Break-Sized Insights
Secrets From a Consultant’s Life: The Friday Evening E-Mail
Estimated time to read: 5 minutes
Plenty of people are intrigued by the inner workings of strategic consultancies.
And truth be told, things do work differently in a consultancy. The entire purpose of the organization is to attract and develop bright people to serve its clients to the best of their abilities. Few other organizations revolve around people and their skills as much as consultancies do.
So what I miss most after 13 years at McKinsey shouldn’t come as a surprise. The incredible people I had the pleasure to work with.
They are driven, insightful, and just…fun and inspiring to work with.
(Famously, there is supposed to be a ‘no jerk’ rule in McKinsey’s rigorous application process. I have loved working with every amazing colleague I encountered for over a decade. I’ll let you draw your own conclusions.)
But three years after I left to start my business, what sticks are the ways of working. Those habits, processes and tools you learn from the moment you start on your first team. They prove invaluable along the way.
I thought I’d share some with you. Starting with the Friday Evening E-Mail.
What is the Friday Evening E-Mail?
The brief explanation? It is a short e-mail at the end of the week that highlights progress made in the past week and the priorities for the week(s) to come.
As a consultant and later project manager at McKinsey, I would take 30 minutes on Friday to reflect on my project. That reflection translated into an e-mail to the client lead on the project and to the leading McKinsey partner.
Specifically, the Friday Evening E-Mail includes all or some of the following elements:
- A celebration of the impact your team delivered during the past week
- An overview of your (specific!) priorities for the next week(s) in order of importance, including who takes the lead on each
- What you need from the receiver to deliver on those priorities
- Suggestions on how to sustain or improve the well-being of your team
- (If any) Identified risks or issues and the proposed actions to mitigate these
Sounds simple enough, right? What’s so special about that?
Let me answer that question with a few of my own.
How often have you purposefully taken 30 minutes out of your workweek to think through everything on your plate? And if you do, how often do you communicate that reflection?
As for what’s so special about it… Let me talk about the impact it can have.
How the Friday Evening E-mail drives results
The shortest answer to that question is peace of mind. For everyone involved.
As an executive, you have a myriad of responsibilities. As one of my clients said, “I don’t think my team realizes how often the buck stops with me.”
When you have a clear, regular view of who’s working on what and how each project or workstream is progressing, you instantly have more peace of mind.
When you know your teams are working on the right priorities, it is easier to delegate.
And when you know where to step in and what risks you need to prepare for, you dedicate your valuable time where you can make the biggest difference.
It’s clear that a transparent and specific end-of-week update from your team works for the receiver.
How does it work for the sender? The upfront reflection and communication turn a typical progress update into an actionable plan.
Even if you know your workstream inside-out, a lot of it is stashed somewhere at the back of your mind. When you write your Friday Evening E-Mail, you structure your messages in an actionable way. What do you need to achieve next? What resources do you need? What are the risks you need to mitigate?
You’ll find yourself better prepared to give a prompt and succinct status update when you encounter your leader or stakeholder in the hallway.
And you’ll find the gaps. The areas of the project where you don’t know what happened in the past week. When it’s unclear who leads one of the priorities. Or when you don’t know what the next step is.
Which means you can address those gaps early on – before they become problems or delays.
In addition, having your priorities for the next weeks clear means you and your team hit the ground running on Monday morning.
How you can use the Friday Evening E-Mail too
Like with all communication tools and approaches, making the Friday Evening E-Mail work for you is much more important than how the original worked.
Start by defining what it is you need most. Do you need the clarity after a 30-minute reflection at the end of the week? Do you need this brief update from your team at the end of every week so you have that coveted peace of mind? Or do you want your leader to have a better view of the impact you and your team deliver on the regular?
Your objective for that end-of-week e-mail will shape the key messages that come out of your reflection.
Then look at your audience. Who will you send this to? What do they need from you?
Is this a tool to create clarity for yourself—something you send to your trusted adviser or your own inbox? Will you communicate your vision to your team? Or is it something to send to the executive you partner with on a project?
The needs of your audience determine the story your Friday Evening E-Mail tells. It determines your emphasis and the requests you make.
And if Friday evening isn’t your ideal time for that kind of in-depth reflection…do it on a Thursday afternoon or Friday morning.
Try it. Find what works for you.
Do you need more communication insights, tools and processes that work for you? Read more articles here or book your free 30-minute consult to talk about your objectives.
Ellen Bracquiné
Ellen Bracquiné is the executive communication coach and trainer for leaders who want to communicate as well as they perform. She cultivates her experience as management consultant, talent manager, and coach to support executives on their path to effective communication. From guidance for important presentations to custom coaching and training programs, her clients get instant, tangible results.
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