Good writing is not complicated. As one guest notes, “it’s about injecting personality, making it engage and entertaining for your audience. But most importantly, it's about structure. … How is one paragraph leading to the next, how are they connected? The worst kind of writing, and we all see it all the time, is just rambling. It's not at all clear. People get lost and the idea gets lost.”

This is the second part of our two-episode conversation about the value of effective business writing.

In this episode, Jeff Bradford, Laura Brown, and Ryan Craig join us again to discuss:

How writing and critical thinking go hand-in-hand—and why practice makes perfect.

Why employers are often reluctant to teach remedial writing skills.

The characteristics of good writing: storytelling, personality, metaphors, and symbols.

Websites and other hacks that professionals can use to improve the quality of their writing.

Jeff Bradford leads a PR and advertising agency, The Bradford Group. A former journalist, he wrote a 2019 Forbes article entitled, “Why Writing Ability Is The Most Important Skill In Business (And How To Acquire It)”.

Laura Brown is a writer and writing coach, and the author of two bestselling books: “How to Write Anything: A Complete Guide,” and “The Only Business Writing Book You'll Ever Need.”

Ryan Craig is the Co-Founder and Managing Director of University Ventures, and the author of “College Disrupted: The Great Unbundling of Higher Education,” and “A New U: Faster + Cheaper Alternatives to College.”

As one of our guests asserts, “it's very, very difficult to get to the top in any organization without being able to communicate in writing.”

But how to become a better writer? Consider these two suggestions from another guest: “One is just simply read more and read better stuff. And secondly, write a lot. The more you write, the better you're going to get.”

This is the first part of our two-episode conversation about the value of effective business writing.

In this episode, Jeff Bradford, Laura Brown, and Ryan Craig join us to discuss:

Why schools don’t prepare students to write well.

How business writing is more interactive than many other forms of writing.

The characteristics of poor writing: verbose, full of jargon, and failing to consider for the reader’s needs.

Why professionals rarely receive feedback on their writing—and how executives model often bad habits.

Jeff Bradford leads a PR and advertising agency, The Bradford Group. A former journalist, he wrote a 2019 Forbes article entitled, “Why Writing Ability Is The Most Important Skill In Business (And How To Acquire It)”.

Laura Brown is a writer and writing coach, and the author of two bestselling books: “How to Write Anything: A Complete Guide,” and “The Only Business Writing Book You'll Ever Need.”

Ryan Craig is the Co-Founder and Managing Director of University Ventures, and the author of “College Disrupted: The Great Unbundling of Higher Education,” and “A New U: Faster + Cheaper Alternatives to College.”

Fictional 1980s corporate raider Gordon Gekko famously proclaimed that “Greed is good,” seeking to justify why one of the seven deadly sins is, in fact, ethically virtuous.

Leaders should think deeply about the ethical dimensions of their actions. However, too many fail to recognize the moral complexity inherent in their decisions. As one guest argues, “Just like some people are tone-deaf, and they can’t carry a tune, some are ethics-deaf.”

This is the second part of our two-episode conversation about why it’s so hard to be an ethical leader. Joanne Ciulla, Eugene Soltes, and Ann Tenbrunsel join us again to discuss:

- Avoiding zero-sum ethical trade-offs

- The ethics of price gouging and lying

- Why some people justify their actions even as ethical failures escalate

- Ethical decision making in an era of advanced technologies

- Humility and the relationship between ethics and effectiveness

Joanne Ciulla is a professor at Rutgers Business School and Director of the Institute for Ethical Leadership. A pioneer in the field of leadership ethics, she the author or co-author of numerous books and received a lifetime achievement award last year from the Society for Business Ethics.

Eugene Soltes is an Associate Professor at Harvard Business School, where his research focuses on corporate misconduct and fraud. The author of Why They Do It: Inside the Mind of the White-Collar Criminal, Eugene was the recipient of the Charles M. Williams Award for outstanding teaching.

Ann Tenbrunsel is a professor of Business Ethics in the College of Business Administration at the University of Notre Dame, where she focuses on the psychology of ethical decision making. Ann is the author, co-author, or co-editor of six books on this topic—including Blind Spots: Why We Fail to Do What’s Right and What to Do about It.