Scott Keyser: Writing to connect

How good is your writing at work? It’s rather important. Think about your bids, pitches, presentations, executive or board papers, investment cases and, of course, emails. Too often writing is dry, technocratic and overly complex. It makes it hard for the reader to understand in one go, or at all. It limits your ability to convince them of your thinking and tarnishes your brand.

In this podcast, Scott Keyser, ‘The Writing Guy’, shares his tips and lessons from working with companies over the last 30 years. He shows that it is a learnable skill for everyone, if we start with the right mindset.

You’ll hear about:

• How to write with clarity and conciseness.
• Achieving brevity without being brief.
• How to create space for flamboyance.
• Why writing well doesn’t mean dumbing down.
• The importance of preparation and planning.
• Mistakes to avoid.
• Who and what inspires him.

The best bits of these conversations are captured in my newsletter Strategic Leader.

More about Scott

Scott Keyser is ‘The Writing Guy’. He is the author of two books, Winner Takes All: Seven And-A-Half Principles For Winning More Bids, Tenders And Proposals and Rhetorica, which set out his writing system. He works with clients from professional services firms to start-ups to corporates (such as The Economist) to improve the way they write — to engage a market, convince a boss, win over buyers, investors, staff or suppliers.

• Scott’s LinkedIn profile. 
• Scott’s books: Winner Takes All and Rhetorica.