“ Reporting the Work Isn't the Same as Influencing the Outcome” - Estelle O'Callaghan

There's a common belief that the more thoroughly you explain your work, the more your leaders will value it. For mid-career women, and especially for women returning to work after long leave or stepping up into leadership, that belief is costly. When you tell people everything, the one thing you need from them (a decision, some support or an agreement) gets buried in the detail, and it's often the part that waits longest for an answer.

Being thorough and being strategic are two different strengths. This month's series follows a framework called PPVO: People, Purpose, Value and Outcome, one letter a week. We start with People, and with one distinction that makes the other three easier to use: reporting the work versus influencing the outcome.

TWO WAYS TO COMMUNICATE THE SAME WORK

Reporting the work centres on what you've done, how busy you've been and everything that's happened. It gives problems and background, it hands over information and it ends with "Here's the update." Influencing the outcome centres on what matters and why it matters, what the person needs to know, the implications and choices in front of them, and a recommendation. It ends with "Here's what needs to happen next."

The work is the same in both versions, and only the starting point changes. For example, an update that lists last month's activities in order is reporting. The same update that opens with the one decision you need from your manager is influencing. A simple question tells you which one you're writing: "Am I communicating from the perspective of the work, or from the perspective of the outcome?"

WHAT CHANGES WHEN YOU INFLUENCE THE OUTCOME

For a woman returning to work after long leave, listing everything is an understandable way to show you're still capable. The trouble sits in how the message is built, because it's organised around your work and leaves the reader to dig out what matters to them. Influencing the outcome changes it in three places.

The important point comes first. When the decision you need sits near the top, the reader reaches it first. They respond to the part you led with, and what you needed gets answered.

Your thinking comes into view. When you offer your view first, people see your judgement as well as your activity. A recommendation makes your thinking visible, and with one, your contribution is easy to recognise.

The reader's time goes to the decision. Show people why your contribution matters. Every minute you save them sorting your message is a minute they can spend on the decision you're asking for.

Being thorough and being strategic are two different strengths.

START WITH THEIR CONTEXT, NOT YOURS

The first move in PPVO is People, and it starts with a contrast. Your context is everything you've done, everything you know, everything that's happened and everything you're carrying. Their context is what matters to them, what they're accountable for, what they need to understand and what they need to decide. Strategic communication begins with their side of that page.

Five questions help you find it: "Who am I communicating with?" "What matters to them right now?" "What are they responsible or accountable for?" "What do they already know?" "What don't they need to know?" That last question is the hardest and the most useful, because it's where the editing happens.

This structure explains why a capable, thorough woman can still go unheard. A message with one clear place to act gives the reader an easy route to the decision. When you reorganise it around the person receiving it, the message usually gets shorter and clearer, and all of your expertise stays available for the follow-up questions.

WHERE TO START THIS WEEK

This week's practice uses one real situation and takes about fifteen minutes.

Pick something you're dealing with. Choose a real example. Choose a situation from your current work where someone needs to hear from you, such as a project update, a request for resources or a conversation about your role.

Name the person and what you need. Write down who you need to communicate with, then decide whether you need them to understand, decide, support or act. Choose one of the four.

Write what you'd normally say. Imagine they've asked, "How is it going?" Write your answer as it comes, in your everyday words.

Notice your habits. Read it back and tick what applies: you explained everything that happened, focused on activity, gave a lot of background, mentioned how busy you've been, buried the important point, softened your recommendation, waited to be asked what you think or left what you need implied. Each tick shows you where the message can change.

Edit it for them. Underline the information they genuinely need, circle your most important point and cross out whatever falls outside what helps them understand, decide, support or act. Then ask yourself: if they only remembered one thing from this message, what would you want it to be?

Next Monday's blog looks at Purpose: how to decide the one thing your message needs to achieve.

WHAT SAYING LESS LOOKS LIKE

Saying less is a way of choosing deliberately which part of your work the person in front of you needs. The detail is still there when they ask for it, and your message is stronger for being clear about what it's for.

WHERE TO TAKE THIS NEXT

If you recognise your own updates in the reporting column and you'd like a room to practise in, join the Ghanvey Digital Library: a room as well as a library of resources, with a live session and an Implementation Lab each month, plus scripts, templates and challenges.

Membership is $49 a month with no lock-in contracts. I'll be taking members through communicating like a strategist live on Friday 4 December 2026 at 9:30 am (Melbourne time).

Join the Ghanvey Digital Library

Warm Regards

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