Chapter 3
How long should your report be?
Reports should be as long as needed to communicate organizational performance and raise issues that need leaders to make decisions, but short enough to keep their attention. Bloated reports to senior management waste valuable time and leave them frustrated.
Of more than 500 leaders surveyed by consultancy Board Intelligence, 56% reported that board papers didn’t help them have focused conversations and a similar proportion said that discovering the important information in a paper was like finding a needle in a haystack.
Conversely, a report with exactly the right information and well-signposted requests for decisions is likely to bring extra credit to the individual or function responsible for it.
“If I get a brief, clear and focused paper from a colleague, my impression of them will go up three notches, and so will the board’s,” said John Tonkiss, CEO of retirement home builder McCarthy Stone, to Board Intelligence.
Alastair Davey, former Global Vice President, Health, Safety and Environment at the facilities and food services multinational Sodexo, says the key to preparing a good report is “Honing the messages and being very clear what you want to communicate”.
