Polished writing and speaking skills make any team stronger

I got to return to my old stompin’ grounds recently to lead communications training for the Municipal Clerks and Treasurers Institute of the Municipal Association of SC.

We worked from an “each one, teach one” philosophy in the session. Even if the skills we worked on weren’t directly applicable to everyone’s formal job description (not everyone has to do public speaking or write news releases, for example), everyone gained skills they can use to support others around them to be better speakers or writers. There’s no doubt that people with strong writing and speaking skills make a team stronger.

We did a deep dive into confidence building techniques for presentations ranging from Zoom calls to council meetings. We worked on building more powerful Power Point decks.

We focused on fine tuning writing skills to ensure concise and effective written documents for a variety of audiences. I strongly believe that strong writers are strong critical thinkers. They are the people who leaders want at the leadership table with them. Writing and public speaking don’t have to be in your job description for them to be valuable professional and general life skills.

— Be the one in the meeting who can break down a complex concept and communicate it in easy-to-understand language.

— Be the one colleagues trust for pointers on prepping for an important Zoom presentation or meeting with the boss.

— Be the one who can edit and proofread a colleague’s email or letter to make the writer and the company look good.

— Be the one who can spiff up a bogged-down Power Point deck to make sure it’s fine tuned to focus on the message and not fancy fonts or dancing emoticons.

That’s our approach with a session like this one for the Municipal Clerks and Treasurers Institute where most of the participants didn’t consider their jobs to include writing or speaking skills as primary parts of their work.

Hit us up for a conversation if your organization can use a word nerd to pop in for a few hours to tailor a similar session to your needs.