Then write a review in your favorite social media platform. Mention my title: Objectives + Key Results (OKR) Leadership; How to apply Silicon Valley’s secret sauce to your career, team or organization.
Please share these testimonials with your team or organization:
“Doug Gray makes the complex understandable. More important, he makes it doable.”
Craig E. Aronoff, Ph.D., author, Chairman and co-founder, The Family Business Consulting Group, Inc.
“Doug builds on the OKR approach with practical and valuable guidance for individuals, teams and organizations. If you plan on implementing OKRs for your organization, you need this book.”
John Mattox, PhD, author, Head of Talent Research, Metrics that Matter, Explorance
“Introducing the OKR framework has not only allowed us to align our company goals throughout the organization, but it has also provided an easy mechanism to give visibility into how we drive operational accountability.”
Justin Jude, Acting President, LKQ Corp, North America
“Finally, a much needed leadership focus on the importance of clear objectives and specific, measurable results. This book will be useful not just for the present but throughout a practitioner’s career.“
Dave Vance, PhD, author, Executive Director, Center for Talent Reporting
This week, U.S. attorney General William Barr released a 400-page redacted version of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report on Russian interference in the 2016 election to Congress and the public. Consider how that data speaks to you. A client suggested that most people “see-speak-hear” that data as if we were monkeys… filled with bias.
Consider how these 3 data points speak to you…
Twitter removed 70 million fraudulent accounts in only two months in 2018 (source: Inc, May 2019)
Facebook removed 583 million fake accounts in the first three months of 2019 (source: Inc, May 2019)
In my world of leadership consulting, “a lengthy global effort to create standards for reporting human capital metrics is expected to be announced this week. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) will issue its guidelines for 23 human capital reporting measures, including a Leadership Trust Index (LTI) that may inform institutional investors, private investors and global business leaders” (Steve Maxwell presenting at the Center for Talent Reporting Annual Conference, February 21, 2019).
FACT: All leaders and managers struggle to collect and analyze data.
You probably know that ISO standards have defined quality improvement and safety investments in countless organizations since they were first introduced in 1947. These worldwide proprietary, industrial and commercial standards have been adopted in 164 countries.
What if your organization collected and distributed data on the following 23 human capital measures into these 9 categories?
Ethics (number and type of employee grievances filed; number and type of concluded disciplinary actions; percentage of employees who have completed training on compliance and ethics)
Costs (total workforce costs)
Workforce diversity (with respect to age, gender, disability, and “other indicators of diversity”; and diversity of leadership team)
Leadership (“leadership trust,” to be determined by employee surveys)
Organizational safety, health, and well-being (lost time for injury; number of occupational accidents; number of people killed during work)
Productivity (EBIT/revenue/turnover/profit per employee; human capital ROI, or the ratio of income or revenue to human capital)
Recruitment, mobility, and turnover (average time to fill vacant positions; average time to fill critical business positions; percentage of positions filled internally; percentage of critical business positions filled internally; turnover rate)
Skills and capabilities (total development and training costs)
Workforce availability (number of employees; full-time equivalents)
How would that data speak in your world?
Privately held companies may use these human capital data for directional initiatives such as replacing managers with high turnover ratios identified as “toxic managers” or investing in high growth departments that require training in OKR leadership skills. For details contact us.
Publicly held companies may use these human capital data for multi-directional initiatives designed to retain more diverse employees, eliminating bias in hiring, or retaining desired employees with external coaching and consulting. For details see www.hcmi.co.
Consider one final example. Imagine a 17-year district sales manager who had regularly been promoted within her company as recognition for her history of ratings that “exceed expectations.” Then she was asked to relocate into a new geography and had 4 different managers within 5 years. The goal incentives were increased 300%. She had to hire 3 new direct reports within 8 weeks. Then her new manager stated that she “should not speak to anyone in the corporate office, even when he did not repeatedly provide required information for business decisions.” How does that data speak?
FACT: All leaders and managers struggle to collect and analyze data.
OPINION: I predict massive changes ahead in public accountability and transparency and data-driven decision making.
If you need expertise in collecting and analyzing data for your organization, then you should contact us today.
FACT: The market demands that you will increase the probability of competitive success if you can make more informed decisions before others.
In response to a client’s request, I created a free digital course called “OKR Leadership Skills” that you can take here. The Objectives and Key Results (OKR) management process has enabled countless F100 and small business leaders to increase accountability and transparency. OKR leadership has been described as the “secret sauce” that explains the largest migration of financial assets in human history to Silicon Valley in the last 30 years. OKR leadership is another example of How Data Speaks.
Here is one final example. Here is a 3-minute excerpt of a keynote presentation on OKR leadership that I provided in March, 2019 to over 700 business leaders in Denver, CO. You may need a similar data story in your organization.
Here’s to you, at your best,
Doug Gray, PhD, PCC, CEO of Action Learning Associates, LLC
You have probably had the experience of teaching someone how to drive a car. If not, imagine the scene.
Your objective is to teach enough basic skills so that your loved one can drive away. You start by teaching safety protocols like “wear your seat belt” and “always keep two hands on the steering wheel at “9 and 3.” Then you explain the functions of the gas pedal, brake pedal, gears and all those shiny buttons on the dashboard. Then you offer encouragement as your loved one shifts into gear and drives from 0 to 30 mph within a minute. Your Key Results (KRs) often follow that formula “from x to y by date.”
Objectives are defined as “what you do.” They are qualitative and each person in the organization can write their own.
Key Results are defined as “how you measure that objective.” They are quantitative and answer the formula “as measured by.”
OKRs are defined as “a management methodology that helps people focus efforts on the same important issues throughout the organization.”
For a 3-minute excerpt of a keynote presentation on OKR Leadership that I provided in December, 2019 to over 700m business leaders in Denver, CO, click here.
The “Father of OKRs” title is attributed to Andy Grove, the founder and CEO of Intel. You may know that Andy literally wrote the textbook on semiconductors in 1967, well before Silicon Valley attracted the largest migration of assets in human history. You may also know that Andy wrote “Only the Paranoid Survive” in 1996, as a reminder of market volatility and the need to measure the details. His father was killed at Auschwitz, and he fled Nazism with his mother at age 20.
John Doerr worked for Andy. John learned how to implement OKRs. Then, in 1997, John made an $11.8M investment in 12% of Google when working as a venture capitalist at Kleiner-Perkins. The co-founders of Google wanted to organize data globally. When John introduced OKRs to Google, Larry Page said, “Well, we need to adopt some management approach.” The rest is history. I recommend John Doerr’s book, Measure What Matters, (2018) for examples ranging from the Gates Foundation to Bono.
Here are my examples of teaching OKRs to leaders in a small business and a large business.
I was consulting the CEO and owner of a $40M retail business that required succession planning to transition the next generation of leaders. At a management meeting I observed that the managers did not describe their business using any metrics. I asked the owner, “Where are the metrics that these managers are using to drive their business?” He sighed with fatigue, like so many small business owners. I provided OKR definitions and templates and a free course on OKR leadership skills that you can access here. Then I worked with several key managers. One manager’s objective was to increase profit margins by 6% Y/Y. KR1 was to identify current measures for sales, expenses, overhead, profit within 30 days. KR2 was to distribute a one-page business summary to all other managers within 40 days. KR3 was to track and reward increased profit margins within 60 days. The result of his OKR leadership was that he modeled accountability, transparency and business results for the other managers within 60 days.
I was consulting the president of a Fortune 500 business with $5B in annual revenue and over 10,000 full time employees in North America. Their 20-year-old company grew quickly as a result of acquisitions. The result was that silos of trust and information sharing were preventing consistent accounting practices. I asked, “How are you measuring your desired results?” He stuttered and said, “Not well. We increased revenue and retained a lot of good people but sometimes I wonder if we’re measuring what we need to be measuring.” I provided some OKR definitions and templates and vendor resources. Then he defined his OKRs and shared them with his top 60 leaders in a training that I delivered. Then I provided team coaching for those top 60 leaders so that they could cascade OKRs throughout their organization for three months. The results were uneven, as we expected. People were experimenting with the OKR language as if they were new vocabulary words. Three months of uneven applications passed. The OKR process gained momentum in the annual meeting when the president spoke to 650 of their top leaders. He declared, “As long as I’m in this role we are going to implement OKRs and increase our profit margins.” He shared his business OKRs. Minutes later, I followed him onto the main stage to introduce OKRs to those 650 leaders. I led demonstrations with 6 of his top leaders. Then I lead workshops to practice implementing OKRs within their organization. His KRs included training, technology, and rewards tied to increased profit margins. We are still assessing the impact of that OKR process.
The challenge of OKRs is not in introducing them as an initiative. Anyone can introduce an evidence-based initiative.
The challenge in the OKR process is adopting an ongoing cadence of accountability and rewards. Learning requires feedback. Managers, by definition, need to maximize the productivity of others. The core skill of managers is coaching. We trademarked the AD-FITTM coaching process to teach managers the required steps to provide feedback to others. Our experience is that those managers who adopt the AD-FITTM process accelerate the performance and behavior outcomes of others. For a free course on how to apply the AD-FITTM process for Managers click here.
Smart managers and leaders typically understand OKRs pretty quickly. The challenge is “in the details” as Andy Grove reminded us. Over 30% of the companies on today’s NYSE and F500 did not exist 20 years ago. There is no reason to assume that your organization should exist 20 years from now.
Here are some gifts from 2018 that I’d like to share with you, my clients and associates.
I strongly recommend that you save this url in your contact for “Doug Gray” or “Action Learning Associates.”
You may want to download this new content and add it to your digital folder for “Action Learning Associates.” There are many great resources here!
Here’s to you, at your best! When playing with new friends like Spider Monkeys, or not.
Q4 included several customized leadership development workshops.
One F500 client wanted to “develop a culture of fiscal accountability using Objectives and Key Results (OKRs).” If you are a client and want to see the customized app that included that content please contact me here.
One client wanted to “introduce positive psychology practices into their organization.” Over 1,300 people have viewed the content here.
One F500 client wanted to “develop the executive presence and the reputations of their leaders.” A video of that content is here.
Several small business leaders wanted succession planning content to accelerate their leadership to the next generation.
Q3 included trademarking the AD-FIT model for any managers or professional coaches to use.
Many clients asked, “What works?” They needed a process or protocol to cascade consistent expectations to direct reports, to serve clients, to lead others effectively.
The AD-FIT Level 1 Certification Course is at www.WhyCoachesFail. If you are a client and would like free access please contact me here.
Many consultants, managers and professional coaches have completed the AD-FIT Level 1 Certification Course. And I have been invited to share the AD-FIT model at the Metrics That Matter conference hosted by Explorance, in March, 2019. Contact me for licensing details.
Q2 included my PhD in Organizational Leadership dissertation defense from the Chicago School of Professional Psychology.
My dissertation title was “Positive Psychology Coaching Protocols: Creating Competitive Advantage for Leader Development.“
My abstract / summary was: A gap exists between positive psychology coaching (PPC) theory and practice because PPC lacks rigorous measurement, evidence-based protocols and standard processes. This quasi-experimental study assessed the relationship between PPC protocols and performance or behavioral outcomes of leaders. The participants were global professional coaches (n = 220) who completed two sets of surveys after delivering 90 days of coaching, and completed approximately 60 minutes of digital training. The primary assessments were (a) the Psychological Capital Questionnaire (PCQ-12), (b) the Values in Action (VIA-72) questionnaire, and (c) the Outcome Measures Survey that included the Goal Attainment Satisfaction (GAS) score. The PPC protocols included compliance using assessments, defining meaningful coaching outcomes, compliance over time, and compliance with the AD-FIT coaching protocol. Those participants with higher compliance to the AD-FIT coaching protocol (n = 16) reported slightly higher goal attainment scores than the participants with lower compliance (n = 18). Open text box analysis was conducted to deepen understanding of the relationship between participation and leader outcomes. The top two performance outcomes (n =100 responses) were increased productivity and focus. The top two behavior outcomes (n =115 responses) were improved relationships and effectiveness. The theoretical, methodological and practical significance of this research indicate opportunities to create competitive advantage in leader development.
All of you who are individual or team coaching clients are familiar with this new client intake document. Here is a very generous gift. When I work with leaders I ALWAYS use the AD-FIT process. Since 1997. It works. Outcome-based coaching is a straightforward process. I strongly recommend that YOU adopt the AD-FIT protocols. Click on the bullet below. Then download the content. Then use these 28 validated outcomes for executive coaching or business coaching. Leaders practice leadership, just as physicians practice medicine and attorneys practice law.
Do you think that you a born leader? That is a myth.
The reality is that leadership skills can be taught and developed. By definition, leaders influence the behavior of others by describing a better vision of the future. The primary skill of effective leaders is public optimism. Leaders tell great stories and share optimism.
Those leadership skills can be taught in a workshop or program. The most effective leadership workshops include training and coaching, then more training and coaching, to reinforce desired behaviors over time. Repetition works.
Leaders must adapt to change. At a recent leadership workshop one executive stated, “We need to master this content in the next 3 days because we are each the CEOs of our business. We need to create our future business.” That urgency is common.
Many of the tactics that leaders were taught 10-20 years ago are obsolete today. Management by Objectives (MBOs) and Forced Rankings are now considered manipulative, ineffective, and counterproductive. That kind of “leadership” will limit your career.
We know that rigid managers and leaders prevent innovation and problem solving. We also know that agility can be taught and developed. We can teach agile leaders and managers to promote effective outcomes, efficiency, and employee engagement.
Today, many employees demand fulfillment and purpose. They want to feel inspired and know their place in society and their contribution to the world.
We know that leaders need to practice leadership, just as physicians practice medicine and attorneys practice law. All managers and leaders struggle.
A great leadership workshop should provide:
Leadership exercises and experiential activities that encourage open communication and sharing of ideas
Profound breakthroughs in understanding how to influence others.
Lectures, digital workbooks, videos, powerpoint slides, and activities designed to model engagement
Pre-assessments and Post-assessments to discover your strengths and track the ROI of your investment
Group problem-solving tasks that encourage conflict resolution through a better understanding of human behavior and group dynamics
Customized apps with content to download and distribute your consistent messages throughout your organization
A recent client stated, “This was by far the most useful leadership development program I have experienced in over 20 years of forced participation in some kind of training. The content was easy to understand. All of the sessions were customized for our organization. All of the consultants were experts. We were fully engaged in each session. We did our work. And now I have the skills I need to lead my team in a new and useful methodology.”
All of our leadership workshops use our trademarked positive psychology AD-FIT™ process. We typically include our leadership development coaching to assess your strengths and increase your probability of achieving your outcome-based results.
The best leadership workshops should ask you to take an honest assessment of your professional leadership style and define measurable outcomes. We typically use both quantitative and qualitative assessments. We offer both virtual and direct workshops with several exciting results-oriented topics to choose from. See the list of leadership workshop topics here.
We provide services throughout the U.S and Canada. We recently delivered programs in Chicago, IL, Charlotte, NC, Louisville, KY and Washington, DC. If you are near the Nashville, TN area, an executive coach in Nashville can help you.
How to make your next proposal better than your last one.
Let’s face it, of all the skills you can bring to bear to help your clients, the limiting factor is your ability to get proposals signed. You need to make money. You want to share your genius with the world world. You need to get your proposal written and sold. You need to deliver value at each step of the sales process. Here are three great ways to write coaching proposals that sell. You can be smarter than your competitors.
Less fluff, more value. Your job is to add value and solve your client’s problems. Nothing else matters. Your model, framework, tactic or magical gifts do NOT provide value to your client. Your solution is the value. Stay focused on the results you can deliver.
2. Fewer credentials, more results. Congratulations, your certification/ degree is a huge accomplishment. But nobody understands what it means. Make sure more space is devoted to results than credentials.
3. Make it easy to understand. If your buyer has to exercise their brain to realize how good your proposal is, then you haven’t done the work required to make it great. Keep the structure simple.
The Feedback Process
EXPERT CONTRIBUTOR: Tom Stone
We all talk about feedback a lot. Most leaders think they do it well. But my opinion is that we simply don’t know how to give feedback well. The problem is our inability to give good feedback creates problems down the road.
A lack of feedback gives people unspoken approval for unacceptable behavior. This false approval encourages people to continue patterns of behavior that don’t help them or anyone else.
But it gets worse. Everyone in an organization is constantly evaluating competency. So a lack of feedback not only affects the person who needs to receive, but it also affects everybody else who knows that feedback should be given.
A leader is never out from under the microscope. Giving good feedback is one of the surest ways to encourage effective behavior and to demonstrate leadership competency. It is a skill that can be learned, and we can learn to teach it and demand it as part of our culture.
Feedback leads to learning.
The Leadership Wisdom of Dogs
EXPERT CONTRIBUTOR: Krissi Barr
The attributes, traits and characteristics that separate leaders from the rest of the pack can be clearly seen in the behavior of dogs: loyalty, perseverance, friendship, teamwork, honesty, bravery, ingenuity, playfulness, curiosity and an unflagging desire for more information.I call it the Fido Factor.
Faithful leaders earn the trust of their team and their customers by doing the right things and living up to their word.
Inspirational leaders move people to do the meaningful and the extraordinary.
Determined leaders combine perseverance with a dose of fearlessness to keep moving toward goals.
Observant leaders are committed to taking in as much information as possible in order to make the best decisions.
Our Credo: (if you like these beliefs, then you’ll love us)
1. Chaos in the marketplace for “professional coaching” can be reduced with outcome-based protocols.
2. The strengths of professional coaches (e.g., integrity, fairness, collaboration, leadership, bravery) can be leveraged to co-create the future of professional coaching.
3. Teams are stronger than individuals. Collaborative projects reduce individual risk and yield higher rewards.
4. Expert leadership coaches and authors will contribute best practices and attract more users or followers.
FACT:
There are over 50,000 “professional coaches” in a $7B global industry that lacks professionalism. Literally anyone with a business card can self-declare that they are a “professional coach.”
OPINION:
The result is chaos in the marketplace, unethical practices, and a market ripe for disruption and consolidation.
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