I need my marketing specialist to provide me a status report and future planning report, but am having a difficult time communicating to her what that report needs to include. What I keep receiving is a vague list of activities that are not tied to a project goal, nor is she including future plans. I am new to Manager Tools (and a first time manager as well) and am hoping there might be a podcast or guide that addresses the nuts and bolts of a proper status report format and how to communicate that to a new direct. At the same time, I need to improve my own status reporting which goes to our President on a monthly basis. Thanks for any advice :)
Iterating on this early on is normal
Seems like you two need to sit down together (maybe ten minutes?) so you can show her what you want. Rework a prior status report to organize it by project, and a future planning report by quarter (or whatever serves your purposes).
If there's no projects, or an unplannably volatile future, well, that's great feedback on what you got to handle. :-)