Updates

Working on a team often requires you to give updates on progress that is being made, typically called status updates. Whether you are providing status related to your work, the work of your team, or the work of a multi-team project, there are several guidelines to follow on how to give a good update.

First, you will need to figure out how much time you have to give your update, which will dictate how much detail you will be able to give. If people expect you to give your update in less than a minute - as often is the expectation during a morning standup meeting - people will not be happy if you go far beyond your allotted time. For just about any type of status update, there is usually some expectation of time and detail, and if you are not sure what they are, you should ask questions until you have a clear picture of how much time you have, and what level of detail people expect.

Second, when giving your update, you should speak assertively about what work is done, what work is in progress, and what work remains to be done. If you are giving status on your own work, you should be precise about what you specifically have done, and give credit to any colleagues that helped you. Under no circumstances should you ever take credit for someone else's work, and making sure you give credit to whoever helped you is one way to guard against implying that you did something by yourself that was actually done with the help of a colleague.

Third, you should anticipate questions people may have, and have practiced giving answers to those questions.

For example, if you say that you are behind schedule, people will naturally want to know why you are behind schedule. If you say that you don't have the resources that you need, people will want a list of the resources you need - and why you need those specific resources.

You should have clear and concise answers ready for obvious questions, but if you are asked a question you did not anticipate, and need more time to think of an answer, simply say, "That's a good question, but I don't have a good answer right now. I'll follow up with you before the end of the day to get your question answered," and then make sure you follow through with your commitment.

Fourth, if there are risks, roadblocks, or obstacles that are impeding or might impede progress, they should be clearly articulated but with two extremely important caveats: you should never make excuses, and you should never blame your colleagues - even if your excuse is valid and even if your colleagues are at fault.

Imagine you are giving a status update where your work is delayed because you are waiting for the IT department to install software on your computer that you need to complete your work. If you said, "I can't start my work because I am waiting on IT to install software," you have both made an excuse and blamed your colleagues in IT.

This brings us to the fifth guideline: always be solution-oriented. When you encounter an obstacle, provided you have the time you should explain what steps you have taken to clear the obstacle yourself. In other words, when something is standing in the way of you making progress or completing your work, you should take personal accountability for overcoming that obstacle, and should not expect other people to clear the obstacle for you.

Returning to the earlier scenario, instead of your status being that you are waiting on the IT department, your status should instead be, "Yesterday I took my laptop to the IT department to get software installed, and they asked that I check back at the end of the week as they were swamped with support tickets. In the meantime, I have started working on tasks that do not require that software."

This illustrates the sixth guideline: your updates should never be that you are not working, as in any organization, there is always something to work on. If you have nothing to work on, then it is your responsibility as a professional to find work that is valuable that you could be doing. It is universally true that every employer appreciates an employee that proactively seeks out work to do rather than someone who sits around and does nothing.

Seventh, never bring up a problem without a proposal for a solution, especially if coming up with solutions is part of your job.

For example, instead of giving a status of, "I found a problem where customer orders are not being fulfilled," and then leaving it up to other people to figure out what the underlying problem is and how to solve it, your status update should be, "I found a problem where customer orders are not being fulfilled and looked into the issue, and it appears that we are missing part of the shipping address on international orders. I think we may be able to fix this by changing the label on our online order form from zip code to postal code."

Finally, always offer a positive and productive path forward, no matter how bad the current situation is.

There will always be problems, obstacles, risks, challenges, frustrations, and disappointments when working on important projects that have to be done by a deadline. Regardless of this reality, in a professional work environment, there is never a justification for being negative, as negativity tends to discourage people from thinking creatively about solving problems, overcoming obstacles, and mitigating risks. The goal of giving status updates with a positive tone is not to be dishonest about things going badly, but to help people think more in terms of the opportunities for achieving a successful outcome, rather than have them dwell on the inevitability of a negative outcome.

Instead of saying, "I got my work done on time but then the requirements changed and now I have to start over," say, "We had a change in requirements that is going to require a bit more time to incorporate." Both statements are equivalent in terms of the important information they contain, but the former focuses on assigning blame, whereas the latter simply states the reality of the situation.

Learning how to give a professional status update will serve you well throughout your entire career, as it is the cornerstone of working with your colleagues to achieve a common goal.