Something to readWorkload & wellbeing
Socially visible progress
An essay that explains why invisible work, management above all, can feel like getting nowhere, with two small ways to see your progress again
Why it’s worth your time
Work that's mostly conversations, decisions and unblocking other people can feel like it's going nowhere, even when a lot is moving. Lara Hogan, a coach for managers in tech, explains why that feeling often follows a move into management, and offers two fixes: a weekly check on six core needs at work, and a small circle of peers who notice your progress. It's a three-minute read.
How to see your progress when your work is invisible
The essay · 3 min · Free
How to get it
Opens their site. We don’t copy it here; we’d rather they get the read.
- Read the essay.
It's a short newsletter post written for managers, but it applies to anyone whose work is hard to see. The practical part is the Monday and Friday check on six core needs, using a model called BICEPS from coach Paloma Medina.
- Score your week on Monday and Friday.
This Monday, rate from one to five how well each of six needs is being met: belonging, improvement, choice, equality, predictability and significance. Pick one to give some attention, then rate them again on Friday and notice what moved.
Good moments for this: at the start of a weekafter a week that felt like treading waterin your first months as a manager
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Small actions add up. Truest helps you find the next thing worth doing, make the space to do it, and keep a record of your progress. It’s a private place to work on your career, and it’s yours, not your employer’s.
- It actually happensDo it now, and you’ve invested in your career today.
- Lands in your closeoutFriday's closeout asks for progress, priorities, and proud moments; this is one.
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Making it work for you
Every workplace is different. Here’s what to think about before you start, and what might get in the way.
Things to think about
Hogan is clear that the check shows which need wants attention, not how well you're doing. Watching a two become a four matters more than fives across the board.
What might make this harder
The same check works. Support roles, coordination work and long projects have the same problem, and a weekly line on what moved helps you and anyone who reviews your work.
Questions people ask
What is socially visible progress?
Lara Hogan's term for progress other people can see, like something shipped. She points out that much management work is meant to be invisible or confidential, so managers lose that signal and can feel stuck.
What does BICEPS stand for?
Coach Paloma Medina's model of six core needs at work, one per letter: belonging, improvement, choice, equality, predictability, significance.
How do managers know if they're making progress?
Hogan suggests checking how your core needs feel at the start and end of each week, and sharing progress in confidence with a small group of peers who will notice and celebrate it.
What it says, and how it holds up
When you write code or close a deal, progress shows. Lara Hogan, who now coaches managers and leaders across the tech industry and managed teams at Etsy, wrote this 2019 newsletter for people who lost that signal by moving into management. Much of a manager's best work happens out of sight by design. Hard decisions, confidential conversations and clearing the way for a team leave nothing to point to, and the effects can take a long time to show.
Her two remedies are modest. The first turns Paloma Medina's BICEPS model of six core needs into a Monday and Friday check on which need is hungry and whether a week of attention helped. The second comes from Etsy, where Medina ran small, confidential peer groups for managers that met every other week; Hogan describes how often those groups stopped to celebrate a win that would otherwise have passed without comment.
The essay is brief and written for managers, and it doesn't take on the harder case where nothing moves because the role itself is stuck. If the same need scores low for weeks, that's worth taking to your manager or a mentor, framed around what would help, rather than something to keep measuring on your own.
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Picked by Truest and described in our own words. The original belongs to its creator. Last updated October 9, 2026. We sell a career membership; where that’s relevant above, we say so.