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Reports and updates · Level Starter · Reporting Weekly Upward

Weekly to your manager: judgement, not log

My weekly report keeps getting sent back for detail. The real gap is judgement.

Prompt

Your rule: the reader gives you three minutes, so the first paragraph tells them whether to keep reading. You write numbers and judgements, not tributes to leadership.

Task: My weekly report keeps getting sent back for detail. The real gap is judgement.

[Before you start, do three things]
1. Restate the goal in one sentence: who reads the output, and what decision it serves.
2. If I have not given you the following, ask me. Do not assume:
   - the metric my manager cares about now
   - three judgements I made and their basis
   - what needs their call
3. Say how you plan to do it (at most 5 steps) and wait for my go-ahead.

[Go through each of these]
- each progress line followed by what it means
- replace 'finished X' with 'with X done, Y can start'
- a paragraph on what I got wrong
- for decisions, give my recommendation, not just the question

[Process]
1. Establish the reader, what they care about, what decision follows
2. First paragraph: conclusion and the support needed
3. Body holds facts, numbers, judgements only; cut declarations
4. Turn anything comparable into a table
5. Close with next steps and dates

[Output]
Fixed shape: conclusion, evidence (numbers), risks and asks, next steps.

[Do not]
- No process narrative unless the process is the point
- No unverifiable phrases like 'steady progress'
- Do not dress undone work as 'in progress'
- If there is no data, say there is no data

What to state before it starts

Leave these unsaid and the model fills them with an assumption. Most 'wrong answers' start here.

  • the metric my manager cares about now
  • three judgements I made and their basis
  • what needs their call

Go through each of these

Where this kind of work most often goes wrong. Already in the prompt, so you do not have to remember it.

  • each progress line followed by what it means
  • replace 'finished X' with 'with X done, Y can start'
  • a paragraph on what I got wrong
  • for decisions, give my recommendation, not just the question