So when someone tells me they got feedback that they’re too detail oriented, it has a couple of possibilities:

1. It could mean that you are so focused on the details, you can’t tell the story or set the context.  So you might know the data, but you can’t explain to people what the data means, or you don’t correlate different pieces of data into an overall conclusion. Force yourself to write a conclusions page: what are the conclusions? What is the decision which needs to be made? What’s the “net net”?

2. It could mean that you’re the law of diminishing returns. Meaning you’re so focused on chasing down the details, that big stuff is going wrong: like missing deadlines, or budgets. The effort you’re spending on the details might not be worth it. Ask yourself “Will it materially change the outcome?”

3. It could mean that they don’t think you know how to be strategic. Yes, details matter. But step back, and ask yourself “Why is this information important? What is it telling us?” My rule of thumb about presenting numbers: the reader should have an immediate reaction of “good” or “bad”.  If they don’t, chances are the data has no context, so they can’t tell if the number is a good one or a bad one. You want it to be clear to your reader. Data does not always equal information.

4. You might be obsessing about stuff no one cares about. Are you one of those folks who continually send presentations back with lots of little corrections at the last minute which don’t change the content of the presentation? Or you bring up questions and make your team chase down issues which aren’t relevant to the overall decision, so it wastes people’s time?  Take a step back: you might be driving everyone crazy.

Details are important for credibility, but too many details without context don’t have much meaning. Make sure you can see the forest for the trees.