How to Create a

CEO Report that

Delights your Board
Introduction
According to directors, the CEO report is the most
important document in the board pack and it’s their
go-to doc. However, most organisations struggle
with it and very few get it right.

Why? Because there are many pitfalls to avoid and it

can get tricky. CEOs who are pressed for time often
assume that everything the board members need
can be found in the team’s documents.

It’s also not uncommon for CEOs to believe that it’s

frustrating for directors to read a document that
duplicates what has already been laid out in the
board pack. For these reasons, CEOs don’t always
think it’s necessary to write a report.

They think they can just verbally say what they need
or provide bullet points. However, that’s not enough.
When CEO reports are done well, they provide chief
executives with opportunities for reflection and it
allows them to tap into the expertise because it
answers many questions.

For one, CEO reports give board members insight

into what’s on the CEOs’ mind, which is something
the board needs to be truly effective and benefit
the organisation as much as possible.
What Is the Purpose of a
CEO Report?
CEO reports are not a task the board gives to the chief executive
and the objective is not for the CEO to please or appease the board.
But when it’s done right, this document offers value to both parties.

Value for the Board

Board members, particularly nonexecutives, turn to the
CEO report first and foremost because it allows them to
determine where their support is a must. Executive teams
who are elbows deep in the business know everything about Board packs get longer by the
new developments, but nonexecutives rely on the CEO year and documents often
report to fill in the gaps. reach the board late, which
is where the CEO report
The CEO report is a lot more concise and it provides comes in. According to recent
information about the things that are right on track. It also research, board members
highlights the needs of the organisation, so it effectively spend an average of 4 hours
shows directors what their priorities should be since they’re reading the board pack, and
not buried in the volume of the board pack. The CEO report most of the time, half of the
should be straightforward and very easy to reference, so it content goes unread.
allows directors to do their job more efficiently.

Value for the Chief Executive

When nonexecutives don’t have a steer, they tend to shift
their focus to supervision. The CEO report gives chief The CEO report ensures that
executives the opportunity to steer everyone back in the board meetings are focused
right direction and redirect the board to its primary role, on how to succeed, rather than
which is guidance, not supervision. Through the CEO report, on how accurate minutiae is.
chief executives can make direct requests and focus the It also allows chief executives
directors’ attention on the most important issues. to take a step back, take the
time to organise their thoughts,
The CEO report can provide a complete picture of the assess where they are and
organisation or business by bringing up recent setbacks and where they are going to
successes so the attention can be directed towards what provide directors with an aerial
needs to be done next and providing the organisation the view that will keep things from
support it needs to thrive and be successful. falling through the cracks.
The Structure of an
Effective CEO Report
If the CEO provides insight into what’s on the mind of the chief executive, how can we unpack that in a
report? One should focus on the questions below when preparing your CEO report:

What is on my mind?
1 a. Looking back
i. What has gone well?
ii. What has gone wrong?

b. Looking to the future

i. What opportunities are there?
ii. What are the risks or concerns?
iii. What keeps me awake at nights?

What are the implications for our

2 plans and outlook?
a. Confidence in the delivery of the plan
b. Necessary adjustments

These are the questions that chief executives shared with directors? Does the plan need to be
need to answer to provide a balanced perspective changed? If the answer is yes, how does that need
of the organisation’s state. The CEO report looks to be done?
to the past as well as to the future, and it covers
successes and failures. You have to cover not only The reason many CEO reports often fail is
the “what”, but also the “why”. that they forget to address one or several
of these points. It’s not uncommon for
Why have things worked? Why have things failed? CEO reports to be focused on the past too
What does that imply? What needs to be done much and they lack a balance between
about it? When you’re looking to the future, it’s good and bad news. Following this question
important to identify the consequences for the and answer approach, your CEO reports
organisation. How does management need to will be consistent and you can be certain
adapt? What about the future is making you everything important will be covered.
restless?
When it comes to length, we recommend you
Finally, the CEO report must address what keep your CEO report short. Ideally, the questions
everything means for the board. In your role as should be answered on a single side of A4
chief executive, how confident are you that the and they can be developed further on a few
organisation will be able to deliver the plan you’ve accompanying pages.
Go Above and Beyond
Some board members function best when you provide them with a narrative while others do much
better with data. If you want to make your CEO report more powerful, you should consider adding a
CEO dashboard, which is a story that’s told through data, available on a single page.

What kind of data is most relevant will depend on the organisation, of course, but as a rule of
thumb, a CEO dashboard must describe the organisation’s health simply and visually.

Don’t confuse a CEO dashboard with a financial dashboard, though. The CEO dashboard is meant
to express how you are doing business much more than it needs to express how business is going.
The CEO dashboard is broad and it speaks to the interest of every key shareholder. It provides
answers to questions such as:

• Is progress being made on long-term and strategic objectives?

• How is the organisation performing?
• How do customers, suppliers, and people feel about the organisation?
• Is the organisation working the right way? Considering values, culture, and more.

The answers to these questions

can be found in the board
documents but the CEO
dashboard makes it easier for
directors to reference it and it
also allows you to determine
if anything is missing from the
board pack.
How to Write a CEO Report When
You Have Limited Time
Time is not an abundant resource for CEOs, so how can you write a CEO report when you have so
many other things that are fighting for your attention? Well, if you truly can’t find the time to take a
break, sit down, and answers the questions we presented above, we recommend you get someone
to interview you, so to speak.

You can get someone to ask the questions and write everything down for you. That will be your
draft and then it will be a lot less time-consuming to add your voice to the CEO report and include
your concerns and your hopes. Plus, answering questions is something you can do at any moment.
Just make sure you take the opportunity to organize your thoughts well.
Final Words
When you make sure that your CEO
report provides value to everyone,
including the CFO, you’ll make one of the
easiest and most effective improvements
to your board pack. But what comes next?

However, there’s not much to

It’s known that the average size of a board
show for it. Most of the time, the
pack is steadily increasing and so are the
board pack is poor and it’s the
investments that are needed to produce
CEO’s responsibility to make it
it. Not to mention how time-consuming it
right. Many people contribute
is to prepare, distribute it, and read the
to the board pack, indeed, but
board pack.
it’s the chief executive who is
responsible for the quality of the
Downlaod the CEO report Template information that is provided to
the board.
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