Your guide to writing effective memos from the C-suite

The difference between a message with the CEO’s name on it and one employees actually read is determined by the hard work put in by the internal communicator drafting it.

Kathryn Metcalfe, visiting professor at New York University, told Ragan that in her experience as a chief communications officer, the first step to nailing written memos for the top brass is embracing the communicator’s role as a strategic advisor.

“Whenever I walk into a CEO meeting, the CEO is looking for me to be a communicator and to give the best possible advice — not just words on a page,” Metcalfe said. “No CEO wants to be wordsmithing your document. They want to know if the message is going to achieve what they want it to achieve.”

Here’s a roadmap for internal communicators so they can build memos from the C-suite that hit their mark every time.

1. Build out your leader map.

Ellen Parlapiano, senior manager, executive communications at Blood Cancer United, told Ragan that she creates a roadmap to determine how the message can come alive off the page for each executive.

“So much of my process really starts way before the writing even begins,” Parlapiano said. “I have very robust communications plans for each leader, and those plans are my map when I do start to write because they build out a profile persona.”

Parlapiano said that each profile persona includes:

• A core persona that describes how the C-suiter sees themselves as a leader
• Recurring themes that the leader wants to reinforce in the memo
• Intended audiences and channels
• Tone guardrails

She added that some executives will be similar, but the roadmap allows her to choose the right person for the right message. For instance, one executive in her organization might be the right fit for a technical and science-forward message, while another may be perfect for a memo that addresses employee concerns. The roadmap helps guide her to the best person to send the memo — and it’s able to shift when needed.

“We review the maps every quarter,” Parlapiano said. “They’re very fluid — they evolve. But knowing that persona helps me with tone, because I know how they’re going to look at issues from their own perspective.”

2. Get the raw material for the memo by getting access and asking the right questions.

Once the plan for the memo is mapped out, internal communicators can gather the information that shapes the message from the C-suiters themselves. This happens through ongoing conversations with leaders.

Parlapiano said that having standing meetings with both the CEO and CMO at her organization is key to helping her mine the raw material needed to shape effective employee memos.

“Every two weeks, I have half an hour with each of them,” she told Ragan. “It helps me get in their heads and that helps build the needed trust.”

She added that the questions internal communicators ask don’t always need to be complex. They just need to capture the executive’s voice and intent.

“Sometimes the questions are incredibly simple,” Parlapiano said. “They include things like, ‘What’s on your mind right now? What’s worrying you? What’s keeping you up at night? What emotion do you want staff to feel in the next week when they read this?’”

3. Draft clearly and point to the desired action .

Once the needed inputs are in hand from the executive bylining the memo, internal comms should draft the structure first and aim to add the needed personality along the way. Most employees are reading memos from the CEO quickly, and often on mobile — focusing too much on voice up front can lose needed audience attention.

The ultimate goal of employee memos is to direct the workforce to an organizational action or make them aware of something. It’s not to simply parrot a leader’s voice. That often means prioritizing bullets over long paragraphs and cutting to the heart of the message, and even if it means sacrificing some style.

Metcalfe said that executives sometimes come to her with concern that a memo draft doesn’t fully capture their voice on the first go-round. She counters by focusing their attention on the channel, timing and positioning of the message first.

“I tell them, ‘If this comes exactly in your voice, maybe 20% of people read it,’” she said. “‘If we do it the right way, 50% read it and 40% act on it. What do you prefer?’”

4. Pressure test the memo before you hit send.

When the drafting is done, internal comms must ensure that the memo hits its mark and will have the best chance of being interpreted as intended by the employee audience. Metcalfe said she asks herself a few key questions during this final phase, including:

• How will employees view this message based on their lived experience on the job?
• How would this memo read if external parties were able to read it?
• Do this executive’s actions align with the words on the page?

She told Ragan that it’s up to a communicator to recognize when there are misalignments within any of these questions and to raise those concerns with the executive from a position of a trusted and experienced advisor. In a world in which internal memos make their way into the external news cycle, these pressure tests are important parts of the writing process.

“If you write it and have the CEO’s name on it, they better act and live it,” she said. “And if you’re being asked to write something that isn’t reflected in the reality of the company today, the communicator has to be able to say that, too.”

For a more detailed look at how to ask the right questions to write a top-flight C-suite memo, join Ragan’s Communications Leadership Council.

Sean Devlin is an editor at Ragan Communications.