While I don’t envy the dedicated folks who staff the security lanes at our nation’s airports, I’ve observed a tendency for many of them to do something unfortunately common among people with customer contact roles.... Read More
You’re developing a landing page for one of your company’s offerings. How many words should you use? What about a blog post? A white paper? Something for social media? A script for a training video?... Read More
If you’ve seen one of the all-time greatest movies, "The Princess Bride," you instantly remember this column’s title as Inigo Montoya’s admonition to Vizzini regarding the latter’s frequent misuse of “inconceivable.” I often find myself silently echoing Montoya’s words when I read articles, websites, blog posts, proposals, and presentations.... Read More
Take a moment and draw a lower-case letter I on a piece of paper. Now draw a lower-case W next to it. Did you notice something? The W is several times wider than the I—probably four times wider.... Read More
Whether you write only occasionally or craft words and sentences as part of your regular job, you’ve probably encountered something most people refer to as “writer’s block.” It’s a barrier to writing that’s usually just frustrating, but that if it becomes chronic can threaten your career.... Read More
Mention spelling, and most of us feel our hearts skip a beat. It’s a throwback to our anxiety about those word lists we were quizzed about every Friday morning as children, and we still become embarrassed when someone points to an error in our writing.... Read More
If you want to see fear flicker in the eyes of the most confident businesspeople, suggest they back their confidence with some kind of simple public promise. Like a guarantee that doesn’t have to be accompanied by a page of small type.... Read More
The first of my many exposures to the brilliance of Hoosier author Kurt Vonnegut was his 1952 short story “EPICAC,” in which the narrator prevails upon the world’s most powerful computer to draft a poetic marriage proposal for his lovely colleague.... Read More
Famous television doctor Mehmet Oz invested millions into an unsuccessful effort to capture one of Pennsylvania’s U.S. Senate seats, and I’m pretty confident a single word had plenty to do with his defeat.... Read More
Business owners and managers know what’s coming three seconds into the call. The voice is uncomfortably friendly, like a complete stranger coming up in a public place and behaving as though you’ve been lifelong buds. And you know you’ll be poorer by the end of it.... Read More
