A new quarter is about to begin and that's when teams start thinking about what the
next priority should be. We've written a lot about what constitutes a good OKR.
This time we'll share some tips for team leads for identifying the right OKRs for their team
and making sure they're set up to be accomplished.
Whether your team members like OKR or not they all should understand why OKRs are important.
1. OKRs force you to start with the end in mind.
Starting with the end in mind is one of the famous 7 habits of highly successful people, and for
obvious reasons. Without knowing where to go it's impossible to figure out what to do to get there.
In other words OKRs help everyone in the team decide each day what deserves their attention
and what they can safely ignore.
2. OKRs are how you negotiate what's important and what's not.
You and your team members and perhaps, even more importantly, you and your superiors
should be on the same page regarding what to focus on next quarter.
The OKRs are going to define how a lot of people within the team will spend a significant amount of their time.
Time is your scarcest resource so you want to do everything possible to make sure you spend it in the best possible way.
Working on the right things is what's important. Effectiveness trumps efficiency.
3. OKRs ensure you'll be working on things that matter.
To most people, work is about a lot more than collecting a paycheck
we all want to be sure that we add value.
Through OKRs the team can rest assured that
they'll be working on things that actually matter and drive value for the business.
Completing tasks and initiatives is a great feeling it releases dopamine in your brain, but in the end it's not the
completion of tasks that matter, it's the results that those tasks are intended to accomplish.
Those results are reflected in your OKRs.
So OKRs let you see if you've done something useful.
When setting OKRs for the upcoming quarter, the aim is to identify the right problems or
ambitions to work on.
The aim is not to ensure that everyone in the team is leading one or more OKRs.
Therefore, when drafting OKRs, don't discuss with each individual team member what his
or her OKR should be. Instead, get together with the team to collect everyone's input.
Give every team member the opportunity to say what they believe is important.
The more involved they can, be the stronger the sense of ownership they'll have
At this stage ignore who could or should be working on it all you're doing right now is
figuring out where you and your team can have the biggest impact. Which problems to tackle first.
What discussions do you want to have? What Michael's OKRs should be?
Or what marketing problems need to be tackled?
Do you start with your resources and then figure out what their OKRs should be?
Or do you start with OKRs and then figure out the resources that you need to achieve those OKRs?
I suggest you do the latter. Whilst going through this process, answer for each possible objective
Why is it important? Why is it urgent?
This exercise will help you decide whether or not it should indeed be a priority for the upcoming quarter.
The question why is it important also encourages you to use actual data in your decisions.
When drafting OKRs, a significant amount of time will go into setting the right key results.
You want to avoid putting in all this effort before having agreed with superiors that these are
indeed the right objectives for your team to focus on next quarter.
You often hear that quarterly OKRs should be set bottom up.
That statement certainly has its merit. As Steve Jobs famously said:
"It doesn't make sense to hire smart people and tell them what to do.
You should hire smart people so that they can tell you what to do."
However, the fact that OKR should come bottom up shouldn't be interpreted by teams as a card blanche to do whatever it wants.
The company has a mission and vision and it has a strategy and it's up to the teams to deliver it.
Aligning with superiors on the objectives simply makes sure everyone is on the same page regarding how to implement and execute that strategy.
At the same time executives and especially the CEO shouldn't misuse the statement that bottom-up oOKRs are preferred
to completely disconnect themselves from the OKR program.
They have set out the strategy and need to work closely with the teams to help them deliver it.
If the teams fail to deliver, it's the executives who carry the end responsibility.
In the end the shareholders will replace the executives not the teams if the organization fails to deliver.
When you have identified an important OKR for your team, you need someone to look after it
In other words you need to make someone responsible.
As the team lead you should not be responsible for all the OKRs of your team.
You simply don't have the time.
Instead, you should delegate responsibility and act as a coach.
That means help your team members, help your direct reports achieve their goals.
In the Perdoo software we call the person who is responsible for a goal: the lead.
Only one person can lead a goal. The adage goes if multiple people are responsible, no one is.
The lead is like a project lead. He or she is responsible for identifying the right
Initiatives to work on making sure the initiatives are completed on time, monitoring progress of the
key results and so on. He or she is also the main point of contact for that particular OKR
Even though there can only be one lead for an OKR, that doesn't mean that the lead is the only person working on it.
In most cases the lead will need the help of several others to complete initiatives
that will hopefully drive progress for the OKR.
The people that work on those initiatives are the contributors.
I often see team leads want every team member to lead his or her own OKRs.
This doesn't promote collaboration and is often just a way to micromanage or track an employee.
No wonder why some people hate OKRs.
Instead of making sure that every team member leads his or her own OKRs, make sure that every team member is contributing to an OKR.
Contributors are your most important asset, these are the people that actually put in all the work to achieve an OKR.
What's more important to you? That everyone leads an OKR?
Or that the OKRs that you've identified will actually be achieved?