Streamlined CEO

The Weekly Review Method: How to Keep Clients Informed and Yourself Accountable

June 04, 2024 • Karalee Gault • Season 2 • Episode 11

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This episode introduces the Weekly Review Method, designed to streamline communication between service providers (like virtual assistants) and CEOs. It provides a clear overview of completed tasks, upcoming projects, and hours worked, fostering transparency and trust without micromanaging.

Takeaways:

  1. Improved Client Visibility: The Weekly Review Method keeps CEOs informed about the services they're paying for and allows them to plan based on upcoming tasks.
  2. Streamlined Delegation: Weekly reviews help CEOs understand their team's capacity and delegate tasks effectively.
  3. Enhanced Focus: Tracking hours worked each week allows CEOs to see where their resources are being used and make adjustments as needed.
  4. Reduced Micromanagement: The Weekly Review Method fosters trust and accountability, reducing the need for micromanagement.

Bonus: The episode includes a free downloadable template for the Weekly Review Method and a walkthrough of how I use Moxie for Freelancers in regards to the Weekly Review Method.

Grab Weekly Review Method Template HERE.

Grab my Moxie for Freelancers affiliate link and get 30 days free HERE.

Note, I may receive a commission when you use the link above, at no cost to you.

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Speaker 1:

Welcome back to the Streamlined CEO Podcast. I'm your host, cara Lee, and today's episode is all about the method I created to allow the high-level clients I work with to see progress and prioritization without micromanaging, making delegating simpler and even a no-brainer. So if you're a service provider or a CEO with a team, this episode is for you. So the name is super simple the weekly review method Yep, super simple, right? So today I'm going to explain this method itself and give you some insights into what my clients I use this with every week have to say about it, and even one of my own virtual assistants started implementing this too. So the purpose of this method is to give a quick overview each week of the status of things, tasks, projects, whatever you are responsible for. So what was completed? Maybe what's still in progress, what's on the agenda for next week and, if you track hours, the status of their hours, right? This allows them to see things at a high level without micromanaging each thing that you do. So now I feel I need to tell you how my retainer packages are set up in general, so that you can see why each of these things are super valuable to the CEO or whomever you're reporting to to know. So I am an executive assistant and or an operations manager for each of these clients, and this is how the retainer packages are set up. Each client has a certain number of hours they pay for each month. I allow hours to roll over if needed. Being in this role has a varied number of responsibilities, so to allow myself to prioritize, each week, this is tracked by hours, since it's an ongoing retainer and because it's not literally, the tasks are not set in stone each month and they can give me whatever they need. So we track by hours to have a neutral ground on both sides. Okay, so let's jump right into how this method is actually implemented. Okay, so you can also head to the show notes and grab your very own weekly review template, so tweak it to your clients and reuse it repeatedly. All right, so you don't even have to take notes right now. You can just head straight to the show notes and grab the template where I walk you through how to implement this in your business, along with the rest of this podcast as well.

Speaker 1:

So in the first section is simply stating what week this review is for and how many hours were worked as a whole over the week. Right? This allows you to see if you're on point or maybe if you're a little behind on hours or maybe you're, like, really ahead on hours, like it just gives you a base for where we are in that week, and then, of course, you can go for the month as well, but that's later on, all right. So the section two is listing out the tasks or projects you've completed in a simple list form. If your client desires, you can put the amount of time here too. You can also make a space for projects that are simply in progress. Here too, you can also make a space for projects that are simply in progress. All right. So here's the completed and in progress. And then, if your client would prefer a detail like how long each of these tasks actually took you, you can add that here as well.

Speaker 1:

So section three is the hours rundown. So hours used this week, hours used this retainer, hours remaining in this retainer in banked hours, if you allow them to roll over, like I do, I also add here the number of business days left in the retainer. This is very important for a prioritization from the CEO to where they see where you are in the month and they see if they can add more or if they maybe need to move things. I'll share with you here in a minute what they've actually said, but this is something that they really like to see. If they have to, if we have to, actually track things by hours, all right, so they can actually see very briefly what their investment is being used for and where it stands each week, so that, as the CEO, that's what they get from this and as the VA or the service provider, you also get a lot of accountability, which I talk about here in a minute as well. So section four is completely optional.

Speaker 1:

Yet it has been incredibly beneficial for myself as a service provider, and I give access to my clients for transparency if they desire to take a look. So each of my clients has their own portal and I actually use Moxie for freelancers. This is an easy way for me to keep track of hours in real time and for them to check in on them in real time. Ok, you can also check out this video tutorial, this process, when you grab the weekly review method template in the show notes, so I walk you through exactly what I do and how I set things up, so you can choose to set it up in the same manner, or maybe not. This isn't for everyone, but this is a way that I have found that has things more streamlined. So, also, just to keep all of the affiliate guides all happy, directly in the show notes is my affiliate link for Moxie as well. So when you use my link, you actually get, as I'm recording this, 30 days free to check it out, and so that's really cool so you can watch the video, you can try it out on your own kind of dive into the other things that I talk about and go from there All right.

Speaker 1:

So section five contains your intentions for next week. Right? Ceos love it when you have a plan. Right, you've prioritized them and you have a plan for next week. So what tasks and projects are you intending to work on the following week? Right, if you name something in progress earlier on, ensure you add this to the list if you intend on working on it in that following week, okay. So in section six, which is the last one, is the important dates coming up. Maybe you're going on vacation, maybe you have a Zoom session scheduled with your client, depending on your client, and what you do for them will depend on what you feel the need to put right in this section. Okay, so that's six sections broken down. You can simply head to the show notes and grab the template, though, and the video that walks you through Moxie as well, if you're curious, and really just make this super simple so you can actually start implementing with this with your clients, like right now, all right, so before, like we finish up here because we only have a little bit left.

Speaker 1:

But I thought, well, I have real life clients that I've implemented this on, and I was like I want to hear from them, and so I actually went to my clients and said hey, we've been doing the weekly reviews each week for a while. Like, what does it do for you? So I asked all three of them and one of them said it helps keep me informed of the services we are paying for and provides a guide for the week and month ahead. Right, so they love to see what they're paying for and they love to see a plan. So OK. So the second person said weekly recaps give me a line of sight of what is accomplished and what is on deck. It helps me plan accordingly to base on my running list If there are items I can delegate now or wait till a later time frame, right. So this is them, not micromanaging, asking you constantly like, oh, where are this progress? Where's this? That's also great to have a task management system for this, because we also have this with every single one of my clients, which is super helpful.

Speaker 1:

And the last client this last client doesn't like to track hours, and that's okay. She would rather, would just do all the things, but we track hours for a neutral ground, right. So she said having a weekly check-in helps me understand where we are as a big picture wise. So in terms of where I can use help, but also where can I best use our team and regroup on the progress we have made. The hours just helps me think about where to focus, but also, again, where to use the team. Honestly, I would love to not track the hours, but because we have so many projects in different categories going on at one time, it allows me to adjust in real time instead of just one quarter or one month at a time. Especially when I think of new ideas, I can go to our report and see what capacity is available. This is huge. So she loves it. I can see big picture, loves where she can see the status of hours really quickly, even if she doesn't want to track hours, but she also knows that that's what has to happen, right?

Speaker 1:

So all three of these clients said that. What was the commonality? That we love to see it when like getting it every week. That we love to see it when like getting it every week we are prioritized. You have thought things through. We have a plan, right, so this allows you to keep you and your clients accountable as well. All right. So I would be doing all of you listeners a disservice if I didn't include how this personally helps me in my own business and helps hold myself accountable to my clients as well. Right, because this allows me to reflect on each client individually and what their status is each week.

Speaker 1:

Now, I do these on Fridays OK for the record at the end of the week, right, so this allows me to ensure I'm not letting hours run away without notice and that I'm caring for my clients without them feeling like they need to micromanage. Right, they don't constantly need to check in on me making sure I'm doing the things. Right, cause we're good at our jobs. Right, we are on top of things and we communicate like a boss right, a good boss, right? I don't really like that saying, because not all bosses communicate well, but we communicate in a well respectful way where we are respecting each other's boundaries and what each other's needs in order to move on. And this is a great way to be able to keep yourself accountable each Friday and be able to give that client that rundown from the week and also saying what your plan is for the next week, so that way they have some time to look at it and if they need to do something different, reprioritize then you have given them what your plan is and you can course correct as needed, right, because we have great communication back and forth.

Speaker 1:

So I also want to give you this one little thing, because we like to prioritize clients or we love to use our team members right, but there are still things in our own business that we have to do. So, even if you're the CEO and you have a team, or if you're a solopreneur and you're doing this for yourself but you have clients, this can help your own business, no matter if you have clients or not. Okay, period. So I do this on my own business each week, because I do have a team I go what has the team accomplished? What have I accomplished personally? Right, what does my next week look like?

Speaker 1:

This is how I've been able to have a small agency, be an executive assistant and an ops manager for three six-figure CEOs and not completely lose my mind. Right, while I'm still growing and building up and scaling my own agency, right, there are still things I have to do. I do not outsource everything I do not have. I'm not able to do that. So you it doesn't matter where you are here you can use this as a way of checking in with yourself in an accountability space as well. So, like I said, if you didn't listen to last week's podcast episode, check it out now.

Speaker 1:

I talked about how I prioritize and manage high level clients in general, and so that will be a great way for you to be able to go. How can I actually prioritize? So that way, this weekly review method actually works in my favor and it's not like backfiring per se. It does take a few weeks of being able to start implementing this to really start like feeling like you're on top of it. I've been doing this for six months and it has super. It has helped me so very much to be able to actually see results in my own business and see clear transparency with my clients. So here's your action steps for today.

Speaker 1:

Before we finish up, head to the show notes, grab the weekly review method template, where you have the breakdown in written form for you to easily tweet to your business and continuously reuse.

Speaker 1:

I encourage you to take this method and run with it in your own business. If you feel that there is another entrepreneur in your circle that would find this helpful, send them to this podcast, send them to the page where you grabbed the template, but I ask that you do not just share it with whomever right, but share it praises, if you choose, but send them to the thing so that they can actually get how it can work for them. All right, so I and again I included a tutorial, a walkthrough of Moxie for freelancers, so you can see how I've personally set it up for my clients According to the portals. There is so many other things that you can do here, but I am sharing in this video how I've used the weekly review method and the client portals together. So if you have a question, you need support, you can go ahead and send me a text message, send me a DM, whichever you prefer, and I will see you on next week's episode.