Writing as a Leadership Skill: Why Leaders Can’t Afford to Outsource Their Voice

In 1980, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher delivered a speech that would define her. It was sharp, unflinching, and unmistakably Thatcher, and contained the iconic line ‘The Lady is not for Turning’. But it wasn’t hers alone.

Behind the scenes was Ronald Millar—a playwright and script doctor for MGM films, and Thatcher’s trusted speechwriter—who helped give her conviction its clarity. Millar’s background was not rooted in conventional politics, but he knew how to put great words in the mouths of others. With Thatcher, he would condense her thoughts down into their final form over a series of edits. When he died, Thatcher said of him that Millar “contributed so much to my being able to express what I felt and meant”. Ronald Millar gave voice to her voice.

Today’s founders face the same reality. You need to have confidence in the voice you speak publicly with - your voice is your strategy. But as with Thatcher and other famously eloquent leaders, you don’t need to write every word yourself. Many of them leant hard on a trusted editorial partner, someone who got their tone goals, and blind spots.

The Myth of Going It Alone

Hustleporn startup culture would have you believe the best leaders are lone communicators. They’re expected to pen product updates, investor letters, all-hands speeches, and blog posts—in between fundraising, hiring, and running the company. Sounds like a recipe for burnout.

The go-to alternate is to farm it out to freelancers, but that’s a false binary. The best communicators in history—from Thatcher to Obama—had invisible collaborators. Behind-the-scenes consiglieri who challenged their ideas, pushed for clarity, and elevated their message without diluting their intent. They are the kind of people who help their leaders see around corners, game out potential response scenariosd from a variety of audiences, and shape messaging that takes all the potential secondary and tertiary effects into consideration.

Writing is a leadership act. But great writing, as with great leadership, lies in partnership. It lies in relationships of trust.

When Delegation Dilutes

Delegating your voice rather than actively owning it leads to a lack of authenticy. When that happens, memos read like HR policy docs. Public updates sound like brand copy, without the personal conviction or sentiment to back them up. Your team starts asking, “Did you even write this?”

When a message lacks authenticity, or feels obviously scripted people sense it. It creates distance. It generates doubt.

Founders often delegate writing because they’re busy—and that’s fair. But unless you’ve worked to agree on a clear voice architecture, delegation creates drift away from your own voice. Over time, your messages lose their edge, and the leader you want and need to be disappears from view. You’re just one of the army of interchangable suits.

The answer isn’t to do everything yourself. It’s to bring in the right partner.

What a Trusted Editorial Partner Actually Does

Finding a high-trust strategic editor means identifying someone who knows how to distill your ideas, without supplanting them. They’re there to edit with your tone, not a templated voice or their own ideas. They act as your continuity chief (or bring others in to do the same), maintaining message consistency across platforms and audiences.

Ideally, they’re not a sycophant either, they’ll challenge muddy thinking before it gets published so that it doesn’t get you in trouble.

They sit with you before the update goes out. They ask: “What are you really trying to say?” They know when to let a sentence breathe. and when to slash it in half.

A great editorial partner is part chief of staff, part story coach, and they know what’s at stake. A sloppy investor letter, a confusing internal memo, a robotic press release, they know that one wrongly-placed word can hurt alignment, trust, and momentum.

Done right, your editorial partner becomes a quiet force multiplier. And the best never need to be seen. You remain the author. They make sure your authorship is unmistakable, and that your byline means something, every time.

The Founder’s Voice Kit: Built With, Not For You

To scale your voice, you need to codify it in a working “voice kit” that your editorial partner helps you build and refine.

What it includes:

• Tone traits: Are you frank and direct? Warm and curious? Dryly funny?

• Message structure: Do you lead with vision? Context? A personal story?

• Phrasing patterns: The metaphors you return to. The words you avoid.

• Delegation rules: What must come from you, and what can be drafted then reviewed?

This is all operational clarity - and as AI enters the mix, defining tone helps set the tone for a much broader swathe of your organisation’s communications. When your voice is documented, collaborators stay aligned. Drafts improve. Edits get faster. And you avoid the drift that happens when multiple hands try to write “like you.”

Beyond that, the process of defining it is valuable in itself. Forcing yourself to think about how you sound when you communicate is massively instructive and worth revisiting as you and your mission evolve.

The Risk of Silence

Let’s be honest, some business leaders are way too vocal, and the inability to shut up can be disastrous. Some leaders, fearing dilution or blowback, go the other way: they go quiet.

They stop publishing updates. Their team stops hearing from them. Their investors hear only in bullet points.

Silence can create a vacuum into which people project uncertainty and insecurities. Or worse: it is filled with apathy.

The solution isn’t to stay quiet. It’s to get support. A strong editorial partner gives you the space and structure to show up in your comms—without burning out or sounding off-brand.

You don’t need to write every word. You won’t have time. But you do need to make every word count. Your leadership voice is too valuable to outsource by default. And too strategic to leave underdeveloped.

If you're ready to define your voice, scale it with intention, and show up consistently across every touchpoint—from internal updates to public posts—then you need more than a writer.

You need a discreet, senior editorial partner who understands how language shapes leadership.

If only someone like this existed.