Writing Boots

A communicorrespondent wrote me Friday that she was earning her dough:
“We have an announcement I’m getting out today … no more 401(k) match … no more floating holidays, no more incidental spending … all with the directive to write it in a way that ‘doesn’t communicate that things are falling apart.'”
I just finished earning my own dough and zipped over for a look at the Dow, which closed down 299.64 points. And I actually said, “Well thank God it didn’t drop 300.”
As my dad used to say on the way to bed after a rough day: “We’ll try ‘er again tomorrow.”
Or as Charlie Rich would say—Shewchuk, this one’s for you ….

They "focus on being articulate and logical instead of being engaging and expressive." And they "lack the awareness that words can touch a person’s heart or influence politics. They have never valued the importance of words."

Sounds like American CEOs, right? No, it's Japanese politicians that sociolinguist Shoji Azuma is kvetching about in the Japan Times article.

My experience is that most leaders in any society, if given the choice, would rather let their power do the talking, and only in the case of a power outage—read, the current economic woes and the in-your-face introduction of corporate fallibility—do they stop hiding behind platitudes ("honorific language," as the Japanese put it) and start talking for keeps.

Or, as we counsel our preschoolers, "using their words."

I suppose we shouldn't expect sanity from a man who thought it was a good idea to merge Sid-and-Nancy retail basket cases Sears and Kmart.

But the Chicago Tribune reports on a bizarre investor letter from Sears Holding Corp. CEO Edward Lampert.

"As for enlightening investors with specifics about his merchandising strategy and fiscal 2009 outlook," an analyst remarks in the Trib piece, "we guess he ran out of room."

(Hat tip to Boots reader Kasia Chalko for steering this piece my way.)