If your updates are about what you did, your CEO has nothing to share.
Your calendar is packed. This quarter, you renegotiated your biggest agency contract, rebuilt the team after a director left the company, and talked leadership out of a launch date that wasn’t ready. It all sits in your regular update.
You share it and, as usual, there’s no feedback.
When your area gets mentioned, it’s usually because there is an emergency. You step in, fix it, and everyone moves on. You are pulled into meetings when facts are needed, but never when the direction gets decided.
It stings. You know what went into it and what is required.
The problem is that your updates are mostly about what went into it. You assume the company will be able to connect the dots and understand why that activity matters.
Speak your CEO’s language
Your CEO and leadership team answer to the board. Your report lists the work you’ve delivered, which tells them you were busy. It doesn’t have a narrative to explain the impact and what it means for the business.
They can only share what they understand and what they trust is true.
Think of it as two piles:
- Effort is what the work costs you. The hours, the other priorities postponed and the firefighting involved.
- Change is what it gave to the business. The rationale, the uplift expected, and the commercials, where applicable.
Your CEO is searching for the second pile.
- “Renegotiated the agency contract.” That tells them the effort and activity carried out.
- “Next year’s agency costs will be down 15% and we’ve secured a senior account manager to deliver 3 key projects each quarter.” That shows commercial impact. It demonstrates to leadership that you’re watching the P&L and understand how your area contributes to the business direction.
The same goes for problems you prevent. Talking leadership out of that launch date stopped something breaking. This is your chance to highlight the consequences, the resolution, and any link to another opportunity.
Here’s an example of the difference:
- Before: “Advised on launch timing.”
- After: “Moved the launch to June, so the new financial year gets off to a strong start and we have a fighting chance in a typically slow month. It also gives the business development team more time to prepare.”
The first is generic and sounds like opinion. The second shares your process, your thinking, and your involvement outside of your own department.
It lets you stop cataloguing your time and share what you really understand about the business.
Practical ways to change your focus
- Find priorities. Make it your mission to understand what your CEO and C-Suite are focused on this year. Without them, you’ll be busy and unnoticed.
- Lead with what changed. Show how your work moved one of those priorities.
- Be inquisitive. Use your time with leadership for discovery, not just for updates. How is the business reacting to the latest developments? What do they need next quarter?
- Cut what doesn’t connect. If a task doesn’t move a priority, leave it out of the update. Doing it still matters. Reporting it lessens it.
A three-line update you can copy
Use these three lines for each item in your next regular update. Keep it high level, with one line for each.
- Priority it moved: the business objective, in your CEO’s words.
- What changed: the result, with a number if you have one.
- Why it matters now: what it makes possible or what it protects.
The first two may be covered in your OKRs, but the third shows alignment.
Here’s how the agency example might look:
- Priority it moved: Deliver this year’s key projects without increasing headcount.
- What changed: Next year’s agency costs will be down 15%, and a senior account manager is steering the next three projects.
- Why it matters now: The projects have the senior support they need, and the saving can go towards activity without a new budget request.
Use it when you speak, too
The same order works in meetings and corridor conversations. When your CEO asks how projects are going, they rarely want the full story. Start with what changed, keep it positive if you can, and share which priority it moved. If detail is required, leave it for them to ask. Ask for updates from their side too, so you stay on top of any developments.
Their questions tell you what they care about. Over time, you’ll notice the same questions coming back. Those questions are the best guide to what belongs at the top of your next update.
If they don’t ask for details, they have what they need to share when required.
When priorities are vague or keep changing
This only works as well as the priorities do. Some CEOs may not have formalised them. Some change them every few weeks.
- Capture the priorities as you understand them. Share them with your CEO and ask them to confirm or correct them. It helps to show your willingness. If you have been in the organisation for a while and are unsure how to approach it, explain that you are trying a new way to keep on top of priorities.
- When priorities shift, explain what the shift costs. What stops, what slows down, and what you need to deliver the new focus. A change of direction then becomes a decision your CEO makes with the full picture.
- Seek out priorities each quarter. Quarterly objectives are a natural moment to ask whether the list still holds and whether anything new has emerged that you and the team should be aware of.
Once you’re speaking to their priorities, you’re speaking at their level, and your confidence builds.
What I see in mentoring
The people who come to me usually start by talking about confidence. They’re tired of working hard yet feel a lack of presence in the room, or they struggle to gain influence.
We look at how they steer. How they approach conversations with senior leadership. What they feel comfortable doing. We try new approaches until we find a style that suits them and look at things from their stakeholders’ side.
Keep doing the work. Just put what changed at the top.
This is a lot of what I work on with the senior leaders I mentor. Small shifts make a big difference. Book an intro call with me if this is of interest.
