In his recent internal announcement of the company’s plans to layoff 18,000 workers, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella began his email:
Last week in my email to you I synthesized our strategic direction as a productivity and platform company.”
It’s possible that sentence is meaningful to someone in the tech industry. But all signs point to business-speak.
Business-speak pretends to say something without saying anything. It lets people hide behind words. And I doubt that anyone has ever been excited, reassured or otherwise moved by business-speak.
Whether you’re writing an announcement to your team, an email to a teacher, or an essay as part of your college application, whatever it is that you want to say, come right out and say it. Write it as if you are talking one-on-one with someone.
You’ll say a lot more when you don’t hide behind your words.