Reports aren’t only a vehicle to deliver data. They can be a psychological tool to inform, motivate and create focus for managers as well as team members. For best results, include the following elements into your regular reports:
- Review Project Goals
It’s very effective to reiterate the project’s goals in your reports, after all, keeping objectives in mind always help people move in the right direction. Include a mention of whether or not you are ahead of schedule or behind. If behind, take time to strategize what adjustments need to be made to catch up. If you’re ahead, review what contributed to that and see if you can duplicate it in the future.
- State Project Accomplishments
Nothing motivates quite like a sense of accomplishment. If you’re a content marketing organization, list your publications along with strategies that made it happen and the cost of fulfillment. If you’re a PR agency, mention new placements, new contacts and potential projects for the future. If you’re short on accomplishments for the time period in question, then simply state that the project is in process and list the milestones that have been completed towards that end.
- Calibrate Results
If you’ve identified KPIs with your clients, examine each one of them for the time period and review how your work affected those results, positive or negative. Clarify the ways in which your team got closer to meeting its own goals and the business objectives of your client.
- Connect the Dots
Whether your key performance indicators are up or down, help the client connect the dots between those results and the work that you’ve done for them. If numbers are up, then describe what strategic elements worked best or how you responded effectively to opportunities. If metrics are down, explain the reason for the dip and, lesson learned, what you’ll do differently in the future to avoid the same result. Clients don’t expect you to be perfect; they want to know that you’re on top of it.
- What’s Next?
Now that you’ve reviewed previous accomplishments and results, it’s time to create a vision for the future with tasks, deliverables, and due dates. This will keep team members and clients alike focused on what’s important.
