In leadership, writing isn’t just about conveying information - it’s about shaping perception, driving action, and scaling your influence. Unlike speaking, where tone and presence fill in meaning, writing relies entirely on clarity, structure, and intent. A well-crafted message can align teams, reinforce strategy, and motivate action - even when you’re not in the room.
Great leadership writing is:
- Clear: Free of jargon, making complex ideas easy to grasp.
- Intentional: Designed with a purpose - whether to inform, persuade, or inspire.
- Empathetic: Written with the audience’s perspective in mind.
- Action-Oriented: Encourages meaningful next steps through logical flow and strong calls to action.
Today, organizations are bursting with emails, chat messages, and docs, making clear and intentional writing more valuable than ever. By mastering writing, you extend your leadership beyond meetings and conversations, ensuring your vision resonates at scale.
Recommended Resources
How to Write Something Compelling: Justin Mikolay with a brief, powerful article on how writing, next to reading and thinking, is a critical component of creating. Focusing on deleting and cutting parts of your writing to sharpen your message will have a profound effect on how your message lands with readers. (4 min read)
Writing Is Magic: Marc Brooker with a short essay on the power of writing and how it connects to clarity, time, scale, authority, and memory. Difficult decisions and heated debates can benefit greatly from intentional writing. This will force you to think through a topic logically and expose gaps in your arguments that wouldn’t appear as glaring in a group meeting or conversation. (4 min read)
What I think about when I edit: Eva Parish with a deep dive on editing, a crucial step which can easily take more time than writing the initial draft. I find “Decide waht you’re actually saying” and “Simplify” the most powerful reminders although “Avoid jargon and cliches” can be equally important especially in technical or academic contexts. (7 min read)
How to be a writer on a marketing team without sounding like a jerk: Matt Haughey shares his experience from the perspective of a marketing writer which are also absolutely relevant for leaders. Putting the reader first is a great guiding principle for any writer and Matt shares many practical real-world examples. (8 min read)
10 Step Guide to Clearer Thinking Through Essay Writing: While I acknowledge that Jordan Peterson has been a controversial figure for years, his essay writing guide is immensely useful. I’ve found no other free resource going into such meaningful detail of picking a topic, researching, writing, and editing. (31 min read)