Weekly Goals Update

You’ve created prioritized goals with your team. Now ask them to provide a weekly Goals Update. This accomplishes three things:

• You know how your team is doing against the most important goals.
• Each person reserves time to review their progress, surface blockers, and work out solutions on their own.
• The whole team sees the same picture, so people can ask questions, offer help, and give feedback.

The Goals Update format

The update answers four questions for each goal:

1. What’s the status?
2. What’s good?
3. What’s not good?
4. What will you do to fix the not good?

That’s it. If each person has 1–3 goals, this takes less than 10 minutes.

1. What’s the status?

How confident are you that you’ll hit the date?

• 🔴 Off track—not gonna happen
• 🟡 At risk—possible, but there are risks
• 🟢 On track—I’ve got this

2. What’s good?

Using bullet points, describe a few things that went well this week. What was completed? How are you advancing toward the goal?

3. What’s not good?

What are the things blocking you from hitting the goal? Are they in your control? Are you actually blocked and need help? Is there a decision that needs to be made before you can move forward?

4. What will you do to fix the not good?

For each bullet under “What’s not good,” list at least one action you’ll take to resolve the blocker. Each action should have a due date. This date should be within days—less than a week. Ask yourself, “What can I do today?”

Example

#1. Signed offer for VP of Engineering role

• Owner: Adam Donkin
• Due: Nov 30
• Status: 🟡 At risk
• What’s good?
  • Published a tweet and a LinkedIn post
  • Connected with 3 other CEOs to find out who they think is world-class
  • Phone call with one world-class VP of Eng. She connected me with a colleague she thinks is top-notch.
• What’s not good?
  • Haven’t heard back from her colleague. No call scheduled.
  • Still haven’t chosen a recruiting firm.
  • I’m not sure who else to reach out to.
• What will you do to fix the not good?
  • Follow up with the VP’s colleague to schedule a 15-min call. Due: Oct 1
  • Write up an IPS for choosing recruiting firm. (10-mins). Due: Today
  • Review IPS with CTO and COO. Due: Tomorrow
  • Reach out to 3 board members for recommendations. (10-mins) Due: Today

Template

#1. Goal you intend to accomplish

• Owner: [Name]
• Due: [Month Day]
• Status: 🔴 Off track | 🟡 At risk | 🟢 On track
• What’s good?
• What’s not good?
• What will you do to fix the not good?
  • Action name. Due: [Month Day]

Post in a shared channel

Ask everyone to post to the same channel by the same time each week. Most teams prefer midday Friday. People sum up the week while it’s fresh, and the updates become the pre-read for your team meeting.

Slack is ideal for this. A Google Doc or Notion page also works. A shared channel encourages people to work together and avoid silos.

Read every update

Read them all and acknowledge each update. This process will fall flat if people feel they’re doing it as a formality.

Leave comments and ask questions. At the very least, use an emoji to show you’ve read each one.

As you’re reviewing, look for blockers or issues that require a decision. Either reach out immediately to resolve them, or turn them into topics for the team meeting.

When someone gives you a status of red, praise them for their honesty. Then get them unblocked right away. You want to encourage your team to raise issues early, so you can avoid negative surprises at the last minute.