by V S Rama Rao on May 10, 2011
Effective communication makes life easy and simple. Take an example from your personal life- smooth communication with your friends and near & dear ones makes life easy. Same is true regarding your professional life. Your professional life could become a lot more easier if you communicate effectively with your boss. One of the most common ways to communicate with your boss is by sending reports. Smart employees know how to write effective reports and project their work positively to the boss.
It is strange, but true that almost all employees find sending of reports a very monotonous task and often take it for granted, but on the contrary reporting is one of the most significant ways to communicate effectively to your boss and represent your image positively. Employees find reporting annoying, time-consuming and useless where as for the boss, the report is one of the most important document that provides a clear picture of work, its progress and also helps in assessing the employee’s performance. Regular reporting help authorities in planning better future policies and plans.
A smart employee knows how to communicate effectively with the boss and how to get maximum exposure just by sending a daily report. It is true that work speaks louder than words but, your seniors and boss have number of other liabilities and sending a report is the only means to communicate with the concerned authorities. Your boss will perceive you as you project yourself in your report. Though each office and designation has its own reporting rule, but there are a few common rules that are required to be fulfilled to make a reporting effective and impressive.
While sending report or any kind of mail consider your audience and write accordingly, if you are reporting to a number of departments either write a separate mail or mention each department in a new section. While reporting try to keep your sentences short, but do not forget to mention the main task of your activity.
It is very important to write precise and accurate report. Do not clutter your mail with irrelevant details instead make it crisp and short. Make sure that your mail is grammatically correct and error free. You can use spell check and grammar checker to make your report error free. No matter how good you are at your job, but if you cannot project it to your boss effectively you will never win your piece of cake. Professional world is very competitive and to remain in the race it is important to show yourself in the correct manner.
One of the best ways to communicate effectively is to provide executive summary at the starting of the report, highlighting the salient features and writing a short paragraph on the main task.
It is very important to proof-read a report before sending it to the concerned authorities; a report which is full of grammatical errors will surely damage your reputation where as an error free report will show your commitment and dedication to the job.
It is common to use acronyms and jargon in day to day conversations, but while sending a report, remember that you are formally communicating with your boss and an informal conversational use of jargon and acronyms should be avoided.
Use simple and easy language in a report. A report is not meant for showing your linguistic skills, but the purpose of a report is to maintain communication between the employee and the boss. Keep it neat, simple and short so that the concerned authorities can easily find the relevant information without getting lost in unnecessary details.
An employee’s future in any company is largely decided by his relation with his boss; open the source of communication with your boss, send your reports regularly, follow the etiquette of sending a report and make your professional life easy.
Communicate smartly and project yourself and your task intelligently it will make your path of professional success easy. This can also lead to Merit Pay or increment if the boss is impressed.
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