May 8, 2008
How do I tell my MBA-grad executive that he is not sufficiently literate?
I have recently merged my management consultancy firm with another. Due diligence showed the chief executive to be well qualified, with an impressive MBA. However, I have recently seen copies of e-mails sent to his clients and to my horror his phrasing is clumsy and his spelling and punctuation make him look barely literate. He has a large ego, takes himself seriously and is proud of his achievements in business. But his e-mails go out under the merged company’s name and I am ashamed of them. How do I go about telling him he is not sufficiently literate? Is there anywhere he can go to recover what he must have missed at primary school?
Consultant, male, 62
Sad reflection (but in my experience wholly justified) on the consulting business :
1. I presume the other company is a successful management consultancy because you chose to merge your company with it. And that is despite a CEO who in your view is not sufficiently literate !
Posted by: Out of the box, 44, Male | May 8th, 2008 at 6:57 am | Report this comment2. You have completed a due diligence and negotiation process before you discovered the CEO’s paucity of basic writing skills.
3. If it aint broken, dont fix it - if his writing skills have led to a successful business, and a merger (presumably good for both companies)why do you want him to change ? Please do note that he will not pay for this advice which he does not appear to need.
I suggest you hire someone to be in charge of external communications. This person can make all emails going out much more dynamic and professional - including yours.
If you present it as something only to deal with your partner’s faults then it won’t get anywhere, but if you present it on the basis that this is an area where there are professionals and amateurs and your company should have a pro then you might have a chance.
Posted by: Richard, language school director, Slovakia, 30 | May 8th, 2008 at 7:57 am | Report this commentHow on earth could he became a CEO being so illiterate? Or maybe he just does not care about the impression he makes on people around him. I think that such details spoil company`s image and should be improved. For example, once while looking through our web-site I noticed absolutely wrong translation with crucial language mistakes and it seemed to me absolutely unacceptable because the company cares about its image and it is really important what people, especially foreigners, will think of us.
P.S. Dear Lucy! I tried sending you my problem many times but unfortunately my e-mail to your e-mail address was not delivered. How can I send it to you to see my problem here and get your answer as well as advice of FT readers?
Posted by: Anna,female,23, market analyst | May 8th, 2008 at 8:25 am | Report this commentoops, seems I made a grammatic mistake :)) But it is just a misprint. Moreover, I am not a native speaker
Posted by: Anna,female,23, market analyst | May 8th, 2008 at 8:27 am | Report this commentI find poor spelling and sloppy grammar cringe-inducing too, but presumably as chief executive he has other strings to his bow? Or maybe he’s one of those individuals who’s managed to coast into his role on the coat-tails of other people’s achievements (in which case your due diligence clearly wasn’t that diligent).
Tackling him about this directly would be tricky but not impossible, and I agree with Richard’s suggestion above to route all such messages via an Internal Communications team.
Alternatively, you could be devious and ask your IT department to ensure that ‘Dear All’ messages to everyone on your company’s email distribution list can only be sent from a very small group of email addresses, excluding the chief executive’s…
Posted by: GLH, female, manager | May 8th, 2008 at 10:52 am | Report this commentThere is no way he can improve. I personally select people by giving them grammar tests as I am tired and sick of correcting punctuations and other things in memos or presentations, but you can do that only with analysts.
If he managed the business successfully so far, it means there are other qualities and he is able to sell projects anyway. Did you do an accurate due diligence on his performance?
To avoid embarassment with your clients, maybe you can say that communication to those ones will be carried on only by yourself.
Anyway, I think it is also an opportunity for you to shine more.
People like me, quite obsessive with grammar and punctuation, prefer to deal with professionals that take grammar and punctuation seriously.
So, I believe that there will be a natural selection process and if clients are really keen on this aspect, you might win more business, and get more after the merger.
But maybe not: being nice to people is far more important in business than punctuation, and there is no way you can convey the message in a nice way without hurting his feelings. If you were tempted to do that, as your letter imply, it means you maybe fail to see his achievements or are not very successful in sales. My experience tells me in fact that being very commercial is far more important than being excellent in grammar and punctuation. (If there are grammar mistakes here, it is because English is not my mother tongue: sorry!)
Holly, 31, female, sales
Posted by: Holly | May 8th, 2008 at 10:54 am | Report this commentBad grammar, spelling and syntax irritate me too, particularly as they can disguise woolly thinking and a paucity of ideas, and are often now combined with dreadful corporate jargon. However, many people do not notice it, care about it or judge the writer by it.
You can’t really teach good writing; it comes from noticing how others write and from reading widely. I fear that your executive is not going to change his writing style now.
It would be easier to try to set your mind at rest by establishing, if you can, that his writing isn’t having a bad effect on your business. Find out what his clients and your employees think, either by discreetly asking key friendly contacts whether they are distracted by his writing style or, if you and your clients can bear it, by carrying out a wider survey to see how people feel about the services of the merged company in which you could have a section on communications.
Posted by: Georgy | May 8th, 2008 at 1:15 pm | Report this commentI think you should talk to him about this. Find some examples and draw them to his attention. He may not be aware that he regularly makes mistakes. Of course when you come to do this you may find that his mistakes aren’t as big as you feel or that they are unimportant. In that case you need to think about reading the content of his messages and not analysing the grammar in the communications as you are missing the meaning.
I used to write in appalling English, in fact you may think I still do. I was grateful when it was highlighted to me and I have worked at my writing to improve. Of course I still make mistakes; if I am sending something externally I often have it checked – perhaps you could also suggest this to him?
I am also surprised by the vitriol and pomposity in some of these posts. Surely the point of writing is the communication, not the spelling syntax and grammar. We should learn to accept other people’s weaknesses as well as strengths. A poorly written email from someone does not mean that they are stupid, perhaps they were in a hurry or perhaps they find English a challenge. As a mathematician I am often surprised by other people’s mistakes with numbers. However, my skill is my ability to help other people understand maths and financial theory. Perhaps we should look to help other people rather than judge them.
I appreciate however that this depends on who we send things to, and to how bad the errors are. While I think clients are unlikely to turn you down on the basis of a few poorly punctuated emails, it certainly doesn’t improve your company’s image. That is why I would talk to him about it, albeit kindly so as not to offend his large ego.
Posted by: James, 25, male, consultant. | May 8th, 2008 at 1:56 pm | Report this commentPity is often a great way to manipulate behaviour.
Posted by: Brian | May 8th, 2008 at 2:47 pm | Report this commentI once learned that there is no such thing as a merger; you either take over or you are taken over. In your case it seems that the latter is true and so you are rightly cautious about criticizing the CEO.
Correcting other people’s spelling is a sensitive affair, equivalent to trying to point out that they have bad breath or body odour. He is almost certainly aware of the problem and doesn’t much care. If not, I suggest you leave the coaching to his wife, girl friend, or secretary.
The best boss I ever had was Chinese. His English was minimal and sometimes I had serious difficulty figuring out what he was trying to say. When I did, I seldom failed to be impressed by his insight and command of the business essentials. Maybe an idea for you to focus on what he is saying and not how he says it. After all, he is the CEO and you are not.
Chris 55 VP male
Posted by: Chris | May 8th, 2008 at 3:03 pm | Report this commentM. 33
CEO
Your action should be determined by who your clients are. If your clients are mainly engineers or quant bankers then they will either not be literary types or will be so used to the mistakes that their peers make that they will not care. They may even suspect someone whose written English is too good of being a poet or philospher and therefore fundamentally suspect. Thus, trying to improve your CEO’s writing style will be unproductive and may cause internal ill will that will damage your business. So learn to live with it.
However, if you work in an industry where clear language is more important, say the law or publishing then you have a more serious problem. Your clients will wince at each missing comma as much as you do. If this is the case then you can only solve the issue by being straight with your CEO. If he is good and worth keeping then he will understand, if he is no good and does not understand then you solve two problems with one stroke.
Finally, it sounds like you have control issues and difficulty approaching your CEO directly. If your merger was a 50/50 joint venture or similar arrangement then you have a whole set of different problems to deal with of grammar is probably the least.
Posted by: M | May 8th, 2008 at 7:19 pm | Report this commentWhy not hire a consultant to come in and sort your life out for you?
Oh no wait you ARE a consultant!
Those that can do those that can’t tell others how to do
Posted by: Stuart - FD | May 8th, 2008 at 8:04 pm | Report this commentM,
“If your clients are mainly engineers or quant bankers then they will either not be literary types or will be so used to the mistakes that their peers make that they will not care”
I can’t speak for quant bankers, but actually engineers are usually pedantic about accuracy and clarity as this can be essential when discussing engineering issues. In my experience, it is the ‘literary types’ who are liberal with their grammer. I suspect you don’t actually deal with any engineers.
Posted by: Richard C | May 8th, 2008 at 8:04 pm | Report this commentLighten up.
If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Have you considered your CEO’s type of expression is quite ‘different’ in a depressingly homogenous biz, and a stealthy way to encourage face time to flesh out his ideas? You can constructively explain it away as part of his charm, and avoid a major diasater.
Alan, 59, male, consultancy president
p.s. I am shocked at the number of previous respondents who think it a good idea to approach him about changing it, or address it by implementing controls, or especially discuss it with clients??!! Toxic. (”Hi; just wanted to let you know that prior to the merger I failed to notice my new CEO is illiterate.”) If you dislike being around a nuts-n-bolts guy who can get it done in the consulting business, maybe it’s time to start taking the hangar out of your suit jacket prior to entering the office in the morning.
My view is significantly consistent with the previous response from Chris: use his lack of written communication skill as a filip for more in-depth discussions with clients about your firm’s ideas. I presume discussion of ideas is likely the essence of what drives your business, even if you have encouraged it previous by more grammatically correct means.
Posted by: Alan Rohrbach | May 8th, 2008 at 8:06 pm | Report this commentSir,
I would never judge anyone by their spelling mistakes or failure to master the written word… how did he pass exams?…is he doing a good job?…let the secretary do the work and make sure she went through primary school?
Posted by: Sheila Hendry | May 8th, 2008 at 9:09 pm | Report this commentTwo words: Guy Hands. Utterly dyslexic. Utterly brilliant. Illiteracy in his case didn’t preclude diligence and studiousness, on top of superlatively commercial thinking. And Hands is not the exception to some rule.
I’m sorry but nobody really cares about writing, if the corollary to that alleged caring, is an indifference to the mighty fabric and thrusting forces in the world. I suggest your attitude is really one of spurious pedantry, of just having a pop at this chap, and that you should just let the CEO be and try to see the good in him.
Posted by: Jonathan, 32, male, local govt accountant | May 8th, 2008 at 10:53 pm | Report this commentI worked with someone like that for many years in management consultancy. Initially I used to cringe to hear him make presentations. But I found that, after a series of woolly, ambiguous and badly phrased sentences interspersed with schoolboy howlers on his choice of words, he would suddenly come out with some marvellous insight which made up for it all.
We used to compile reports and recommendations together. I found that sometimes, by asking him to explain to me what some bit of gobbledigook meant, we could extract the meaning and re-phrase it. Equally sometimes his ambiguity could prove an advantage because people could interpret it as reinforcing their views which gave them reassurance.
Over the years, by his constant interaction with a wide variety of people (not with me) I watched his command of English improve until he reached the stage where he published a book on his particular subject which sold quite well!
So my advice is - don’t be so sensitive about the English. It’s his ideas people want.
Posted by: Nigel | May 8th, 2008 at 11:50 pm | Report this commentedjucashun standers hav dropd in britten its terribel i dont unnerstan wot there sayin on the telly eni moor the bess inglish teday is spokin bi foriners forr exampul the nu mare of lundon is a rushin colld boris and he spiks sooper inglish
Posted by: J.J. | May 9th, 2008 at 6:59 am | Report this commentHe sounds like one of those people who thinks that if it is written in an email then spelling, punctuation and grammar all go out of the window. I suspect that if he were writing a letter he might take more care over it. You need to think about the nature of the client emails - are they personal messages from him or are they emails in formats he repeats such as information updates? If it is the latter then the company could certainly create templates for him that were correct and present it to him as a branding exercise. I agree that content is what matters - including to your clients. I worked for an Italian whose emails were punctuated ee cummings-style i.e. not at all and they contained bad language and mis-spellings but we always got the message… However, in this case my suspicion is that you don’t like his style or think that he is up to the job - that is the real issue here.
Posted by: Louise, 44, female, consultant | May 9th, 2008 at 8:00 am | Report this commentyou are overlooking an important fact of modern life which is that it is a sign of high status to be cavalier about grammar and punctuation and even spelling in emails — it shows that you are too busy with “the important things” and have servants to deal with that kind of thing, when really necessary — conversely, if you can be bullied about your spelling etc, it proves you are not really high status
Posted by: Blackstone | May 9th, 2008 at 10:49 am | Report this commentPoint out to him that sloppy and ungrammatical usage easily leads not just to unintelligibility but also to ambiguity which can easily lead in turn to fundamental misunderstandings having very serious business and financial consequences.
Applying effective grammar and punctuation is all about clarity-of intention,opinion and general purpose.If business is in any way about precision literacy is essential. You don’t have to be Shakespeare, Victor Hugo or Goethe! Neither do you have to have a degree in Old Norse and Middle English.
Finally,buy him Will Schwalbe’s book on using e-mail and Chris West’s Perfect Writing.
Posted by: David | May 9th, 2008 at 10:55 am | Report this commentGood grammar, syntax and punctuation can be seen as a sign of having too much time on one’s hands and not enough urgency to get a job done. So abbreviations, missed-out words and misspellings aren’t necessarily a bad thing.
Posted by: TK, Banker, Male, 35 | May 9th, 2008 at 11:23 am | Report this commentI can’t remember the name of this other guy with charisma - I think he was also dyslexic - read it in his autobiography - rather successful though - lives in Holland Park - flyes balloons - his first name’s Richard, Richard… - Ah yes, it’s Richard Branson! That’s it!
Posted by: coco, 36, male, COO | May 9th, 2008 at 12:49 pm | Report this commentSo many strange answers. Too busy to spell and write grammatically?? Too lazy? Educational failure? A mix of all these?
Posted by: Peter, 71, male, retired. | May 9th, 2008 at 1:07 pm | Report this commentMany years ago and well before internet/email began I had to deal frequently with a very aggressive and rude managing director, all of whose colleagues could leave him standing in politeness, discussions and writing. Then one day I discovered that he could neither read nor write, apart from a scribble for his signature. My assessment of him changed immediately; his aggression and rudeness were all a front to hide his embarrassment and to ensure that nobody found out! His attitude was accepted by all his colleagues simply because his business acumen delivered the profits.
So, whilst I find it frustrating to see so many people who cannot spell; that complete lack of grammar and punctuation are increasing; that many people have ‘made’ themselves unemployable through these deficiencies; I am careful not to jump to instant conclusions. And I deplore the failure of our education system to provide more and more of our youngsters with these basic tools and the understanding that goes with them (together with basic (mental) arithmetic which sharpens the decision making abilities). Without such tools our youngsters are at a distinct disadvantage in every aspect of life. Just spending 30 minutes standing by any office coffee machine/water dispenser is a quite mind boggling experience.
Tell him to apply for a job at Barnet Council where he will be warmly welcomed and promoted.
Posted by: Don\'t Call Me Dave | May 9th, 2008 at 1:59 pm | Report this commentAlthough my english is poor, I will try some subtle method. Since you have read his email to clients, you can also cc your emails to him. Try to use the same or better sentences with correct grammer and spelling. See if he can realize his mistakes. If not, then go with the direct way to tell him.
Posted by: jin | May 9th, 2008 at 5:39 pm | Report this commentOccasionally I am asked by students why it’s necessary to use “a” and “the” at all. In 2 years of marriage to a Slavic woman (Slavic languages don’t have “a” or “the”) there has only been one misunderstanding when she said “put vodka for my father in bag” (no that isn’t made up) and I went to get a new bag from the kitchen instead of putting the vodka in the bag she had already started putting things in. I think it’s disingenous to say that our negative reaction to bad grammar is simply because the meaning isn’t clear because that is so rarely the case.
The real issue is that we as the circle of people who are able to use English correctly (or the particular official language in other countries) hold a membership card for the trade union of “broadly educated people”. That trade union operates (unconsciously) as a mafia which controls everthing and we members get annoyed when we see non-members doing jobs other than cleaning the floor. We should get annoyed too, considering that our children will one day be card holders regardless of their actual level of educational achievement and will need to have good jobs reserved and waiting, and not open to just literally everyone who has the particular (say) technical expertise as if we lived in some kind of bizarre nightmare meritocracy.
Your clients are likely to be members in most cases so these emails will certainly annoy them. The extent to which this is a problem will depend on your firm. If you have genuinely innovative ideas then it’s less of a problem. If you are mostly hand-holding and collating the wisdom of others (nothing to be ashamed of as it probably provides more value to your clients than coming up with new things) then it’s a bigger problem because you can be more easily replaced. If the CEO has made it as a consultant already despite the presentational problem then presumably he has unique skills.
Also I note that you are 62, which means that you studied primary school English at a time when linguists and teachers wanted it to be more like Latin. I would be interested to know if these grammar mistakes are so called “common mistakes” meaning areas where there is simply no agreement on what is correct.
An example:
“He is taller than I.” - thought by some people to be correct on the grounds that “I” is the subject of the (implied) verb and should be in the nominative case as in Latin.
“He is taller than me.” - thought by some people to be correct on the grounds that from analysis of how English is used, pronouns appear to have a disjunctive form to be used when the pronoun is not directly in front of an explicitly stated verb (as in French when “moi” should be used according to French linguists and French people in general).
Our language, unlike French, is democratic so nobody (except English people in general) has the authority to judge who is right in the above dispute (although many claim to have such authority or to have been informed by someone who has). From your age I’m going to stereotype you and guess that you think only the first example is ok. Many of your clients might disagree especially if they are younger, so they might not think your CEO has bad grammar at all.
It’s worth mentioning that the above does not excuse everything - for example mistakes which are only common in specific regions such as London (double negatives), North-West (use of past participle instead of past tense) North-East (the reverse) and so on because we could say that English people in general have judged these things not to be ok. The question is which kind of mistakes is your CEO making?
By the way I wouldn’t expect a survey to turn up much useful because clients won’t perceive the quality of English in the emails to be a problem for them (and would anyway be embarrassed to mention it). That doesn’t mean it doesn’t look unprofessional though.
Posted by: Richard, language school director, Slovakia, 30 | May 9th, 2008 at 10:06 pm | Report this commentI have had the same problem with some employees and I regret to tell you that I have never been able to help them. Even worse, I have found that those with poor spelling and grammar deliberately make their handwriting illegible to hide errors. I have suggested that they become avid readers only to be totally ignored. Every approach on the subject has been met with stony silence.
Posted by: Tom | May 10th, 2008 at 12:57 pm | Report this commentYou have to shunt the offending employee somewhere that doesn’t involve written communication.
Oi! Grandad! This is 2008 not 1908!English is a living language that’s constantly evolving, like a successful business does…..
Posted by: Greg 43 male website developer | May 10th, 2008 at 4:56 pm | Report this commentAnd. We didn’t merge, I took you over!
Why dont YOU go and paint water colours in Umbria or something, you old fogey, instead of bleating to the FT!
If this is a real issue for you, have IT enforce spell checker on the system for all employees and get back to your retirement, which is the likely reason for your merger. You have cashed out now so let someone, who clearly knows what they are doing (as per due dil), get on with funding your pension. good luck and enjoy the fruits of your labour.
Posted by: Mr T, Director | May 10th, 2008 at 7:17 pm | Report this commentOne partner is full of bluster and takes himself too seriously; the other likes to compose tidy emails. Many successful marriages have started with less than this. If you can work out a division of labor–you handle correspondence while he handles sales–the courtship, or due diligence, will not have been in vain.
Posted by: Investor, male, 51 | May 11th, 2008 at 5:08 am | Report this commentWow, since when was it a requirement to be literate and be an MBA graduate? The concept even sounds oxymoronic. I mean do these graduates like other social sciences masters programs have to craft a 7-150 page document thesis of any kind pulling from financial, economic and risk aversion prior publications and cite relevant references to become lettered MBAs?
I always thought MBA programs were no more than how to chat your way into and through a contract negotiation with little brief overviews of varying aspects of the business environment paradigms of current.
At any rate, it could be that this person is a non-english as first language speaker or has trouble with train of thought thinking and slow fingers getting it composed properly or it could be the underlying discipline and training? In other words, what are the credentials under the MBA? Did that course work require massive amounts of writing or not? Did his MBA program require writing projects?
There are too many unknowns to correctly assess the proper course to take given the descriptive above.
P.S. A review of any number of online blogs points out that there are thousands of us folks online whose writing skills are not deemed to be up to par whether native english speakers or not.
Posted by: Mister Too Many Languages | May 11th, 2008 at 7:02 am | Report this commentI currently know three people who have problems with spelling. One is a Managing Director and one an Operations Manager, both of whom have dyslexia. They both know they have problems with spelling. As they know that I will be non-judgmental they both ask me to glance over any important communications. However, day to day emails with spelling mistakes do slip through. Interestingly, both of these people are highly respected for the people they are and for what they do. Clients who know and have met them do not seem to censure them for their grammar.
On the other hand, I have worked with a Managing Director who is not dyslexic but has appalling spelling. This is aggravated when he flies into one of his many rages and fails to read the email he is sending out before he hits the ’send’ button. Known behind his back as “The Keyboard Warrior” he also uses email as a political weapon, copying in other directors as a form of intimidation. Unlike my two dyslexic colleagues, he is not admired, being a bully and pretty incompetent at his job. In this case his poor spelling is a constant amusement to his colleagues and none of his customers nor suppliers like him anyway.
So even clients can see beyond the spelling to the person beyond.
Posted by: Director, 44, Female | May 11th, 2008 at 8:15 pm | Report this commentFellow global citizens,
Martin Lukes, now a convicted criminal, was challenged by the English language but managed to become CEO of a major Fortune 500 company. His collaborator, Lucy Kellaway, is apparently very language proficient but remains a journalist with the FT.
Let’s be very clear here about causality: was it because Lukes was a male, and destined to be successfully convicted or because Kellaway was female (and destined to fail)?
Posted by: Investor, male, 51 | May 11th, 2008 at 11:21 pm | Report this commentIt is interesting that the responses pro-grammar are by older(seasoned, experienced) people.The ones excusing poor grammar are a younger generation. Hmmm. Is this progress? If the language is important for communication, there have to be certain standards. Otherwise, we will lose all ability to understand one another as the language ”evolves”.
Posted by: BA Johnston, 61, sole proprietor | May 12th, 2008 at 12:27 pm | Report this commentIf the CEO’s messages convey their intended meanings, despite the poor “literacy”, then just put up with it. It is a rare pleasure these days to find anybody who can write clearly and well. However, if his messages are not understood by clients, staff, media (whoever is important for your company) then you have a business problem. As the majority of posts earlier suggest, there is no obvious and easy solution. One possibility is to get a friendly, key client to reply to the CEO, copying you, showing he/she has seriously misunderstood him - best if it looks like the client is agreeing to a contractually binding offer, which would be seriously to your company’s disadvantage. This should force the issue out in the open. No doubt there are other similar tactics that could be used.
In my organisation, we work in two languages (English and Russian) while my 35 staff between them have several native tongues (the two above plus French, Italian and Polish). I don’t care how poorly written unimportant messages are, as long as the meaning gets through. However, for all important communications going out to people and organisations important to us, I get the best native speakers of English and Russian to check and edit our communications. I apply that rule to myself as well. As some posters have suggested, if you decide that good communications should be a key marketing tool, then surely the CEO would agree to having his missives edited by the PR professional - just as you would.
Posted by: Stephen, male, consultant, 60 | May 12th, 2008 at 2:05 pm | Report this commentTell him about it. Grown up businessmen need to be able to discuss such matters.
The spellchecker will eliminate a fair bit of the problem.
Arfter awll itz the messidge that kownts.
Posted by: Merlin | May 13th, 2008 at 2:25 pm | Report this comment