OKRs for Managers Who Already Have a Full-Time Job
For managers and department heads
OKRs for Managers Who Already Have a Full-Time Job
You’ve been asked to run OKRs with your department, on top of the roadmap, the hiring and the fires that land every week. OKRs for managers work when they sit inside the work your team already does, and OKR Leader is built to keep them there: your team’s goals, projects, meetings and weekly updates in one place that takes minutes a week to keep current.
Nobody joins a product team hoping to become its OKR admin.
The OKR Leader team
Sound familiar?
Why do OKRs feel like homework?
OKRs feel like homework when they live in a separate document that only matters at the end of the quarter. The team does its real work in its own tools and meetings, and someone has to translate that work into an OKR update every few weeks. In plenty of teams, that someone is you. You’re probably fine with OKRs themselves. The trouble is an implementation that adds work without changing anything. Four signs show up early:
- OKRs handed down. Your team’s OKRs arrived from above, and nobody on the team helped write them.
- A separate tracker. OKR updates happen in a spreadsheet that’s disconnected from the team’s real work.
- Status meetings. The check-in is a round of updates where nobody decides anything.
- Scores that feel like grades. The team worries their OKR score will show up in their performance review.
How OKR Leader helps
What OKR Leader gives a department head
A home for your team
Your team gets its own page with its mission, members and OKR lead, so anyone can see what the team is working on this quarter.
Goals connected to the work
Projects and tasks link to the Key Results they move, so the team’s day-to-day work and its OKRs live in the same place.
Updates that take minutes
Each owner updates their Key Result with the number, their confidence, any blockers and the next step, in a couple of minutes a week.
Dependencies on record
Your team writes down which teams it depends on and which depend on it, so the work you’re waiting for from another department is visible to both sides.
A check-in worth having
Meetings link to the OKRs they cover, so the weekly check-in opens on the numbers and ends with decisions.
Use cases for your team
Problems department heads bring to OKR Leader
Where to start
How to run OKRs with your team
- Write the OKRs with the people who’ll carry them, in a single working session, and link each Objective to a company priority or another team’s goal.
- Keep the list short: one to four Objectives, with two to five Key Results each.
- Hold a 30-minute check-in once a week, and attach it to a meeting your team already has if you can.
- Ask for one decision per slipping Key Result at every check-in, with a name and a date.
These four habits cover a lot of ground, and they work best on top of a company-wide OKR practice that leadership supports with real time and resources.
Free resources
Reading for department heads
How to write OKRs your team will care aboutA practical guide to writing OKRs with your team.
OKRs in your workflowThe one rule that keeps OKRs part of the weekly work.
The OKR Check-In TemplateA 15-minute check-in format for your team’s weekly meeting.
Frequently asked questions
How much time should OKRs take a manager each week?
About an hour: a 30-minute check-in with the team and a few minutes to review updates before it. Planning day each quarter takes a half-day.
What if leadership hands us OKRs we didn’t help write?
Take the company’s priorities as the starting point, and ask to write your team’s Key Results yourselves. Teams commit harder to goals they helped shape, and leadership still gets the link to the strategy.
Should my team’s OKRs cover all of our work?
No. OKRs cover what needs to change this quarter. The routine work your team does every week stays outside them.
Will OKR scores affect my team’s performance reviews?
They shouldn’t. Once a score affects pay, people set safe targets. Use OKR scores to learn about the work, and assess individual performance separately.
What if another team is blocking one of our Key Results?
Write the dependency down at planning time, raise it at your weekly check-in as soon as it slips, and agree on a fix with the other team’s lead. OKR Leader keeps the dependency visible to both teams.
Run your team’s OKRs in one place
Start a free trial and set up your team’s OKRs this week. Or take the free OKR Starter Course and learn to write OKRs with your team.