The Friday Update: Three Lines That Make Your Work Visible
Here is something most leaders never stop to think about. The people who decide what happens to your career do not see your work. They see a summary of it, secondhand, usually from someone who was in a hurry. So the version of your work that matters most is not the work. It is the account of it that reaches the people who decide. The Friday Update is the tool for writing that account yourself.
Most people resist it because it feels like bragging. It is not. Bragging is about you. A good update is about the work: what moved, what it means, what is next. Your boss is carrying 12 things you will never see. A clear note on Friday is not self-promotion. It is help for someone who has to explain your team to the people above them, often on 2 minutes of notice.
So the tool. 3 lines, every Friday, sent before you leave. Short enough to read on a phone between meetings, because that is where it will be read. First, what moved this week, stated as an outcome, not an activity. Not “met with the vendor 3 times.” “Closed the vendor issue, delivery back on schedule.” Second, why it matters, in your boss’s language, tied to what they care about this quarter. Third, what is next, including the one thing you need from them, if there is one. That last line is where updates get useful, because it turns a report into a conversation.
Then the practice. Write your first one this Friday, under 100 words. Do not wait for a big week. If nothing moved, say that too, and say what got in the way. An honest slow week builds more trust than silence. The habit matters more than any single update, because the value builds. 4 Fridays in, your boss starts using your words. 8 Fridays in, the people above your boss know what your team does without anyone asking. And at review time, the story is already written, in your words, with dates attached.
The work you do deserves to be known accurately, and nobody is better placed to make that happen than you.
3 lines this Friday. Then let the record start to build.
The Right Altitude Field Guides. One dimension at a time. therightaltitudebook.com/the-field-guides
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