Good managers write good(staysaasy.com)
staysaasy.com
Good managers write good
https://staysaasy.com/management/2022/07/10/Writing-Management.html
13 comments
That's my experience too
LOL, I assume the title is irony, or perhaps a riff on sassy (a word derived from sarcastic), because the author correctly says "Good managers write well" throughout the rest of the text.
Writing it as "write good" when we know that's not proper English is a clever literary device known as a "joke".
Also, that's not what irony means.
Also, that's not what irony means.
The message is contradicted by it's form. I think that counts as irony, perhaps with a tinge of sarcasm. Intentional, to make a joke, yes.
Yup I think the author was taking a little poetic license there. I thought he made some good points but I don't think it's universal. Sometimes good managers are good because they have empathy, good temperament, care about the team, and work hard to enable his/her employees.
There are benefits to being able to write well and it helps with certain aspects of management, however there are a wide range of elements that makes someone an exceptional people leader.
There are benefits to being able to write well and it helps with certain aspects of management, however there are a wide range of elements that makes someone an exceptional people leader.
It would be a contradiction for managers to have high empathy but to be unable to write well because the ability to write well is a necessary consequence of having high empathy, i.e. a sensitivity to how others’ comprehension might (or might not) work.
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"Well Managers write good" may have been a better play on words, but far less likely to reach a wider audience.
I thought that was the clickbait, to be honest. It worked well to reel me in, at least. :)
Non Native speaker here: Has there been a recent change regarding good/well? e.g. in youtube videos about construction I hear it all the time: "works good", "runs good". Is it cool now to make this mistake?
It may be related to a contrast between American English an British English. American English speakers will often use adjectives in place of adverbs when speaking colloquially, e.g. "That tastes real nice" instead of "That tastes really nice". The same is the case with "good" and "well". This does not usually happen in British English, other than by modern American cultural influence.
No. It's always acceptable, though, to play with words, be ironic, make in jokes, etc.
I don't know if it's cool or not, but it is ungrammatical (LOL); 'good' is an adjective, 'well' is the adverb.
And also a state of health.
I'm always tempted, when someone answers my "How are you?" with "I'm good", to ask what it is they're good at, or if it's because they go to church every day, help old ladies across the road, etc.
And also a state of health.
I'm always tempted, when someone answers my "How are you?" with "I'm good", to ask what it is they're good at, or if it's because they go to church every day, help old ladies across the road, etc.
What about "good paying job"? I have seen that several times now, is it some kind of fixed expression?
Good modifies the noun job, so it is correctly used as an adjective in this case.
If it's 'a good-paying job', a job that pays a lot, but might not be good, it is wrong, it should be 'a well-paid job'.
If it's 'a good, paying, job', as in a good job, one that pays, it's correct.
Sometimes grammar is the difference between knowing your shit, and knowing you're shit.
If it's 'a good, paying, job', as in a good job, one that pays, it's correct.
Sometimes grammar is the difference between knowing your shit, and knowing you're shit.
Absolutely not.
The author is being ironic.
Stick to "runs well."
The author is being ironic.
Stick to "runs well."
Glad I wasn’t the only one questioning this, it has to be intentional
Professor Patrick Wilson from the MIT [1] once wrote that:
"Your success in life will be determined largely by your ability to speak, your ability to write, and the quality of your ideas, in that order."
I think that's true. When I did my masters a few years ago, I enjoyed more the process of writing and editing than the research itself. I resonated with the thinking process behind the chain of ideas necessary to build a research document and this was surprising for me.
Writing has been something I left aside for some time until I decided to start my Cybersecurity newsletter [2], which has been a pleasure to write. Having the time to do it is the challenge.
[1] https://www.inc.com/justin-bariso/emotional-intelligence-mit... [2] https://cyb3rsecurity.tips/
"Your success in life will be determined largely by your ability to speak, your ability to write, and the quality of your ideas, in that order."
I think that's true. When I did my masters a few years ago, I enjoyed more the process of writing and editing than the research itself. I resonated with the thinking process behind the chain of ideas necessary to build a research document and this was surprising for me.
Writing has been something I left aside for some time until I decided to start my Cybersecurity newsletter [2], which has been a pleasure to write. Having the time to do it is the challenge.
[1] https://www.inc.com/justin-bariso/emotional-intelligence-mit... [2] https://cyb3rsecurity.tips/
Writing doesn’t require humility. There are plenty of egocentric writers who do not handle feedback well. Writing benefits from humility.
I think there's a "no true scotsman" fallacy lodged in there somewhere. The fact you even wrote that writing benefits from humility indicates an acknowledgment of good writing is made better by humility, and maybe then we just move the definition of "good" to be requiring of humility.
Someone may be able to write, and get a point across, but it's not just the wording and explanation, it's the capture of the context within the writing, and without humility the context is likely to be distorted, thus negatively effecting the goodness of the writing.
Someone may be able to write, and get a point across, but it's not just the wording and explanation, it's the capture of the context within the writing, and without humility the context is likely to be distorted, thus negatively effecting the goodness of the writing.
Agreed. Scotsmen are not known for their humility.
Clear communication does not depend on whether someone feels notably understated in their heart. I hope. Gad!
Clear communication does not depend on whether someone feels notably understated in their heart. I hope. Gad!
OK geoblock Scotland for management success, now to wrap this up as a SaaS and post to HN. We did it team.
Hah, yeah, I'm definitely using my own definition of humility, thus showing none :)
Note to self: Humility =/= reality
Note to self: Humility =/= reality
Without humility, the context is likely to be distorted? What is this based on? Do you mean empathy? If only someone could have told Nabokov, he could have made something of himself…
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I agree. You can make a better case for “writing in a corporate context requires humility,“ e.g., someone choosing to post in public slack channel instead of talking to everyone individually.
I feel that the well-written prose is falling out of fashion. With the informational overload, people no longer enjoy writing and reading paragraphs of text. Even on YouTube, increasing the playback speed is probably the most used feature today. Sometimes, I feel this trend is becoming generational. Who knows, maybe a few decades from now, anyone who copiously writes and reads a couple of books every week would be considered a genius.
Maybe I'm just getting old and grumpy, but it feels to me that these days, beginner programmers tend to focus on learning programming languages, and only later (sometimes) they realize - to be a successful software developer, one has to focus on learning a human language - English et al.
I think we (techy people) could reverse this trend by creating a culture of writing. It becomes even more important with the remote working style and distributed teams. It should become a norm - for when to ship three lines of code, there would be a page or two, explaining the change in English.
Then who knows, maybe a few decades from now, anyone who copiously writes and reads a couple of books every week would be considered "a smart person working in tech".
Maybe I'm just getting old and grumpy, but it feels to me that these days, beginner programmers tend to focus on learning programming languages, and only later (sometimes) they realize - to be a successful software developer, one has to focus on learning a human language - English et al.
I think we (techy people) could reverse this trend by creating a culture of writing. It becomes even more important with the remote working style and distributed teams. It should become a norm - for when to ship three lines of code, there would be a page or two, explaining the change in English.
Then who knows, maybe a few decades from now, anyone who copiously writes and reads a couple of books every week would be considered "a smart person working in tech".
> Why Are Good Managers Good Writers?
>
> [Every trivial thing except commmunication.]
It's the communication, dude!
You know what else they're great at? Presenting. Public speaking. Ad hoc improv because that is management - making sure everything will be ok no matter what happens.
I agree with the title-ish, in ways the author would not assert, though.
I claim "Good Managers Write Goodly." Not well. If they did that, they'd be tech writers or speech writers or . . . any kind of writer, really. The point is to communicate what you have to and not sweat the rest.
>
> [Every trivial thing except commmunication.]
It's the communication, dude!
You know what else they're great at? Presenting. Public speaking. Ad hoc improv because that is management - making sure everything will be ok no matter what happens.
I agree with the title-ish, in ways the author would not assert, though.
I claim "Good Managers Write Goodly." Not well. If they did that, they'd be tech writers or speech writers or . . . any kind of writer, really. The point is to communicate what you have to and not sweat the rest.
> Writing Is Thinking
This is pretty much it, IMHO. If you can produce original writing then you are capable of original thought. That’s a good starting point for any human endeavor, management included.
Note though that this capacity to think is just a necessary but not sufficient condition to be a good manager.
This is pretty much it, IMHO. If you can produce original writing then you are capable of original thought. That’s a good starting point for any human endeavor, management included.
Note though that this capacity to think is just a necessary but not sufficient condition to be a good manager.
The author is patting themselves on the back a bit, and with regard to the painter, discussed in the closing sentence, loses sight of other non-written communication. It’s the broad strokes - in any form - that drive the largest impact.
Indeed, the quality of writing does “taper with the level of interaction needed”, but in the opposite way described.
As a middle manager, writing is critical for conveying all the necessary information. Get the work done, this way is right, and at the highest speed! At the highest levels though, it’s less useful - though exceptions to the rules (e.g. Warren Buffet using his soapbox to great effect) do exist.
Indeed, the quality of writing does “taper with the level of interaction needed”, but in the opposite way described.
As a middle manager, writing is critical for conveying all the necessary information. Get the work done, this way is right, and at the highest speed! At the highest levels though, it’s less useful - though exceptions to the rules (e.g. Warren Buffet using his soapbox to great effect) do exist.
I like these articles. But, what I'd really like are some examples of good and bad writing. This would actually help (as opposed to explaining the process behind it). Anyone have any examples?
It's hard to demonstrate good writing because it's mostly about structure. If something is well written, you won't notice. The trick isn't to write one piece well, it's to write all the pieces so they form a consistent and efficient whole.
Here’s a simple tip that has improved my own style: use bullet points aggressively.
If you can break a paragraph into bullet points do it!
People don't want to read what looks like a wall of text, but will happily jump to a nice convenient list of things.
People that enjoy Pynchon are a trivial percentage of the population. Good communication requires understanding what the target audience will actually pay attention to. It's a tightrope.
People don't want to read what looks like a wall of text, but will happily jump to a nice convenient list of things.
People that enjoy Pynchon are a trivial percentage of the population. Good communication requires understanding what the target audience will actually pay attention to. It's a tightrope.
* Use
* bullet
* points
* aggressively
Here are tips (specifically for blogging/article writing) that I learned while working at a blog company: https://maxrozen.com/blogging-lessons
I use them everywhere now, and bring in significantly more traffic as a result (writing more often also helps)
I use them everywhere now, and bring in significantly more traffic as a result (writing more often also helps)
I'm not sure there's anything special about writing in the context of managing that can't be claimed for communication in general. The ability to form words and sentences to convey ideas, meaning, and intent should be expected to correlate positively with management skill.
I suppose there's something to be said for the durability of writing, which makes it quite a lot harder to say something and then claim later to never have said it, or to have said something completely different.
Well, I guess I just undermined my own point.
I suppose there's something to be said for the durability of writing, which makes it quite a lot harder to say something and then claim later to never have said it, or to have said something completely different.
Well, I guess I just undermined my own point.
I think this is why modern day politicians are so bad. They need to be so good at rewriting history that they cannot put their thinking in clear writing. I read letters and essays written by Abraham Lincoln and was struck by the clarity of thought and the power of his words. I don't think I've read any writings of recent politicians that make me feel the same way.
some good managers write well, done bad managers too, and sone good managers write poorly. Possibly there are some correlations, but I’m certainly not convinced
The title reminds me of that classic grammar Nazi quip:
Me: hi, how are you?
You: I'm doing good thanks. How are you?
Me: (facepalm). Mother Theresa did good, I'm merely doing _well_.
Me: hi, how are you?
You: I'm doing good thanks. How are you?
Me: (facepalm). Mother Theresa did good, I'm merely doing _well_.
well, that's all good, but in German one can actually say "I feel good".
> but in German one can actually say "I feel good".
As you can in English. "I feel good" is not incorrect; "I'm doing good" is. 'To feel' is different from 'to do'.
As you can in English. "I feel good" is not incorrect; "I'm doing good" is. 'To feel' is different from 'to do'.
The good manager has advanced and been successful as a 1st level manager. The terrible manager's goodbye letter was well written.
Writing well is an important skill that and all the good executive level (100+ report) managers I've had write well, but it is neither necessary nor sufficient for 1st level managers.