Believe me, when a CEO goes home at the end of the day, he doesn't say to his wife, "Honey, as we are about to transition from the dinner table to the bedroom, we need to proactively reassess your core competencies, and maybe shift some paradigms, because I have some important issues that need to be reconciled if we want to continue to have a world-class marriage."
CEOs and other corporate executives have the same problem. They sound a lot different when they're being "official." When they're being "official", they stiffen up and assault the English language.
I'm convinced that there is a software program out there called "CEO Column." All any corporate editor has to do is plug in the name of the company, and the program will spit out a ready-made, generic column with sentences like this:
"As we proactively ramp up our core competencies and shift paradigms in order to transition to a world-class organization, [Your Company Name Here] remains committed to one thing: Employees are still our greatest asset."
I may sound funny but just pick any 4 mails/columns/blogs written by 4 different CEOs. The words will always be the same, well at least 95% of the time. Why is it so? Why can't the CEOs understand that they are dealing with humans and not machines?
There are 3 easy steps to overcome this for any CEO.
1. Keep it simple:
There are simple employees working in your company. They don’t need that assaulted English language to get your message. They can understand the same in plain English as well.
2. Keep people first:
Rather than writing 600 words on a new idea in your brain, try to gather some burning topics which employees are facing. Find solutions to the employees’ problems. They are the company!
3. Talk freely:
Make yourself sound as if you're sitting in a bar having a drink, talking about the company (for me the company is always its people). Your employees will notice the difference immediately. Make it happen by being approachable to the people and not just the board members.