You ask: I work in a large project office and one of my (many) responsibilities is to pull together a monthly project tracking report for my boss. This report is sent out by my boss prior to the monthly operational review where he has a regular slot to present project status to senior executives.
The trouble is that he is always changing his requirements and I have found that this report is taking longer and longer to produce; over the past three months it has grown from a half day exercise to at least two days. I have tried to pre-empt the questions my boss is likely to ask but this has been unsuccessful; I always end up running around like a headless chicken at the last moment until my boss is satisfied that he can field any questions that the executive may ask.
I’m afraid that things will only get worse and my overall performance will suffer and affect my annual review and salary. What can I do?
Janet answers: I’m wondering whether ‘mind reader’ is one of the key competencies required for people working in your project office. Let’s step back from the situation and summarise what’s happening.
You pull together a monthly project report for your boss. When he gets this he tries to predetermine what questions his executive will ask; not wanting to look as if he doesn’t know what is going on in his department. But from his behaviour he’s trying to mind read; he doesn’t know what questions the report is likely to generate.
You know that your boss will request further detail behind the report. So you try to mind read the mind reader. Can you see that your efforts to be helpful you are actually working against you? It’s time to hold up your hand and ask for help.
The first thing I would suggest is you ask your boss for a meeting to flag up to him your concern over the amount of time this report is taking to produce. So make sure you have done an audit of what you do and the time it takes; don’t miss anything out no matter how trivial you think it is.
When you meet with your boss he’s going to react on a scale ranging from surprised but supportive to disbelief and denial. The best response is one toward the supportive end of the scale as this will inevitably mean a more active approach to find a solution. However if you get disbelief and a “that’s ridiculous, you don’t need to do that” response don’t be fooled into thinking you’ve seen the last of this report. Your executives have got use to seeing it so they are unlikely to let your boss present without one.
I’d suggest a two pronged approach to solve your problem; looking at presentation and content. On the face of it it may not appear to be any less time consuming but as it does mean only producing the report once, it will be.
Firstly, presentation; ask your boss how the executives use the report. From his ever changing requirements I doubt that he’s ever had a proper discussion with them on this. Ask if you could sit in on an Executive Review to see what actually happens. What do they focus in on; monetary value, days late (exposure), complexity, manpower? Presenting the projects in priority order; using a coloured RAG (Red, Amber, and Green) technique will mean that they can immediately see what’s urgent, deal with it and then move on.
Secondly, content; executives are busy people they want bullet points not essays. Does your boss manage to present the whole report in his allotted time? I bet he doesn’t; getting side-tracked in the detail where it’s impossible for him to have all the answers (if he did what would he need a project team for?!). Your boss must review projects with the project owners on a regular basis. Does he use your report to do this? Using the same report to review project status will mean that you do not have to start from scratch every month.
By having a fixed reporting structure and reviewing the report you distribute prior to the Executive Review with project owners you and your boss can request more detail where it’s required. If you find it difficult to get project owners engaged just tell them that they if they don’t attend your boss’ meeting then they will have to present directly to the Executive; this usually gets their attention.
My last piece of advice is to accept that in a fast moving business environment your report will only be up to date at the time you published it. As long as the executive can see progress being made, actions being owned and dealt with in the committed timeframes they should be happy. However that does assume that they know what they want. A great way to raise your profile would be to arrange to meet with each of the executives and ask for their views and suggestions as to how the report can be improved.
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