What are management reports and why do they matter?
A management report summarises a business unit, function, or team's performance and prospects. Often written on a monthly basis, it is one of the reports that a leader will be most frequently asked to write. It can go by many different names — business updates, operational updates, performance reviews, or MI reports, for example.
Done well, a management report provides valuable insight into a team's activity and the outcomes of that activity, and as such is a vital tool for decision-making.
It is also the writer's chance to instil confidence and build trust. By demonstrating to colleagues, the executive team, and the board that you understand the drivers of your team's performance, it shows that you can be trusted with resources and decisions.
But the trap that many people fall into is writing a “busyness” report — that is, an account of all the things that are keeping them busy. And that's not what your board or your boss is looking for.
What directors want to know is whether you have a grasp of the key issues in your part of the business and whether you have the smarts to propose how best to tackle them. Your ability to pull the signal from the noise and plot a course through it is great leadership — and that’s what your readers are looking for.
What are the key features of a great management report?
The best management reports deliver actionable insight in a format that is easy to engage with. They are:
- Well structured, offering a comprehensive overview of the topic
- Concise and to the point
- Written in an engaging style that's easy to read and digest
- Focused on delivering actionable insight, rather than information for information's sake
- Supported with relevant, thoughtfully-presented data
What should you include in a management report?
The success of a management report has very little to do with how much good news you’re bringing to the table. Nearly half (42%) of directors think their management and board reports aren't upfront about the bad news, which may be why 68% of board members rate their board packs as "weak" or "poor", according to research by Board Intelligence.
Most reports trip up on the same things. They don’t mention the high-level objectives they’re trying to achieve or how these objectives relate to the organisation's big picture. They’re either too backwards-looking or it’s just a good news story. And, finally, they’re inconclusive — they don’t spell out whether you believe you’ll meet your goals or whether you need to course correct.
To avoid these pitfalls and ace your report, you need to address four simple questions.
1. What are we trying to achieve?
Start by recapping your goals and how they support your organisation’s higher-level goals. Your reader will be interested in the big issues, so explaining how what you're writing about relates to them will motivate your reader to read on.
This sounds obvious, right? But, too often, it’s overlooked. As well as orienting your reader, it’s also your chance to connect with the “Why?” that underpins your hard work. Focus and alignment are powerful performance multipliers.
2. How are we performing against our plan?
Split this into two areas:
- Where are we performing better than planned?
- Where are we performing less well than planned?
Just three to five key points for each area is enough. And don’t shy away from sharing bad news; if you don't address up front what's not gone well, your reader will go searching for evidence of it elsewhere and will draw their own conclusions. Their confidence in you is strengthened when you tackle the tough questions, own the message, and talk about what you’re doing to address what went wrong.
And, with each of these points you cover, ask yourself, “So what?” What does it imply, and what are we doing in response? This helps to keep your report focused on delivering insight, rather than information for information's sake.
3. What is our outlook?
Look to the future and talk about the opportunities and challenges. This is where the conversation that your report stimulates will be of most value to you. Engaging your reader by asking for their ideas, advice, and experience on your outlook can be really valuable.
4. What are the implications?
When you take a step back and consider all of the information you've shared, what is your confidence in the plan? Are there things that we should start, stop, or do differently to get us back on track or sustain our outperformance?
All too often, leaders lean on the facts and leave out what they really think. But there’s no shortage of information these days; in fact, we’re drowning in it. So, what sorts the winners from the losers? Our ability to pull meaning from the noise and to identify the best way forward; you’re the expert and what you think matters.
And, because you’ve been balanced and expressed judgment, you’ll inspire confidence and your audience will respect you.
What else should you consider when writing management reports?
In addition to structuring your report around the questions outlined above, you should:
- Include a concise executive summary that puts the key messages up front, making it easy for your readers to draw out the most important insights and focus their attention where it will add most value.
- Write in a clear and compelling style, so that the information can be easily understood and digested by your readers. It's not just what you say, it's how you say it and poor communication can unravel your hard work.
- Use a data dashboard to provide a visual summary of the key performance indicators you are reporting against.
What are the benefits of writing a great management report?
Writing a high-quality management report delivers a range of benefits — not just to those you are writing for, but to you, your team, and your wider organisation, too.
- Delivering actionable insight, rather than noise, improves the quality of decision-making.
- Taking the time to think critically about performance deepens everyone's understanding of what's going on and why.
- Engaging with forward-looking questions sparks creativity that generates better ideas.
- Pithy pre-reads makes meeting preparation easier and leads to more productive discussions.
- By building your audience's confidence in you and your plans, you're more likely to get the support and the resources you need.
If you'd like to find out how to support your team to write high-quality management reports every time, speak to our advisory team about our board reporting services or take a look at Lucia, our AI-powered thinking and writing platform for board and management reporting.
And if you found this guide useful, links to other videos in the series can be found below.
