Chapter 4 – Written Leadership Communication
Notes
Chapter 4 introduces students to the typical types of documents they will write as professionals, ranging from e-mails and memos to proposals and reports. It covers how to decide which document type is appropriate and also discusses approaches to writing as a team. The applications in Chapter 4 provide opportunities for the students to practice creating effective subject lines for e-mails, writing a challenging e-mail, developing an executive summary based on information provided in a case, write a rhetorical analysis, and create a twitter plan.
This chapter also introduces students to the world of social media, which may be new to some of them and very familiar to others. Expect a wide variety of experience with various social media spheres in your class. Samples of social media posts taken from students in the class can be especially helpful and meaningful for discussion, so you may want to solicit such examples before reaching this chapter and combine them into a longer discussion of social media based on your students’ needs and expertise.
For example, many students will be familiar with Twitter as a personal tool but may not have considered it a professional medium. Sharing with them a sample professional Twitter plan such as the one at the end of the notes for this chapter can help solidify the potential worth of this kind of communication channel.
The PowerPoint lecture that accompanies this chapter can be reviewed in ~20 minutes. Unlike most of the other PowerPoint lectures, it simply provides information and does not lend itself to much discussion.
Application 4.1: E-mail Subject Line Application
Approaches
This assignment will work effectively as an individual homework or in-class assignment. Whichever way the instructor decides to assign it, the best approach to ensuring that students learn from completing it is to discuss the results in class. Instructors may want to call on a couple of students to show their responses and then discuss the pros and cons for the different approaches.
Example Responses to the Assignment
The following provides some example responses to the application with comments to the instructor about what to emphasize in the responses. Responses will vary, but the following are acceptable.
1. You are working on the budget for next year, and members of your department met last week to discuss all the changes. You need each of them to provide you with their budget figures so that you can roll up the various sub-accounts. The budget is due tomorrow, and you really need their input by 4:00 p.m. so that you will have time to complete your part of the work.
Your budget numbers due by 2:00 today
Note to instructor: “Your” is important so that they know something is due from them. Setting the time at 2:00 will provide a little cushion for those who are always late.
2. To streamline processing of expense reports, your accounting office has adopted new software that will enable employees to scan in receipts. The new software also streamlines the categorization of expenses and totals each category automatically. Employees should have their reimbursements more quickly, and you will save hours of staff time. The new software is a bit tricky, though, and you need employees to come to one of three training sessions so they will know how to use it. All sessions will be held over lunchtimes, with the first on Tuesday, one on Thursday, and one next Monday.
Come to Tuesday brown-bag lunch and learn to save time
Note to instructor: The subject line needs to say what is in it for the receiver at the same time it makes clear that lunch will not be provided. Using the jargon term “brown-bag” is one way to say that they need to bring their own lunch concisely, but the instructor may need to explain the term to students from outside of the U.S.
3. Your company recently adopted and rolled out a new benefits plan. After the roll-out, you received word that there is one new addition that was not included in your materials – a child-care advisory service, that helps employees locate quality, affordable child care for their families. You want to let the employees know about this new feature.
New child-care benefits in effect
Note to instructor: This e-mail has a limited audience (those with children), so it is important that students realize they need to identify that audience and not simply say, “New benefits in effect.”
4. You are the head of the Information Technology Division, and your company will be implementing a new Enterprise Resource Planning system company-wide over the coming weekend. Bringing the system online will entail a significant effort by your
5. team together with the consultants, and you will need to shut down the system at 5:00 p.m. Friday to get started. Since many people in your company work until 6:00 or 6:30, even on Fridays, and sometimes come in on the weekend, you need to inform everyone of the necessity to shut down the system at 5:00 on Friday. You believe this will enable your team to finish by mid-day on Saturday, with time to test and troubleshoot the system before Monday.
System shut-down today at 5:00, or System shut-down 5:00 today - 5:00 tomorrow
Note to instructor: You may want students to include the time the system will be back on line as well as the shut-down time; thus, the second version. However, the draw back is that, as we all know, computer work does not always go as planned. It might be better to provide the shut-down time only in the subject line and then explain in the memo that the expected completion time for the system to be back on line is a specific time, barring any problems.
Application 4.2: Writing E-Mails
The Case - Refinery Managers Face Budget Challenges
This assignment calls on the students to be very sensitive to their audience while being very clear in what they say to ensure they obtain the information they need without alienating their audience. In addition, it has the complexity of the writer’s needing to motivate the audience to respond without having any direct control over them. The appeal depends on establishing that the sender and the receiver share common goals:
1. Maintain a safe and environmentally friendly site
2. Be competitive and profitable as a site and as a business unit.
The tone is very important in this assignment since the students must recognize that they cannot “order” compliance. Therefore, they will need to be direct but not authoritative.
Approaches to Teaching
This assignment provides an excellent opportunity to review the basics of writing an effective internal e-mail. The students should be encouraged to think carefully about the organizational context and their audience, considering how best to motivate them to respond to the information request. When evaluating the assignment, the instructor will want to pay particular attention to the tone and to how well the students have established the “so what” of the e-mail in their subject lines, and also check to see that they have included a clear, specific context in the opening of the e-mail and a closing with next steps and contact information as appropriate. The content should demonstrate that the students clearly understand the case issues and that they can select the best persuasive approach to use with the audience.
This application works well as an in-class timed assignment. Students should be able to read the case and write a reasonable response in 30 to 45 minutes.
Example Response to the Assignment
The following is an example of an acceptable student response:
To: Site Services Managers
Subject: Boosting Refinery Performance Meeting
As part of our on-going commitment to maintaining ABC’s outstanding refinery performance, the Budget Committee will be holding a meeting on Thursday, September 3, 2009 at 2:00 p.m., in Room 220. We would like for you to attend so that we can work directly with you to determine ways to reduce costs and make the company more competitive without jeopardizing overall safety.
Our goal for the meeting is to examine the current overhead costs allocation to identify any areas we might want to reduce. We all want to keep our refinery safe and need to ensure we do not make any cuts that jeopardize our high safety record; therefore, your participation is critical. You know the refinery and know where we can safely reduce costs so that we can increase performance levels.
We will be able to keep the meeting shorter if we all do the following beforehand:
1. Review the budget for your department
2. Prepare a list of budget items that you consider absolutely necessary
3. Generate a list of budget areas that you would consider reducing.
Please contact me at my extension (x 2597) or by e-mail if you have any questions. Also, please arrange for someone else from your group to represent you if for some reason you cannot attend the meeting.
We look forward to working with you to boost our overall performance.
Application 4.3: Creating an Executive Summary
The Case – Merging Benefits at Huge Computer Company
This application is designed to help students learn to select relevant information from a loose collection of facts and ideas and synthesize it into a concise executive summary. The application provides practice in organizing information coherently, creating focus on the most important points in a body of information, and writing concisely and clearly for an executive audience.
Approaches to Teaching
This application may be done in small groups during class sessions. It should not be necessary to discuss the case before turning it over to the student groups. You can allow the students 20 to 30 minutes to read and analyze the case, synthesize the information, and produce a detailed outline of the executive summary.
The audience and purpose for the executive summary are made clear in the case, but you may want to remind the students to think carefully about the needs of busy executives. You may expect the students to focus on comparison of the two benefits plans and recommendations for key features of the new plan for the combined organizations. This will require the students to think strategically about the issues involved.
After the students have completed their outlines, it works well to have a few of the groups present their results to the rest of the class. The discussion should focus on the selection of information to include in the summary, the organization of the outline, and achieving appropriate emphasis for the main ideas
The application may also be assigned on an individual basis to be done either in class or outside and turned in for grading. In this case, the purpose will expand to include writing skills, with particular emphasis on conciseness, clarity, and coherence.
Example Response to Assignment
You will probably see a high degree of agreement about the important points of comparison between the two plans in student responses to this application. Responses will differ in the importance students assign to the various benefits and the emphasis they give to them. The following example was written for the Instructor’s Guide.
New Benefits Plan for Huge Computer Co.
Executive Summary
The consulting team has interviewed the Computer Co. (CC) benefits manager and the Huge Co. (HC) VP of human resources. This report presents our interview findings and recommendations for a new benefits plan for Huge Computer Co. (HCC).
Both the HC VP of HR and the CC benefits manager favor their current plans and believe they are well suited to their companies’ workers. Employee demographics differ greatly between the two companies, leading to different worker interests and needs. The greatest challenge for a new HCC plan lies in balancing these differences. Retention of the younger Computer Co. software engineers is an overriding consideration.
Plans Are Geared to Differing Employee Needs
CC’s workforce of 8,000, and particularly its 2,500 software engineers, are young, mainly in their 20s. CC enjoys a high retention rate and has been ranked among the 100 best places to work. The current plan has been in effect for six years, reflects the interests of a young workforce, costs $26,000 annually per employee, and is nationally recognized. Features of the plan include stock options far above the industry average, 401k way below the industry average, flexible hours, a highly flexible cafeteria approach to standard benefits, and perks such as tailored vacation packages, on-site concierge, and a fitness center. Every employee’s package is virtually unique. CC’s benefits manager anticipates a huge attrition problem if the HC benefits package is adopted.
HC’s workforce numbers 22,000, with 3,500 software engineers. The employees are mainly in their 30s and 40s with interests and needs typical of young families. The current benefits plan has been in effect two years, with only anecdotal feedback from employees, and costs $20,000 annually per employee. The features of the plan are traditional with a strong 401k, choice between two medical plans with dental, choices for life insurance, and a flexible pre-tax spending account. The plan is focused on long-term benefits.
We Recommend a Blended Plan
The following recommendations for key features of the new HCC benefits plan are intended to appeal to the younger CC workers while retaining the features that the older HC workers consider essential:
· Stock options in line with industry averages
· 401k at the current HC level
· Medical, dental, and life insurance according to the HC plan
· Flexible spending account from the HC plan
· Flexibility and perks as possible from the CC plan
· Costs at $23,000 annually per employee.
The features are oriented to the longer-term needs of the HC employees, with the expectation that CC employees will soon begin finding these more attractive. The flexible spending account is a key item since CC employees will be able to use it on benefits of interest that are not currently allowed in the CC plan. Lowering stock options will save on costs without alienating CC employees. Other cost savings can be expected through the increased leverage the larger HCC will have with providers.
Effective roll-out of the new plan will be essential to its acceptance, and particularly in persuading CC personnel of the desirability and advantages of the longer-term benefits.
Application 4.4: Rhetorical Analysis of a Transformational
Leader’s Communication
As discussed in Chapter 1 of the Instructor’s Manual, the rhetorical analysis could also be included as part of the Leader Profile assignment. Reprinted below are the instructions and template from that chapter if you are using the assignment as a separate one in this chapter instead.
Instructions for Rhetorical Analysis Assignment
For this assignment, you are to select and analyze a speech or written document created by someone you see as a model of leadership communication. The analysis should include the following and follow the template provided below these instructions:
1. Name of speech (occasion) or document
2. Audience for the speech or document (actual and implied, if appropriate)
3. Stated and implied purposes (if different from stated purpose)
4. Rhetorical strategies and techniques, such as use of any of the following (provide examples from the speech or writing):
a. Figurative language (similes, metaphors, symbols, imagery)
b. Appeals (to emotions, logic, ethos)
c. Logical fallacies
5. Style (provide examples from the speech or writing)
a. Clarity and conciseness
b. Use of language, word choices (diction)
c. Passive or active voice
d. Simple or complex sentences; short or long sentences
6. Visual strategies and tactics
a. Format (layout, headings, paragraph length, fonts, etc.)
b. Use of images (photos, graphs, diagrams, etc.)
7. Oral strategies and tactics (for speeches, of course)
a. Music
b. Volume
c. Speech patterns (articulation, intonation, emphasis)
d. Other sound effects
The objective of this assignment is to help you appreciate a leader’s use of language for rhetorical purposes (usually to argue a point of view or persuade others). You should select the speech or written document carefully to ensure it has enough depth or substance to allow close reading and analysis. You should plan to read or listen to it several times, really looking deeply at how the individual selects words, composes sentences, and organizes thoughts.
Rhetorical Analysis Template
Use this template for the rhetorical analysis, providing the information requested in < > and deleting any topics not applicable, the information in parentheses ( ) in red, and these instructions. Please note that the space will expand to fit your needs and is not intended to suggest the length of the section. Also, don’t forget your footer with your name and page numbers on each page except the first.
Rhetorical Analysis of
By
1. Name of speech, occasion (provide link or include as video file if sent electronically) or document (a copy must be attached):
2. Audience for the speech or document (actual and implied, if appropriate):
3. Stated and implied purposes (if different from stated purpose):
4. Rhetorical strategies and techniques (provide examples of figurative language, appeals, and logical fallacies—if any—and discuss them; include other techniques if appropriate.)
5. Style (discuss overall use of passive or active voice, sentence complexity and length, and provide examples of clarity and conciseness, use of language, word choices or diction, and discuss them):
6. Visual strategies and tactics (if applicable):
7. Oral strategies and tactics (if applicable):
Application 4.5: Sample Twitter Plan
This sample Twitter plan can be shared in class; it is, in essence, a contract between the
employee and the company that ensures that this social media channel will be used in a way
that benefits them both. This is only one example; many more such examples can be found
on the internet.
1. My Twitter Check-In Times
I will check Twitter three times a day: Once when I get into the office, once just after lunch, and once 15 minutes before I leave the office.2. My Daily Five
Based on my organization’s goal to provide knowledge leadership in our industry, I will focus my Daily Five on tweeting interesting stories, articles, images, and the like regarding my particular job. I will, however, include one Tweet about myself and what I’m doing. I’ll use a diverse mixture of the following:- Images and Videos – my favorites in the industry, and sometimes something funny (though I’ll check with my social media team to ensure they’re appropriate first).
- Blog Post Updates – I don’t have a blog, but my company does. When a new blog post that impacts my arena is put out, I’ll link to it.
- Witty Joke or Comment – Again, within reason.
- Helpful Industry Resources – From my RSS feeds, my Digg It and StumbleUpon accounts, and the like.
- Announcements /Events – Anything my company is hosting that could be of interest to others in my field.
4. My Schedule
Using Twuffer, I will put together my Daily Five at least 24 hours in advance. I’ll strive to have three days’ worth of Tweets ready to go at all times.5. How I Will Follow Back
Since I won’t want to follow everyone who follows me, I have set up my Twitter account to send me notices when someone follows me. Once a week, I will review these new followers and select by hand whom I will follow back. I’ll send a DM to each person I follow – I have a template I can use, and will personalize if the follower is of particular interest.6. My Spontaneous Tweets
I will strive to include at least two spontaneous Tweets every day, though I will not always succeed. These Tweets I will keep to within office hours to ensure that I don’t get tempted to spend too much time on Twitter.
Example plan above developed by Sandra Elliott.
