Memos I Wish More Leaders Wrote
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I think many teams would become healthier if leaders wrote more honest memos.
Not longer memos. Not more polished memos.
Just more real ones.
So this post is in that spirit.
Below are 5 memos I wish more leaders wrote, or at least communicated this clearly.
Memo 1
We are doing too many things.
So even though everyone is busy, progress feels thinner than it should.
This is not a motivation problem. It is a focus problem.
We need to choose fewer priorities and defend them harder.
Memo 2
Some of our delays are not execution delays. They are decision delays.
We are waiting too long to clarify ownership, trade-offs, and direction.
That makes teams look slower than they really are.
Memo 3
We say we want ownership, but sometimes we still punish people for acting without too much permission.
That contradiction confuses teams.
If we want ownership, then we also need to tolerate thoughtful initiative.
Memo 4
Some meetings exist because trust is low.
That is uncomfortable, but true.
When leaders do not trust teams, they create extra layers of reviews, updates, and approvals.
Then everybody complains about bureaucracy.
Sometimes bureaucracy is just mistrust with calendar invites.
Memo 5
A lot of what we call “leadership communication” is too abstract.
Teams do not only need inspiration. They also need plain clarity:
- what matters most
- what changed
- what trade-off we made
- what we are no longer prioritizing
That kind of clarity is respect.
Why I like memo-style thinking
Because memos remove some theatre.
They force sharper thought.
You cannot hide weak thinking as easily when you have to write it clearly.
And maybe that is why I wish more leaders used them better.
Not to sound important. To reduce confusion.
Final thought
If more leadership communication felt like a useful internal memo and less like a polished announcement, teams would probably trust it more.
And honestly, they would probably understand it better too.