I once sent an email to over 50,000 people that had a typo in the subject line. The email was reviewed and approved by three people. The email designer didn’t notice when he copied and pasted it into the email platform. The proof reviewer also didn’t notice. The big green send button was pushed and out went the mistake for a crap ton of people to read.
“Uh, Kristina…you know that email that just went out has a typo in it,” my colleague shyly mentioned during a zoom call.
I felt sick to my stomach for the rest of the day. The smart aleck-y email replies didn’t help.
While I was the original typer of the word, the misspelled word managed to sneak past four other people too. How did that happen?
Simple: we were rushed. Up against an unrealistic deadline. The whole team was focused on getting the message out and didn’t make time to pay attention to the details.
Rushed communication is never your ally.
The natural anxiety busy leaders have is: "I don't have hours to sit and polish this message." But you don't need hours*. You just need a system to clean the windshield before hitting the gas pedal…even if you are required to get something out quickly (read: crisis comms), you aren’t helping anyone if you drive off a cliff because you can’t see out the windshield.
*If you ARE spending hours polishing your messages…STEP AWAY FROM THE LAPTOP! Perfectionism is also not your ally.
The problem is: When your brain is running at 100 mph, your raw, unedited first drafts are likely full of passive voice, run-on paragraphs, or accidental corporate jargon...and, uh, typos. Don’t get me wrong, there is huge value in a crappy first draft. It does the job of getting ideas out of your head. But if you send it in that pitiful state for the sake of time, your people have to spend their precious time decoding what in the actual heck you are trying to say.
This matters because a rushed, unedited memo, email, or whatever you’re writing can create organizational friction, confusion, and slow execution — costing you time and chipping away at your professional authority and reputation.
To put it bluntly, hitting send on an unedited or rushed draft — is a leadership failure.
Here’s the micro-lesson: If you want to protect your effectiveness as a leader and ensure your message lands exactly how you intend, you HAVE TO run your drafts through a quick-but-focused editing process before you hit send. NO IFs ANDs or BUTs. And don’t rush it.
Will some issues get through? Maybe. And honestly, the occasional slip up is OK because it shows you are human. But your message is too important to rush and your people are too important to confuse with fuzzy directives.
You don’t want to be the person known for typos, stream-of-thought messages, and half-baked sentences – even in short, informal messages. It degrades your credibility and expertise.
Put it into practice. Here’s a three-step process to ensure your messages are edited with care:
1. Your default editor should be AI. Your platform of choice has a version of “spelling and grammar check” – a basic form of AI that has been around for decades. Using it shouldn’t even be a question.
Run this before and after your primary editor reviews your work.
Don’t accept every change it recommends – it can be wrong, but most of the time it’s right.
2. Your primary editor should be YOU. If you are writing a quick email or text, always read it from beginning to end before hitting send, at least once. You’ll catch typos, grammar mistakes, and autocorrect fails that come with quick typing.
If you’re writing longer-form content (a blog, report, case study, speech, or major announcement), you need a system. Don't just stare at the text. Run these three distinct, rapid passes before any other eyes see it:
Pass 1: Read through to check the big-picture purpose. Look at the formatting on the screen. Do you have massive walls of text? If a paragraph is longer than three sentences, hit enter. If it looks dense on a desktop, it will make your employee's eyes cross.
Pass 2: Read your work completely out loud. When we rush, we string endless thoughts together with multi-clause sentences connected by endless "ands" and "whiles" and if you run out of oxygen before you reach a punctuation mark, your sentence is too long. ****GASP*** Shew, that was a long one. Put a hard period exactly where you naturally pause to take a breath. Long sentences can be great, but short sentences project clarity and executive control.
Pass 3: Now that the flow and pacing are tight, read it one final time strictly to catch the minor spelling slips, missing words, and tiny details that hid from you during the first two reviews.
“Hiring” your default and primary editor costs you nothing but a few extra minutes and will immediately result in more polished and professional messages. You have nothing to lose but those dang autocorrect fails and run-on sentences.
Once your job as primary editor is complete, you can pass the work to your secondary editor.
3. Your secondary editor should be someone you hire, a teammate, or a trusted colleague or friend. Most texts, slack messages, and quick edits don’t need a secondary editor, unless the topic is sensitive.
Longer form content benefits from a secondary editor because your work needs an unbiased and objective perspective to review the flow, language, and effectiveness of the message.
Secondary editors also serve as fresh eyes that catch mistakes your brain skips over...unless they are rushed too, in which case, you’re gonna have a problem! This is exactly how my 50,000-person typo happened — our secondary editors were just as rushed as I was.
How’d it go? Step back from the rush and take the time to run your next big update through the editing process above before you push the big green send button. What did you catch? What did you take out?
Hit reply or drop a comment — I read and answer every single response. And if you’d like to chat about partnering with me as your secondary editor, schedule a virtual pool-side chat with me here. I’d love to hear what you are working on!
P.S. Random Things I’m Loving This Week
(These are not sponsors or affiliate links… just things I genuinely enjoy and want to share with you!)
My Banana Story — It went viral on LinkedIn because moms rallied around this truth: Don’t ever underestimate the power of a mom in the workplace. I encourage you to check out the comments and repost reflections. They are heart warming!
1:1 Writing Coaching — There was a moment last week when I helped my client pull out a detail from a memory that he was having trouble articulating. When he got it, I threw both hands in the air and yelled, “YES! THAT’S EXACTLY WHAT YOUR STORY NEEDS!” These moments fuel me. (Schedule a chat with me if you need help unearthing your story too!)
My Pro Canva Account — I’ve been using it forever, but am really appreciating it this week because I created an epic invite to our upcoming Independence Day bash. I also use it for LinkedIn images, kiddo birthday parties, collaborating with clients, editing videos, and more.
Mulberry Pie— Every June, my family eats ripe berries from stained hands from our backyard Mulberry tree. And then we make pie, muffins, ice cream…all things mulberry. Delish!
