Create better management reports
Management reports are crucial inputs in support of a meeting, in order to achieve a productive outcome.
They generally fail the audience for a few reasons that can be prevented with better preparation:
1. Reports issued too late
Leaders do not have time ahead of meetings to process content, so they are on high alert to interrogate the info presented to them.
The process of sourcing and collating info for reports, tend to take too long resulting in poor quality reports, and leaders are placed under undue pressure.
2. Lack of trust in management reports
When leaders are under pressure to process lots of info, they tend to question the detail. They find all the anomalies and the time is spent on reconciling differences.
By the second piece of questioned info, the trust is significantly reduced across the whole report.
3. Too much detail in management reports
Reports that contain detail data sets, and typically the wrong metrics for the level of the audience, cause the audience to dig into unnecessary detail.
3 Tips to create better management reports #bestpractical
There are many ways to improve your reporting. Here are 3 tips to get you going on a monthly management report example.
1. Plan enough time to: [T=meeting date]
- Source trusted data [T-7 days].
- Analyse data and draw insights [T-3 days].
- Draft your report [T-3 days].
- Time for your audience to prepare [T-2 days].
Once you have achieved a stable report after a few cycles, you want to automate the data sourcing process. This will allow you the most time to interpret insights and recommendations.
2. Frame the content of the management report
- Contextualize where your report fits in the meeting.
- State the “effective date” of data used to avoid anomalies.
- Make sure the data set used is accurate and balances where required.
- Qualify clearly where you are unsure.
3. Speak to the audience
- Share and represent the executive summary with confidence, and have the next level of detail ready to field questions.
- Be clear with your message and the decision you require.
- Prepare your report so it speaks to the level and preference of the audience.
- Ensure you have applied your mind to the insights you are presenting.
Improve the effectiveness of your management decisions with better prepared reports, the #bestpractical way.
“Creating better management reports” is only a small part of the overall goal to improve profits, as can be seen on the CoLAB Profit Improvement Journey Map.
This is a proven framework we use to help executives and their teams achieve profit improvement in 6-months, without a major capital investment.
If you want to explore the journey to improve your profits, then click on this LINK to get a copy of our Profit Improvement Framework.
#bestpractical