.’ In that letter he wrote:
“While we will move swiftly and aggressively against those who resist, we will treat all others with decency…Engage your brain before you engage your weapon.”
In a similar letter in 2004, Mattis prepared his Marines to relieve the 82nd Airborne Division in Iraq, a difficult and dangerous task. He wrote,
“When it’s time to move a piano, Marines don’t pick up the piano bench - we move the piano.”
In a single sentence, he conveyed the challenge that lay ahead and the pride with which his men should face the challenge.
The ability to distill a complex message into a short, memorable maxim is one that takes skill. It takes practice. It takes reps. It takes effort. The best leaders put in the reps so they can communicate clearly and effectively in writing.
Another notable example is Jeff Bezos.
He instilled a culture of writing at Amazon, famously banning PowerPoint in lieu of a six page written memo. Amazon meetings begin with silence while all attendees read the memos.
You can hide bad ideas in PowerPoint slides, Bezos would say. Writing six pages forces you to confront the problems with your plan. It takes more time up front but saves everyone time on the back end.
Bezos might even be more famous for his annual shareholder letters.
In these letters, Bezos conveyed to his shareholders, again and again, Amazon’s strategy—a long term, customer centric strategy where early profits were not the priority.
In his first letter from 1997, Bezos wrote,
“Because of our emphasis on the long-term, we may make decisions and weigh trade-offs differently than some companies…We will continue to make investment decisions in light of long-term market leadership considerations rather than short-term profitability considerations or short-term Wall Street reactions.”
That’s pretty clear. Investors knew what they were getting because Bezos told them clearly and concisely.
All this writing stuff is great for Mattis and Bezos, but does it matter in lower stakes situations? Can you apply it as a middle manager at a local paper supply company?
I think so.
I work a normal corporate job, and I’ve seen the value of great writing time and again.
I worked with a manager who wrote the best emails. I’m not talking a newsletter. I’m not talking a client report. I’m talking procedural emails that were works of art.
After an update to the internal timesheet system, this guy wrote the clearest, most detailed email I’ve ever read.
It explained why the system was changing, when the changes were taking effect, what we needed to do as readers, and why we needed to do it.
He highlighted the items requiring our action.
He anticipated questions and answered them in advance.
He said what he needed to say, and he got out of the way.
In a world of iMessage shorthand, missing punctuation, and ambiguity, this was the Mona Lisa of emails.
And as you’d expect, the timesheet transition transpired flawlessly.
So great leaders are great writers because they need to communicate clearly, but what’s the less obvious reason that great leaders write?
Writing Clarifies Thinking
Great leaders write to clarify their thinking.
David Perell once asked Neil DeGrasse Tyson how he speaks so eloquently.
“Hardly any sentence, in public, comes out of my mouth,” said Tyson, “unless I’ve written it down once before. I’ve thought out those words. It’s a fundamental part of what I’m doing when I’m writing.”
You may not think of Tyson as a leader, but the process he’s describing applies to everyone, leader or not. Writing about a topic forces you to clarify your thinking on that topic, much like waxing a car makes the paint shine.
It’s hard work. It’s often unpleasant. But the result is beautiful.
It almost doesn’t matter what you’re writing so much as whether you are writing.
Writing brings clarity and clarity improves leadership.
When you understand your intent and can convey it clearly—through a letter, an email, or a speech—you’re a more effective leader.
This is another situation where the reps matter, and the best leaders do their time in the saddle.
Teddy Roosevelt wrote more than 50,000 letters in his life. He kept a diary so detailed that, from the time he was a young boy, we have a record of his entire life. As an adult, he published somewhere around 38 books.
Winston Churchill began his career as a war correspondent. Not to be bested by TR, Churchill published 43 books during his lifetime.
As a young congressional assistant, Lyndon Johnson wrote hundreds of letters each day to constituents.
All were excellent leaders.
The examples are endless. From Mattis to Bezos, Churchill to TR and LBJ. If you’re a leader or aspiring leader, time spent writing is time well spent.
Photo by Bernard Hermant on Unsplash
