There’s a big drive to improve goal-setting skills and competencies at all levels of organizations. Why? Competitiveness and ultimately survival rely on a number of elements that are supported by having high-level goal-setting capabilities.
There’s a good chance that the company you next work in will use a framework like OKRs to manage goals and OKR software like ZOKRI or Weekdone.
The Basics Of OKRs
OKRs are different to SMART goals because they come with both a format and a set of related recommended behaviours.
The format of an OKR is simple and consists of an O which stands for Objective. For example:
- Increase the number and quality of meetings the sales team are having
The KR part of OKR stands for Key Results, and these should be measurable outcomes that if achieved would mean the Objective has been achieved. For example, the objective above might have two Key Results
- Increase the number of meetings from 100 to 200 in Q1
- Have 50% of leads convert to a quote in Q1
The recommended behaviours that go with the goals are:
- Check-ins – a weekly update you do on your own where you update progress and provide a commentary of progress and share any problems being faced that are holding you back.
- Team meetings – OKRs are normally an agenda point on a weekly team meeting where the focus is on priorities for the week ahead and the issues being faced.
- Retrospectives – A retrospective is a meeting where the final outcome of the goal and the work that helped you achieve it is discussed and learnings shared and documented.
- New OKR setting – A meeting where you decide whether to continue your OKR from the previous period with or without edits or create a new OKR.
OKRs Are Goals That Align
When creating your OKRs you’re going to be creating them with alignment with another OKR in mind.
For example, you might be aligning your OKRs with a company OKR that is strategic, or a department OKR that’s more operational. Either way, alignment provides context for where you need to direct your goal-setting efforts.
The alignment also lets you know how the work you’re doing is supporting the company that you’re working for. Something that is missing in a lot of companies.
You’re Do Way More Than Work Towards Your OKRs
OKRs are not a replacement for team and personal KPIs. OKRs are used to answer the question “what do [I / WE] need to make progress on most right now to support the [COMPANY / TEAM] right now?”
Your contribution to your team and your company will therefore be measured in a number of ways. These are likely to include:
- Team and Individual KPIs
- Team and Individual Goals OKRs
- Projects / Initiatives worked on
- Recognition / endorsements from colleagues
If you find that you’re working for a company that puts too much emphasis on one aspect of performance at the expense of others, you should flag it. Great companies get the balance right.
Summary
- Companies need to ensure that employees have high levels of goal-setting skills and competencies as a means of them remaining competitive
- Goal-setting frameworks like OKRs are becoming increasingly normal and knowing OKRs and how they work will help you both at interviews and when starting a new job
- A good question to ask at an interview is how OKR performance is used in areas like personal development planning and appraisals – if it feels over emphasized there might be an issue with how OKRs are being used and there’s a chance your other contributions might go unrecognized