You are across your brief, you know what the priorities are and what your team is doing. Yet when you present your monthly report it lands flat. Why is that?
We see it all the time. It is just such a shame that often a lot of great work is going on but it doesn't get the credit. Sometimes it's even worse and there is a sense that no one has a grip on the problems - leaving a negative impression. This is your job as the manager in charge to get the right message across to drive the right decisions.
There is one particular common cause which we see over and over again, and the TED talk below explains it better than I could - it's all about 'The Dilution Effect'. Humans average a list of things in their mind rather than adding them up - so if you mention less important things they dilute the important things.
It also reminds us of the famous Churchill quote (yes another one) when he said:
"I'm sorry this report is so long but I didn't have time to write a shorter one."
Read that again if you didn't get it.
Just work out what you are trying to say and then say it. In the words of Stephen Covey, author of the '7 Habits of Highly Effective People':
The main thing is to keep the main thing, the main thing.
So if you know what has happened, you understand broadly why it has happened and you know what you are doing about it - then just say so. A slide with 10 points on it is just going to dilute the message.
If you've got 10 minutes, watch Niro Sivanathan's TED talk.
If you are interested in more thoughts about running effective Board Meetings then you can read the whole Good Board Meeting Guide
Or you can download our free e-book on it here:
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