Tag Archives: pen is mightier than the sword

Writing Your Wrongs

By Peter Jeff
The Leadership Mints Guy

Here’s an idea to gain more control over your anger. Reading time: 2:53

Ohhh! If you could only install a punching bag in your office! You’re that mad!!

man writing a contract Well, how about trying another weapon of choice? Something you already have in the office.

Something sharper.
Something more pointed.
Something lighter and easier to push around.

Consider making like a modern day Zorro. Unsheathe your pen. And figuratively rip your opponent to shreds. With the written word.

Sounds absurd? Tell that to President Harry S. Truman who exercised his Anger Writes in what historian David McCullough called “one of the most intemperate documents every written by an American president.”

Fortunately, Truman’s Chief of Staff intercepted the president’s vitriolic speech writing before it -and he-became a public embarrassment.

But at least President Truman’s pen vented his pent-up emotions. Now with the air cleared, Give ‘em Hell Harry’ could later think more constructively with his advisers to solve an escalating problem: striking union workers choking the economy.

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Writing Your Own Leading Script

By Peter Jeff
The Leadership Mints Guy

Here’s an idea to help established expectations in a new position. Reading time: 3:04

Congratulations! You’ve been promoted. Or maybe condolences are in order. New department. Same old problems.

writing-a-letter You’ve seen this movie before. And it ain’t pretty. So now what do you do?

Write a new ending of course. This is YOUR movie now. Direct it –the WRITE way.

Write a personal letter to each one of your direct reports, a personal letter that details your passion and your expectations for that person’s area of responsibility.

That’s what a four-star general did when he became Chief of Staff of the US Army. Gordon R. Sullivan refers to his Letters to Commanders in his book HOPE IS NOT A METHOD , What Business Leaders Can Learn from America’s Army. Continue reading