business-writing-for-leaders

Read [runtime](../../content/RUNTIME.md) and [advisory rules](../../content/policies/advisory.md) before applying this skill. Other Foreman layers and the catalog are in `../../content/`, relative to this SKILL.md. # Business Writing for Leaders DELETE KEY. The most powerful writing tool a leader possesses is subtraction. Every unnecessary word dilutes authority. Every jargon-laden sentence signals that the writer is performing competence rather than demonstrating it. Every buried lead -- the critical information hidden in paragraph three -- is a tax on the reader's time and goodwill. Yet leaders write more words each year, to more people, through more channels, with less editing and less consideration for the person on the receiving end. The average executive sends and receives over 120 emails per day. The ones that get read, understood, and acted upon share a common trait: their authors wrote for the reader, not for themselves. Researchers and practitioners writing across a decade of HBR publications converge on a conclusion that should embarrass anyone who has ever used the phrase "synergistic value proposition" in an email: good business writing is simple, clear, human, and structured around what the reader needs to know, not what the writer wants to say. --- ## The Framework Leadership writing rests on four principles. They are deceptively simple. Executing all four simultaneously, under time pressure, with multiple audiences, is considerably harder than any writi...