Are you *sure* you want to be exciting?

The tone of business communications should be upbeat, inspiring, positively challenging, forward-looking and optimistic, right? Ummm...

One key finding of a recent marketing survey by Reuters Events* is that “effective content... must resonate with people and reflect the times”.

Let’s take a normal word which is copiously employed in business comms, especially in press releases, top-down memos, reports and speeches: the word “exciting”.

You might think your new strategy offers an “exciting” way forward. Now, you might be excited, your partners might be excited, your comms team might even be excited – or at least have the sense to look as if they are – but what about everyone else?

Most people are not "excited" at the moment and do not wish to be. Most people are anxious. They’re anxious about the cost of living, the prospect of recession, the rise in the cost of their mortgage or rent and, let’s be frank, global conflict. At the moment the top priority for most people in employment is hanging on to their job.

Rollercoasters are exciting. Jumping out of plane is exciting. Black run skiing is exciting. You should not be that kind of exciting. Not right now.

I’m not saying don’t be excited. But think carefully about who is getting what out of your exciting new future, and craft your message accordingly. Exciting things for management – a merger, a new acquisition, a new IT system – can be anxiety-inducing for a lot of people in your organisation.

There are plenty of other ‘positive’ words used in management communications which might carry a sting in the tale depending on the context in which they’re used: dynamic, agile, flexible, seize, energy, opportunity and – always, but particularly now – change.

Right now, you need finesse not vibrancy in your communications. Temper your language to the mood of your audience in these turbulent times. Think: steady, reliable, solid, resilient, careful, caring, listening, understanding, appreciating. Be insightful and aware, challenge your output from every angle and make sure it’s saying what you need it to say for the health of your organisation.

And if in doubt, outsource it. Or at least get an expert to kick the tyres on your exciting strategy document before you inadvertently demoralise the troops, or worse.

*Reuters Events: State of Marketing Report 2023