OKRs, Project Management, Communications

I’m a leadership nerd.

Book about leadership? I’m reading it.

Podcast about leadership? I’m listening to it.

Documentary about a famous leader? I’m watching it.

I’m not sure where my love of leadership originated (probably my amazing parents) but it’s certainly clear that it was catalyzed by my time as a Non-Commissioned Officer in 1st Battalion, 7th Marines.

Many of the leadership lessons we talk about on this blog have their seeds in my time as an Infantry Marine. More than anything though, the Marine Corps taught me that Leadership is a learnable skill.

Anyone can become a leader if they so desire to.

LeadershipOS

I want to write a book about leadership.

This newsletter is where I experiment with the concepts I hope to put in that book (thanks for coming along for the ride!)

The book is a concept I’ve been thinking about since my time as a Sergeant in the Marines called, “LeadershipOS” (okay the title might need a little bit of work).

My dream is that the Leadership Operating System (OS) serves as a comprehensive guide for any aspiring or current leader who wants to lead better. In it, I’d review the Objective, Strategy, and Tactics of great leaders I’ve studied and been led by.

While the book is a long way from being complete, in the tactics section I will write about 3 leadership tactics I learned while being a Chief of Staff at Google. Being a Chief of Staff is an interesting role because, while you don’t lead a team yourself, you get to see a number of, hopefully, great leaders up close.

For a leadership nerd like me, that’s paradise.

3 leadership tactics for flawless execution I learned as a Chief of Staff

I was lucky enough to spend 6 months being a Chief of Staff for the VP of Revenue Strategy and Operations of Google’s SMB Ads Business. I’ve talked about Google's SMB Ads business before, but it’s a big one.

Working at a high level on a $50B+ business, demands a level of rigor in execution that is exciting to be part of but any leader can apply these 3 tactical principles to their team regardless of its size.

3 leadership tactics for flawless execution:

1. OKRs —> How do you set your priorities?

2. Project Management —> How do you accomplish your priorities?

3. Communications —> How do you talk about your team’s accomplishments?

OKRs, How do you set your priorities?

Love them or hate them OKRs, if done well and taken seriously, are one of the most powerful ways to ensure alignment across your team such that you can make consistent progress.

Simply put OKRs (Objectives Key Results) unify your team to answer 2 questions vital to the success of any team:

1. Where do we need to go?

2. How do we know we’re getting there?

Whether you call them OKRs or not (you should) you need them. Without them your team won’t be aligned, you won’t prioritize effectively, and you’ll look back at the end of the year and ask yourself, “What did we get done this year?”

It’s August now, if you’re a leader and feel like you are going to finish the year and not be able to answer that simple question well defined OKRs will solve your problem.

The 3rd question that makes up the OKR framework is, “What will we do to get there?” These projects become your, “bets” that rally your team behind the work that needs to be done to achieve your OKR and lead to our next leadership tactic, Project Management.

Project Management, How do you accomplish your priorities?

Once you have a clear understanding of where you need to go, how you are going to measure if you’re there, and what needs to be done to get there it’s time to do the fun part, the work.

I’m not a Project Management Professional and won’t pretend to be one on the internet, but as a leader make sure every project your team is working on has the following 4 elements. If it does, you’ll make progress. If not, you’ll be stuck asking the same question as above but on a smaller scale, “What did we accomplish this month?”

4 simple steps to effective project management:

1. Clear project brief

2. Weekly standup

3. Process for action items to be recorded and assigned

4. A simple readout to report on progress each week

Clear project brief

A clear project brief states the intent of the project (tied to your OKR), the endstate of the project (what will it look like when it’s finished), the single metric you’re looking to impact (your key result), and how you plan to measure whether or not you hit that metric.

Weekly standup

I hate meetings.

But this is an important one. You’ll know it’s successful if you use it to make decisions.

In this meeting be clear on who takes notes, who assigns action items, and who has the ability to make decisions. If the meeting doesn’t have someone who can make decisions because they don’t have the right institutional authority to do so, then it is likely a waste of time.

As a leader, push decision making authority down to this group or join it yourself.

The purpose of these meetings is velocity, not bureaucracy.

Process for action items to be recorded and assigned

In the spirit of velocity it’s important work is actually being done. I am a great lover of Kanban boards for assigning and tracking progress.

Love them or hate them, if there isn’t a centralized place to clearly track the action items coming out of your standup as well as the owners of those items, work won’t get done.

Effective project management is effectively about clarity of actions / ownership in the service of progress. Make sure you have a process that allows you to clearly assign work and view the progress of that work.

A simple readout to report on progress each week

What did the team do this week, what work is being done next week, where are you stuck.

That’s it, send it up the chain to ensure you create a culture of transparency across the organization while calling out risks as they arise.

Often the value in this readout isn’t just executive visibility, but the accountability that you know you have to write it on Friday so you better get your work done Monday - Thursday.

Communications, How do you talk about your team’s accomplishments?

Much of the value in using OKRs in the first place is that it provides institutional alignment. Pick your metaphor about rowing boats or shooting arrows, but the point is you need to be moving in one direction across your team not playing tug of war.

Setting OKRs helps facilitate momentum toward growth, but the way you communicate with your organization and your team ensures that momentum turns into measurable progress.

We’ve talked about communications often on this newsletter. Within the framework of tactics I learned as a Chief of Staff many of the lessons remain the same.

In your communication you should be clear, concise, consistent, and have a little fun.

The whole point behind OKRs is to be clear on where you need to go and how your team is going to get there. In your communications back to your team tell that story. Where are you today, where do you need to go, how are you getting there.

Bring your team with you on that journey. When something is going well recognize that performance, if there’s a stumbling block or risk highlight it to your team so they can offer opinions on how to solve it.

The goal is growth, make sure you’re growing together.

Conclusion

While tactics might not be as exciting as high minded discussions about mindset or strategy (both important) they’re nonetheless incredibly important as you work to lead high performing teams.

In the pursuit of that high performance ensure, tactically, that you have:

1. Clear OKRs to set your priorities

2. A Project Management process to make progress toward those priorities

3. A Communications Strategy to talk about your team’s accomplishments

See ya’ll next week.