There have always been plenty of new and interesting ways to kill companies – sometimes external forces do it, while other times companies prove very adept at doing it themselves. I was reflecting on this a while ago and being ever watchful of common themes, I came up with my 7 deadly sins that kill companies.

When they say in the military that communication is the first casualty of war, they probably didn’t think it’d carry over to business. But it has and it shows up in so many areas! In no specific order here’s some more noteworthy areas where communications becomes a source of the eventual rot and ruin of a once promising startup:

• SIMPLICITY: Not articulating the real value of your offering in plain, simple English? Result – no one knows what the hell you’re all about. Any wonder why your phone calls don’t get returned?

• P2P: Dialog with each other on the startup team – is it candid? Open? Respectful? Are you “talking past each other” in an attempt to get your own point across?

• Passive Aggressive behavior: Worst. Kind. Ever. Say it, honestly, respectfully, don’t hide it behind hollow platitudes or disingenuous attempts to make the other person feel good about their idea which you completely detest.

• Written communications: Has your 3.4 years spent texting rubbed off on your emails to prospective customers, manifesting itself as short, perfunctory, impersonal messages? Are there grammatical errors in your Executive Summary? Do your Powerpoint slides have more words than New Jersey phone book? There’s a time and place for brevity just as there is no place for excessively lengthy diatribes. Right Tool for the Right Job here, folks.

• Your brand - do you have one voice or are you Sybil on this one?

• Turnaround time (for communications and responses): Remember, the world tends to favor people who do what they say, when they say they’re going to do it. You just got a voicemail from a client, partner, prospect, ad partner – how long do you take to call them back?

• The little things: How many hand written notes have you sent over the past year? These could be to your customer who came through at the last minute with an order that kept the lights on one more week, or the barista at Starbucks that puts up with your crap when you’ve been up all night fixing code and start complaining when your half-caf/skinny chai latte with Madagascar cinnamon is 20 seconds late (I’d probably throw a mug at you)?

Some things to keep in mind, suggestions to consider:

• Guidance: Get Strunk & White’s “Elements of Style” – the Bible for good writing for authors of all ages and media. At least skim it and refer back to it often as you write stuff.

• Find common ground. Just because you don’t agree with their idea, doesn’t get you off the hook for finding a better solution.

• Listen more. You were given two ears and one mouth for a reason. Use them proportionally.

• Speak truth. Be gentle. You’ll win more support, colleagues and generate better ideas when the world starts to see you as someone truly interested in the other side of things.

• Reach out: Seek the opinions and perspectives from someone outside your company on the clarity, consistency and cohesiveness of your communications. They’ll see stuff you won’t and since you had the humility to ask them for help, they’re more likely to offer good advice and you’re more likely to listen to them.

• Agree: Get everyone on the team onto the same page regarding the importance of communication is to your success. Find triggers or watchwords that help you catch when you’re falling into bad habits (like speaking in TLA’s – Three Letter Acronyms).

I’m trying to keep these posts from becoming long form sermonettes (there’s enough of that out there), so I’ll stop here. Feel free to send your ideas and thoughts to add to this.

Next Post: Deadly Sin#2 – Ego.