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Welcome to the podcast, just saying, my name's Joe McCormick.

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I'm your host. If you new to the podcast, I'm really happy that you're here.

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If you've been here before, really happy that you're back. As you may know,

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we are trying to help you become an intentional communicator.

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A person who thinks before they speak, a person who thinks before they write,

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and I've written a book called Brief, make a Bigger Impact by Saying Less,

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and have also written a book called Noise Living and Leading.

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When nobody Can Focus in, the combination of those two books are powerful because they help you

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push out all the noise, manage the noise, create a clearing,

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and communicate concisely with impact so you can cut through the clutter.

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There's a lot of noise in the world. So if you don't, now how to master the,

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the principles of brief, you might be creating noise for people.

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And what we talk about in this podcast and what we're gonna talk about today is

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really how to help you rise to a higher level, to perform at a higher level,

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and how communication impacts that in very specific ways.

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And today's topic is no different. It's about when to provide an update.

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Now, in my experience,

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the ability to do this well isn't just a person

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updating somebody more important than them,

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which is maybe what you're thinking about. It also goes the other way.

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People in charge providing updates to the people that work for them,

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and how we often get that wrong. Um,

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there might be an issue if there's too much or too little.

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There might be an issue if it's top down or bottom up, both.

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But remember, it's not just bottom up, it's also top down.

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So for those of you listening, I want you to listen.

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If you're in a leadership position, how am I providing updates for the people that work for me?

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And if you're also in a role that you have a boss, cause everybody's got a boss,

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a client, a leader that's above you, how do you provide updates to them?

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So it's both. And that's really when we talk about this,

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is the lifeblood of any organization, any team,

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is the ability to give each other a good update in

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when to do that. In knowing when to do that. Now,

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I'll start out with just my experience.

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The definition of frustration as once explained to me is

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an unfulfilled expectation. And I'll repeat that again.

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Frustration was defined as an unfulfilled expectation.

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I'm waiting for something and it doesn't happen. I'm expecting something and it doesn't happen, and I get frustrated.

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And that's what frustration would be. Now,

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updates often are the source of frustration because the timing

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and the quality is just off. You know,

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as remember going back to college when I, um,

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was an English literature major in one of the plays, I wasn't a huge fan,

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but it was kind of, at the time seemed kind of weird.

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And I think now it's still pretty weird. But, um,

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the play is called Waiting for Goudeau, G O D O T. Spoiler alert,

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goodo never comes read the whole thing. It finds out that never comes. Um,

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and I'm sure there's a beautiful point to that play, never really understood it.

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But the, but I do remember that spoiler alert, goodo never comes.

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So sorry if I ruined it for you. Um, but that's what happens.

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We're waiting for this update and it never comes.

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And you're like, what is going on? Why am I getting so mad? I've got,

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I've got a, a client that's gonna call me.

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I'm waiting for an update from this person, and people aren't updating each other. And we wanna get to the bottom of like,

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how to, how to know when to do that in the right, in the right way.

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The risk, if you don't do this though, is that you kind of just,

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you're not in sync with each other. Now in,

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when we are looking at these things, it's like, all right, well,

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timing is everything, in fact. And I think there's a,

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there's a kind of a series of considerations. And let's start with the first one, which is talking about it.

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So if I'm just gonna use the example of like, all right, I've got a client,

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all right, and let's say I've got a new client and we're just starting out,

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working together. And you know, I,

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I think I know with previous clients

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what's the right frequency of updates in a, in that client relationship,

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but this is a new client. And I immediately assume like what worked for the old client works for the new

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one. Well, I think you need to talk, I think I need, I need to talk about it.

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So what I might need to do is, is call a meeting and discuss,

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Hey, what works for you and what doesn't work for you?

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What works for me and what doesn't work for me? And kind of clear the air.

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You'll hear like level expectations. What are the, what,

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what are the expectations? Another example might be, you know,

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maybe you're doing a, a project in your house or in this particular, it's my,

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my company. We've got a general contractor doing some work and we didn't talk about it.

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We never talked about, well, okay, in this project that's gonna last us two months,

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how often should I be hearing from you?

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Is that once in the morning, once in the afternoon?

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Is that twice a week? Is it every day? Is it once a week?

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Is it a weekly thing? Is it every other week? It was once a month.

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But hey, what, guess what? I didn't talk about it. This, these,

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these people, these, this case, the general contractor didn't talk about it.

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Nobody talks about it. And in my mind it's one thing,

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and in their mind it's completely something completely different.

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And we haven't even found common ground in, in terms of frequency.

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Talk about it. Like, let's make that one of the first conversations we have is,

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let's say that you've got a, a new boss coming in, or I, we,

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I do a lot of work with the military, an incoming commander leader,

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and you have to update your leader. I probably think it would be a good idea early on if you,

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how often do you need to hear from me? You know,

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the immediate response might be, well, it depends.

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And I would not take that as the answer. Press on a little bit more,

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okay, in the beginning, should we be talking to each other twice a week? Every Monday,

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every Friday? Establish some baseline and don't let,

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it depends be the answer. Okay?

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So this is a question that me as

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the client and the general contractor as my provider,

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could be the same thing as me and my boss. Okay? I ask the boss,

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how often do you want me to give you an update? And they say once a week. Okay,

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well, I wanna update my boss every two weeks. Well, now I got once a week,

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or I think I should be talking at least twice because there's a lot going on.

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So we might negotiate for a frequency that works for both parties. Cuz that's,

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that's the first thing, okay? So find the right frequency for both of you, okay?

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But have that conversation right outta the gate. Second thing I want you to think about is when you're,

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once you find out when you're gonna do this though, that may change over time.

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Deliver it with an eye on being clear, concise and having a call to action.

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What I mean is, well, clearly in this podcast we're talking about the delivery of an update. Okay?

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So what is the update? I'm behind, I'm ahead.

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I've got these three things left to do. Is it short enough?

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But with enough information where it's meaningful and very, very important.

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Is there a call to action? Are you asking something for, for, for,

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are you asking for something to do? I mean, you asking like,

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what's the call to action? What do you want me to do? And not imply it,

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but state it like, okay, I'm giving you this update but I need you to let me know if you have any

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questions. Please reply. Or could you give me a clarification on this item?

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And make that very, very specific. So please, please,

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please focus on the clarity of the message, how concise it is,

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meaning it's the right amount of information. And what's the call to action.

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Now, when you both have agreed on the frequency,

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I'm going back to my example of the general contractor cuz I think it's

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pertinent, but it could be any relationship for that matter.

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I now know that I am getting a twice a week update.

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And in that, in those updates, it's clear to the point,

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it's got the right amount of information that I need and he's asking me

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for my opinion on something when he needs it. So he can't say, well,

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I didn't get it to you because you didn't because you, you you didn't tell me.

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The next thing is determine what's the right format. You know,

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you heard this line, that meeting should have been an email.

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Why could also flip it and say that email should have been a meeting. Is it,

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if it's gonna be email twice a week, then I will say, you know,

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Tuesday update, Friday update in my subject line.

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No action required. Action required, right in the subject line.

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If it's an email, maybe it's a message. Maybe you send a, you have like a,

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a messaging system, system like Microsoft Teams or Slack or maybe you're in a texting relationship

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where you can just text a quick message if that's okay. Same thing.

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If it's a meeting, don't be afraid of meetings. It could be a meeting, it may,

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if there's a lot to discuss. Just because you don't like meetings doesn't mean you don't,

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you shouldn't have one. Maybe it's a phone call,

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maybe it's in person. You have to determine what the right format is for you and for the person.

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So you have to ask, maybe this is something that you make in that early conversation,

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so determine what's the right format. And finally, and and finally,

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and this refers back to, um,

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last week's podcast about asking better questions.

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Is check in periodically to ask, um, if it's still working,

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is this still working for you? Is it still working for the, for, for the person?

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Is it too much information? Is it too little information?

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What you don't want to do is not check in periodically, yes,

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it may started like you've an incoming boss, new boss. Well,

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maybe two or three months later that frequency of twice a week is,

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is is too little. Maybe it should be every day.

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Maybe the project started, you know, where there's a lot of things going on,

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but I found it kind of a rhythm. And we went from twice a week to like every other week,

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but check in periodically to see if the, if the frequency and the amount of information and the quality of the

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information is still working, it's better for you to check in than not to Why?

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Because frustration is defined as an unfulfilled expectation.

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If a person's expecting the,

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the updates to increase over time because the complexity of the job just

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increased. And the same thing goes with, you know,

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maybe you're thinking just sort of bottom up, but it's top down too.

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If you've got people that work for you, for you, how,

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how often do you do they hear from you?

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If you're just waiting to hear from them, they might be waiting to hear from you to provide guidance,

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to give updates on the things that you're working for. Recently in my company,

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cuz I was getting a little frustrated in some, in some regards,

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I decided to put the things, the,

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the initiatives that I'm working on as a proactive update,

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a list of things that I'm working on so everybody can be visible to it.

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Because my, my conclusion is always when it comes to these things is people aren't mind

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readers. You know, I'm not a mind reader, you're not a mind reader.

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So being explicit about that. So I just put out a list,

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here are the things that I'm working on over what period of time and I try to

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put out an update monthly. Now as I record this podcast,

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I gotta do some soul searching myself. That's something that I should probably check in with my staff to see if that's

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enough. It might not be. Maybe they want to hear from me more frequently cuz there's a lot of new things

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going on. I need to ask. Getting this right.

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I want you to think whether you're the leader and you have subordinates or

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you're the sport and you have a leader, it's very, very easy to get it wrong.

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Getting it right is the difference between an update that

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says, Hey, we're making progress and an update that we have an issue.

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When you provide an update, good isn't the answer. If you're ahead say that,

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you're ahead. If you're behind, say that you're behind. Don't pull any punches,

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be honest, be clear so that the person, if they can deconflict an issue,

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if they can give you additional guidance and opinions. But you need to,

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you need to be straight, you need to be really strategic with how you,

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um, deliver these updates and when you do them.

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So it's just some things to think about in this realm that there's,

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there's there is, and there can be some real tension that quite honestly just doesn't need to be

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there. If you, if you early on gave each other more clarity about when to provide an

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update. So whether it's you to a subordinate or them to you,

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you are now updated. I'm giving an update.

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Just saying.