The Power of a Punchy Update

Think updates are just an information-sharing chore? Think again. Do it well and this essential communication skills is a powerful tool in augmenting trust and credibility. A well structured update is how teams stay aligned, how leaders make decisions, and how projects avoid quietly drifting into chaos or disengagement.

In the global experiment that was the Covid19 Lockdown, scientists had perfect experimental conditions to observe the relationship between trust and communication. In dispersed teams, research published in The European Management Journal, 2024, shows that it’s not isolation from the workplace that diminishes trust but the quality and frequency of communication.

A large part of managing upwards, as well as your colleagues, is in the sharing of issues, solutions and results – in the form of updates.

But here’s the problem: most updates aren’t updates. They’re rambling status reports or weak apologies for a tangle of problems. And that’s why they’re not only a waste of breath but damage your credibility and the trust others might otherwise have had. Let’s look at five common mistakes people make when giving updates: and what those mistakes reveal about trust, attention and authority.

1. Giving Unnecessary Detail

There’s a tendency with some to give a blow-by-blow account. Leaders are left asking “And where are you going with this?”
That doesn’t mean detail is always bad. Sometimes the detail matters. But if the main point is buried under a detailed account of every conversation, obstacle and minor development: the listener has to do the work of finding it.

And most people are already doing quite enough work.

A useful update picks out the problem, process and action. It’s not a recreation of your entire working day. Go here for the stucture of an effective update and notice how succinct it is.

2. Being Too Unspecific

The opposite problem is the vague, foggy update that says everything and nothing.

“Making progress.”
“Nearly there.”
“Should be fine.”

These phrases are verbal wallpaper: They cover the wall, but tell you nothing about the structure underneath.
What does “making progress” actually mean? What has been completed? What remains? Is anything blocked? Is there a decision to make? Is the deadline still realistic?

If people have to ask three more questions to understand your update, it wasn’t much of an update in the first place.

3. Getting Trapped in Problems

This is a biggie: most of the technical specialists with whom I work across pharma to engineering – at all levels, fall into this trap. It’s when updates become a guided tour of everything that’s gone wrong.

There was an issue with the data.
Then someone was unavailable.
Then the original plan had to change.
Then another problem appeared.

Stating the problem without any route to an explicit solution is a problem to your reputation. A strong update acknowledges what’s wrong, explains what it means and makes the next step visible. It doesn’t pretend everything is fine. If you’re pretending a problem doesn’t exist, then no-one knows what they’re meant to be solving.

However, when you move on from the problem, you’re refusing to leave everyone standing in a ditch. A strong update is not a problem dump but something that people can work through.

Of course, there are times when you have a challenge, a possible way out but aren’t quite sure about it. In that case, the update can lead to a discussion, where you ask: “How would you deal with this?”.

4. Expressing Wishful Thinking

“I hope…”
“We’re trying…”
“It should be okay…”

These words can be harmless. But they make it sound like you’re depending on your worry beads. As soon as you drop in a words like ‘try’ or ‘hope, people are questioning whether you’re in control of the situation at all. Here’s a useful download of weak words and phrases plus their stronger equivalents. During an Effective Communication Skills Workshop I was running for a FinTech company, the directors attending the session suddently realised that this language was the reason they would immediately lose faith in some of their team members.

On the other hand, leaders don’t need false certainty: you can’t always promise something will definitely happen. However, they do need an honest account of the situation, alongside a clear sense of direction. Hence, instead of:

“I hope we’ll have it finished by Friday.”

say

“We’re on track to finish by Friday. The remaining issue is the final data check, which I’m aiming to resolve with Finance tomorrow.”

You might not be able to say something is definite but by building in phrases such as ‘aiming to’ or ‘my objective is to’, you’ll sound more confident and that gives more confidence.

5. Waiting Until You’re Asked

If someone has to chase you for an update, they may already be wondering whether the project still has your attention. By the time they ask, the question may not really be “What’s happening?” It may be:

“Are you still on this?”

An unprompted update stops that wobble before it grows. In fact, a doctoral study from Singapore Management University reveals that proactivity was related to higher perceived ability by their managers, resulting in increasing levels of trust. An update given before it’s requested is one small action your can take that shows you’re paying attention, taking ownership and keeping your manager in the loop.

The unprompted briefing reassures people that you know what’s happening, that you’re still attending to the work and that they won’t have to keep checking.

Obviously, if the lead time to the deadline is short, say, the following day, there may be no need for an extra check in but if it’s longer, the reassurance of that bonus update is worth it’s weight in gold, gold being equal to the number of trust-points gained.

Even when there’s no dramatic progress, a brief update provides reassurance they didn’t even realise they needed. That’s why proactive updates can have such a significant effect on how trustworthy others perceive you. They signal your attention to their matters, that your have ownership and cement your reliability before anyone has to ask for proof.

No significant progress?  Don’t use that as an excuse for silence. You need to show the matter is still within your sphere of attention. A phrase such as this could work well:

“There isn’t a major development yet, but the project is still on my radar. I’m waiting for the supplier’s response and will update you again by Thursday.”

That’s a small message, closing a surprisingly large gap.

So What Are Updates Really For?

Updates aren’t just a way of telling people what you’ve done. They strengthen the system around you. A good update helps to:

1. Reveals where you’re stuck early – before a challenge becomes a crisis.
2. Allow useful discoveries to travel instead of staying trapped inside one person’s project.
3. Translates specialist work into business meaning: leaders and their teams often have to explain what’s happening to people outside the immediate project or technical team.
4. Exposes any overlaps in work.
5. Aids cross-functional problem solving as well as solution finding within teams, furthering innovation.
6. Increases a sense of purpose and community.
7. Updates connect your activity to impact: making your look effective, not just ‘busy’.
8. Keep teams and leaders in the loop for more informed decision making.
9. See how their work fits into the bigger picture, and how everyone else’s work fits too.
10. Encourage mutual respect and support.

Basically, updates are micro-leadership moments. That’s quite a lot of work for a few well-chosen sentences. That’s the power of a punchy update.

Your Action Steps

1. Look at your task list: who needs an update on one of these activities?
2. Once you’ve defined that, take 10 minutes to draw up a bullet point list for a verbal update using this structure here, or apply the same format for a written version.

Need Some Personalised Support?

Are your updates – or your team’s – going a bit off-target?

If people are rambling, burying the headline, waiting to be chased or accidentally talking themselves out of credibility, it can be fixed. I offer practical, high-impact coaching and training for leaders, specialists and technical teams who need their communication to land clearly, confidently and with influence. Have a look at my communication and influence training, or book a free 15-minute Discovery Call and let’s talk about what would make the biggest difference.

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