Sarcasm in writing. Don’t do it

Leadership is about people and so about communication, so take this one as a blunt and strongly word tip for us all.

Don’t be sarcastic in writing. Just don’t. Please. Ever.

Sarcasm in writing runs a high risk of being misinterpreted

I wrote about the “7%-38%-55% Rule” recently, recommending in that post to balance online communication (particularly that which only uses writing, such as email or texts) with offline communication, as when our communication is misaligned, only 7% of what we actually communicate comes from our words.

Sarcasm as humour

As a Scot, we are well known for being sarcastic as a form of humour, yet it can easily miscommunicate, even in person.

To illustrate, a classic Scottish comedy sketch on “sarcasmaholics anonymous”: