Writing Skills

You Can’t Lead if You Can’t Communicate

By Brandon W. Jones on November 19, 2013 0

This is a guest by Jasmine Lloyd. She is in her last year of college and looks forward to entering the business world after graduation. When not studying she is often blogging for Essay Edge or working on her writing skills.

There are any number of skills that aspiring leaders may want to include in their skill set. They probably want to include organization skills. Really, who can lead without being organized? They would also likely include assertiveness, vision, and skills to name a few. But if you look at really effective leaders you will find that they are great communicators as well.

The argument about whether leaders are born or made rages on, even here in this blog. But of all the skills that can be taught, communication skills are certainly one of them. Many mistakenly assume that because they are good speakers that they are good communicators. That is a bad assumption. Communicating and talking are not the same thing. Communication involves much more, including listening, watching, deciphering, and not the least, writing.

Writing ability is an often un-noticed skill of effective leaders. In today’s business world, much of the communication that takes place is through reports, letters, emails, and even texts. A large portion of a leader’s thoughts and directions are transferred through other means than direct conversation. As a leader, you can’t afford not to improve upon your ability to write. Below are some tips to improve this skill. [Read more…] about You Can’t Lead if You Can’t Communicate

Effectively Communicate With Writing Skills

By Brandon W. Jones on April 18, 2013 6

Several years ago, I wrote a paper for school where I was supposed to convey a message. I felt like this would be an easy assignment because I had great writing skills, or so I thought… I got done with the paper and felt like I had done a great job. My thoughts changed, however, once I received it back from my teacher. After writing the paper, I realized that I had a long ways to go to improve my writing skills. My teacher read my paper and marked up many places where I had made small grammatical errors or other mistakes. Luckily that was at the beginning of the semester and my writing skills improved by the end of the semester. During that semester, my teacher taught me a lesson about the importance of having great writing skills.

In leadership and business, writing skills are very important. When you have strong writing skills, you are able to effectively communicate your message to your intended audience whether that is the board of directors, stockholders, employees, or anyone else.

Two Steps To Improve Your Writing Skills

Writing skills are essential for communicating in a professional environment. There are two steps you can take to improve your writing skills with little effort. [Read more…] about Effectively Communicate With Writing Skills

Blog Writing For a Busy Audience

By Brandon W. Jones on March 14, 2013 3

Blog writing is a very common topic on the internet. Many people have done well financially by starting a blog for themselves, their company, or a product they sell. So what does it take to do well at blog writing? What does it take to keep people reading your blog posts? In a world with leaders blogging about leadership and other topics on a regular basis, how do you keep your blog relevant? I have seen three suggestions to keep your blog relevant and help you to be successful at blog writing.

and

Blog writing for your audience

First, write great content!

The first key to successful blog writing is to produce great content. Ask yourself the questions, “Of all the blogs out there, why does my blog stand out? What is my niche? How do I keep people coming back to read more?” By asking these questions you will be able to define your target niche and target audience. From there, your blog writing can be directed towards that specific audience so your content is very relevant to their needs. Your content is king in getting people to come to your blog regularly. When blog writing, it is important that you understand the topics you write about.

Attention To Detail – Don’t Become The Prey!

By Brandon W. Jones on August 3, 2012 4

As a leader, it is essential that you are honest and have integrity. You must do all you can to be upfront and honest in your conduct, especially when dealing with your customers. Part of being honest means that when you make great claims, you must have the details and documentation to back them up.

Pay Attention To Detail

Whether or not your claims are true, if you don’t have details and documentation, people will be skeptical and may not believe you. You can’t just make great claims with nothing to back them up. Attention to detail and documentation are extremely important.

My Experience

Recently, I had a very interesting and potentially scary experience. Over the past several months my wife and I have been trying to refinance our home in Carson City, NV. We went to several different lenders and one after another denied us for one reason or another. All cases, however, were tied to the fact that we have excellent credit and a perfect payment history.

Loan Modification

About a month ago we received a phone call from a loan modification company, Direct Mortgage Counseling, directmortgagecounseling.org. They said that they could modify our loan and give us a new great loan (30 year fixed, 2% interest, reduced principal). We were somewhat skeptical because the loan modification seemed too good to be true. We did some research and found that they had the proper business licenses to do this type of work. That gave us enough confidence that we gave them a few of our documents, so they could give us additional information.

Once they received our few documents, they put together the loan modification paperwork. From there, they requested quite a bit more information (basically every financial document we had) so they could finalize our loan modification. Since I have experience writing legally binding contracts, I made sure I read through their contract completely before I signed it. I was especially careful because I was skeptical of them from the start.