Few moments are more fragile for professional humans than the ones spent staring at a blank Word doc. The cursor blinks. You check Facebook and like some posts. You buy something on Amazon. You return to the blank page. It is a special kind of hell.

You can empathize with this situation because you have been this person — on deadline for that proposal or presentation, and you’re stuck. And the fact that you can empathize with this situation should help you in your endeavor to entreat others to express their ideas. Namely when they are asked to express them in the form of 26 characters, 10 numbers and a handful of symbols on a regular basis.

If you have not yet had the pleasure of proposing your company’s content development (your company’s strategy surrounding blogs and social media), then know that you can be prepared for any number of excuses.

But I am not in communications/sales/marketing/tech-stuff. I’m not a creative person. I do not have anything to write about. I am not a good writer that is why I have this job. Can’t someone else just write my stuff? (The list goes on ad infinitum.)

The trouble with this, of course, is that you know none of these are really reasons. They are, however, revealing of some latent insecurity. And now the task of undoing potentially years of delusion is yours — the inspirational leader.

This is no small undertaking, and you can take the short route of just hiring a talented writer or agency to build out the content for you. However, if that is not in the cards for you, fear not, there are a few tactics I have seen that work to unlock the hidden knowledge and creative spirit of an organization.

Check out the full article in the June issue of Small Business Monthly for five steps to becoming a better listener.