Reporting Your Success - How to Do It and Why It Matters

The why should be fairly obvious, but just in case here goes:

Your place of work has made an investment in you, reporting your success whether in the form of a monthly report, or simply face to face during employee evaluations and review is your chance to show them the value they are receiving from their investment and asserting that they made the right choice in picking you to fill the position, and that the job they hired you for warrants the scale of the investment they made. This is in essence the same principle as when you were applying for the job, but, hopefully, with less competition.

How to toot your own horn, without getting off-key
The process of how to go about this is actually much simpler than it seems. Your objective is to show how well you're fulfilling the requirements of your position, and then how far beyond those requirements you go.

Use all your accomplishments
Let's start with your to-do list. As items move from to-do to done, they magically become what are known as accomplishments. An item might be a small accomplishment, but it is one all the same. Make a list of all your done items over the time period. Some items you'll group together (e.g. I don't list out each website edit in my final report, I group them all together under "updated public website"). If something was a major item such as a project that lasts a week (for a monthly report), it doesn't get grouped; When you're finished you can adjust which items you group together for length.

Let other people play too
I love it when someone e-mails me to say thank you, or to tell me how great a job I did. Not only is it nice to know you're appreciated, but when it's typed out, it becomes something that you can pass on. These might point out a few little things that you skipped adding to your to-do list, and it lets your boss see how highly your coworkers think of you. It's even better when you can produce an e-mail from someone who is over your boss complimenting your work.

Just remember this should never cause you stress; this is the time to pat yourself on the back for a job well done.