How to write a holiday card to your staff
My interactions with physical pens usually consist of a few seconds of scrawling my signature on some letter. I rarely write much text longhand these days. Except this time of year, and other special occasions, when I write personalized notes to folks. My ink-stained fingers are evidence of the labor of the last four hours. Only fifteen cards to show for it, but each is different and personal (no “Good job, Bob” here).
It took a few torn up cards and some frustration before I realized that I can’t just sit down and write with a pen anymore. Back in the day, when a pen or pencil was all I had to work with, the pen was transparent and thoughts moved from my head to the paper easily. Those days are gone, replaced by the keyboard. Apparently I get too wound up when I write extemporaneously with pen and paper, and I end up scratching out words, or trying to write over them (if I just press down harder, they’ll never tell that this used to be a different word, right?). I want my handwritten notes to be perfect (or mostly so), and this pen thing just wasn’t working.
The solution for me is to fire up a text editor (or Word, whatevs, I’m partial to text editors) and write my notes one at a time. The benefit here is that you get to look back at previous notes and play off of them, or rip off a couple words or a line. You also get the benefit of being able to easily rework your phrasing when it sounds stupid. If you’re like me, you’ll do this a lot. In the end you’ll have a nice archive of the notes and you can simply copy from the screen to your handwritten note. No scratch outs, and every note sounds great. Also, the txt file can be recycled and added to for other occasions/events. Write your good copy once, and keep it forever (in fact, I understand this is a tried and true trick of actual copywriters).
Benefits to the note text file:
- less frustration because you can edit before actually writing
- better sounding notes
- faster note writing (when you re-use the archive)
- fewer scratch outs or trying to write over the wrong word
If you’re having trouble formatting the note, or coming up with the just the right words for the recipient, consider these additional tips:
- Keep the note to two sentences. One more if you must, but two is all you need, unless you’re writing a full-on letter.
- Be appreciative. This isn’t a time to pull punches with the compliments. This is when you tell people what you like about them. Save the ugly stuff for the performance review. This can be tough. It might help to actually schedule yourself some uninterrupted time to think about how to write something nice. Serious.
- Consider the personality. Anal-retentive type? Play into it: “I appreciate how you take ownership of your work.” Chatterbox? Try projecting a different behavior that you’d appreciate, “Thank you for being a sounding board.” or “Thanks for your willing ear.”
- They’ll compare. If you’re writing notes for folks who work together, assume that at least some of them will compare the notes. Don’t make them identical. Personalize them. You’ll both feel better about it. If you can’t pull off a personalized note, don’t write anything more than your signature. The impact will be the same between a lame platitude and nothing more than a sig.
- Get a nice pen. Nice tools make work easier and more fun. I like fountain pens, but many folks don’t. If you don’t have a nice pen, go get a decent gel pen or something. Just something that’s easy to write with. Ditch the generic plastic sticks for this job.
- Thesaurus. Don’t be afraid to use different words. Even if nobody else will know, it gets kind of annoying when you have to write “appreciate” more than a few times.
That’s all I’ve got top-of-mind. I’d be curious to hear about tips other folks have for writing personalized cards…
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POSTED IN: communication, creativity, management, productivity, tips and tricks, writing
2 opinions for How to write a holiday card to your staff
Kimberly
Dec 17, 2006 at 2:30 pm
I used to write personal notes frequently and my two most important “rules” were to be sincere - always - and to write something congruent with their performance. I quickly learned that my associates saved the notes (sometimes for years) and both from a personal integrity standpoint and from an HR standpoint, I didn’t want someone to have five “You are doing great!” notes in their hands when I had to write them up or do a termination. (“But I thought I was doing great ?!?”) Occasionally I had to work hard to find something positive to say, but I was always genuine. Great topic!
Robert Hruzek
Dec 19, 2006 at 11:54 am
Great advice!
Of course, now that I’ve created the perfect text for my note, I have to accurately transcribe it to the letter card paper. Blast! Oh, the pressure!