What makes a great board report?

what makes a good board report

This was the first week back at my desk after two weeks proper break. Soooo good! I hadn't realised how long it was since I have downed tools for more than a few days at a time.

And, working with a group of super smart tech product managers is always a good place to start.

Here was one of the thoughts that emerged in our first workshop together, which focuses on communication strategy.

To say that the goal of a board paper is to ‘gain alignment around the proposed strategy' is no way specific enough.

We need to dig much more deeply to fully understand three things:

  1. Who specifically in the room will hold the most sway over the decision we need
  2. What their objections to that decision might be … and why?
  3. How do we draft a message that is so insightful, so interesting, that they can see, touch and feel the recommendation in play already?


Don't allow yourself to accept ‘gain agreement on the strategy' as your purpose.

Authors of powerful board reports are much, much more specific in their ‘ask'.  

 

I hope that helps. More next week.

Kind regards,
Davina

PS – Check out my new How to Write Powerful Board Reports Handbook. 

Whenever you're ready, here are five other ways I can help you:

 

Elevate, the book – helps leaders set their teams up to set up a new dynamic across their team that will elevate everyone’s skills, helping the team get better, faster decisions.

Engage, the book – helps individual contributors prepare papers and presentations that leaders can approve without reworking.

Engage, the self-paced course  – supports both individuals and leaders prepare more insightful papers and presentations for senior leaders and boards.

Extreme Clarity, the 2-hour workshop – introduces techniques for structuring your messaging.

Board Paper Bootcamp, the 2-week program – helps you clarify and convey complex ideas to senior leaders and boards.

 

WANT TO LISTEN?

  1. Risk Management = Change Management
  2. Richard Medcalf – Making Time for Strategy
  3. Baking Learning & Growth into BAU
  4. Helping Leaders ‘shift testing left' to derisk projects
  5. A Case Study in Digitial Transformation
  6. How to help a senior leader come back from a misstep
  7. How to hit the ground running in a big new role
  8. How to communicate during great change
  9. How to turbo charge your transformation

RELATED POSTS

Fear motivates. Should you use it?

Fear motivates. Should you use it?

Fear is one of the most powerful persuasion levers but should we resort to using fear to motivate in business communication? And if so, when?

Using emotion in storytelling

Using emotion in storytelling

Emotion is a tool often used to persuade an audience. Learn when to use emotion in business communication to your benefit, and when not to.

1 Idea to Kickstart 2025

1 Idea to Kickstart 2025

Here is one simple communication idea to help you kickstart the new year and lift the value you deliver in your workplace.

Can you tell bad news by email?

Can you tell bad news by email?

Emailing bad news is often considered risky but with the right strategy, it doesn't have to be. Learn how to write a good bad news email.

PRESENTED BY DAVINA STANLEY

I love what I do.

I help senior leaders and their teams prepare high-quality papers and presentations in a fraction of the time.

This involves ‘nailing' the message that will quickly engage decision makers in the required outcome.

I leverage 25+ years' experience including

  • learning structured thinking techniques at McKinsey in Hong Kong in the mid 1990s before coaching and training their teams globally as a freelancer for a further 15 years
  • being approved to teach the Pyramid Principle by Barbara Minto in 2009
  • helping CEOs, C-suite leaders and their reports deeply understand their stakeholder needs and communicate accordingly
  • seeing leaders cut the number of times they review major papers by ~30% and teams cut the amount of time they take to prepare major papers by ~20%*
  • watching senior meetings focus on substantive discussions and better decisions rather than trying to clarify the issue

My approach helps anyone who needs to engage senior leaders and Boards.

Recent clients include 7Eleven, KPMG, Mercer, Meta, Woolworths.

Learn more at www.clarityfirstprogram.com

 

(*) Numbers are based on 2023 client benchmarking results.