Each quarter I take a deeper dive into my goals. In this post, I will reflect on my Q1 (January-Feb) 2021 results.
Steal my process for goal reflection and use it to boost your leadership.
This post (OKRs are a leader’s secret productivity weapon) will get you started.
If you’d like some one-on-one coaching establishing your OKRs, create a plan to achieve them, and accountability to track results, send me an email ([email protected])
Q1 2021 OKR Results & Takeaways
Scoring
“The simplest, cleanest way to score an objective is by averaging the percentage of completion rates of its associated results.”
John Doerr in Measure What Matters
Google uses the following scale, so I stole like an artist and used it too:
- ? 0.7 – 1.0 = green (I delivered).
- ? 0.4 – 0.6 = yellow (I made progress, but fell short of completion).
- ? 0.0 – 0.3 = red (I failed to make real progress).
| ? OBJECTIVE 1: HELP MORE SCHOOL LEADERS LEVEL UP [34%] (0.2+0.9+0.6+0.0+0.0 = 1.7/5) |
| KEY RESULTS (Q3 2020) ? Invite 10-20 leaders to a powerful coaching call [0.2] ? Bucket list with mastermind, edupreneur, and one-on-one clients [0.9] ? Teach coaching strategy to mastermind coach team [0.6] ? Run monthly workshops on a theme [0.0] ? Run mastermind tasters [0.0] |
| ? OBJECTIVE 2: CREATE VALUABLE CONTENT [77%] |
| KEY RESULTS (Q3 2020) ? Complete book draft #2 [1.0] ? Launch Season 1 Better Leaders Better Schools archive [1.0] ? Create four videos a month [0.3] |
| ? OBJECTIVE 3: INCREASE BRAND AWARENESS [76%] |
| KEY RESULTS (Q3 2020) ? 50K downloads a month for BLBS by December 31 [0.6] ? 20K downloads a month for SLS by December 31 [0.6] ? 2500K organic visitors a month [1.0] ? Increase domain score to 36 [0.9] ? Increase email list to 3500 [0.7] |
| ? OBJECTIVE 4: LEVEL UP PROFESSIONALLY [56%] |
| ? Watch all Litvin videos [1.0] ? Finish The Goal and Crossing the Chasm [0.7] ? Watch 1-2 WBECS videos [0.0] ? Read and apply 8 profit activators [0.8] ? Create a “pathway” for mastermind members [0.3] |
| ? OBJECTIVE 5: LEVEL UP PERSONALLY [56%] |
| ? Kettlebell, pull-ups, cardio 3x/week [0.3] ? Yoga 3x/week [0.0] ? Alba learns basic commands and potties outside [0.8] ? Weekly postcards [0.5] ? Finish The Way of Zen [0.5] |
Self-Assessment
In the self-assessment, I give the objective ratings a soul through a qualitative reflection.
| OKR | Progress | Score | Self-assessment |
| Help more leaders level up | 34% | 0.7 | After a great coaching call with the LEGEND Tommy Breedlove, I realized that my focus needs to be narrower. Tommy helped me see that I should put most of my energy (not used on the book) toward building my coaching team. He was right. By focusing on a smaller set of individuals we can serve more school leaders. This is the path toward multiplying myself and living our my just cause “to connect, grow, and mentor every school leader who wants to level up.” The bucket list activity went really well. We didn’t have 100% participation, but for the leaders who did participate, it has opened up opportunities to connect on meaningful goals in their life. |
| Create valuable content | 77% | 1.0 | My second book is done and the hard work paid off. From my editor, “First of all, wow. You took my feedback and ran with it, and what you did WORKED. You’ve written a solid book that is research-based, informative, authoritative, personable, and empowering – with a good bit of humor worked in.” I can’t wait to get this out to the RUCKUS MAKER community. I also created an archive podcast process for my team, so now that runs on automatic in the background and does not need any input from me. We launched this because Apple only keeps your first 300 episodes in the podcast feed. Now all 250 episodes of Season 1, will have a permanent place to live in the podcast universe. I fell short of creating four videos a month. It was more work than I imagined, but we did launch the official BLBS channel and the videos are looking great. I have plenty of content mapped out, so need to create the time and space needed to make more videos consistently. |
| Increase brand awareness | 76% | 0.8 | The podcasts are doing well. I might try ads to introduce school leaders to these shows. I can also experiment emailing principals directly letting them know that show exists and utilize my team to execute this idea. I also have a plan for growing the email list by creating more free valuable resources available for download. Website traffic and authority are all moving in the right direction. |
| Level up professionally | 56% | 0.8 | I find that I’m overly ambitious with goals, even when there are 5 or less per quarter goal. In Q2 I have planned 22 instead of 23. So that is moving in the right direction too and we’ll see if that does anything. The honest truth is to figure out who I can hire to own some of these goals. I will put a name on each new goal that I have established, but haven’t achieved. I think I should also make an impact filter for each of my goals that someone else will own as well. I do need to think more deeply about the mastermind pathway or eliminate it as a goal. |
| Level up personally | 56% | 0.5 | This one is pretty accurate. I was lazy again regarding fitness. I ordered a Peloton which arrived in mid-March. As of writing this (Thursday | April 08, 2021), I have been on the bike 20 days in a row. I am committed to an April challenge to ride every day. Competition and badges motivate me. I relish beating men in their 20s. My postcard project is quite a heavy lift. I have around 30 cards I’ve designed and have been painting. This takes a lot of effort and it’s been a month working on these cards. Weekly is too ambitious a goal or I should only try to do 5 or so a week. The most important thing is to send everyone in my community a card at least once a year. Twice would be better. I’m still reading The Way of Zen. I didn’t anticipate how hard it would be to read with a puppy! Speaking of Alba, she knows her basic commands and rarely has accidents at this point. |
Did I accomplish all of my objectives? If so, what contributed to my success?
I delivered on 2-of-5 goals this quarter. The valuable content goal was achieved because I kept the KRs focused on just three and most of my energy was devoted to my book. I love to write so my hard work focused on SEO continues to bear fruit for my website.
If not, what obstacles did I encounter?
Objective 1 wasn’t achieved because I had too much on my plate. I coached for the altMBA this quarter so for five weeks I had to prioritize my goals, and that was my book.
Objective 4 wasn’t achieved because I didn’t even try to watch WBECS videos. I was learning from other places — including spaces that elevated my coaching skills. So in reality, this was not a big deal at all.
Objective 5 was not achieved because I was lazy regarding fitness.
If I were to rewrite a goal achieved in full, what would I change?
I didn’t achieve any goals at a 1.0 or 100% score. You can definitely say I was sufficiently stretched this quarter.
What have I learned that might alter my approach to the next cycle’s OKRs?
This next quarter I have one less goal. What I learned this time around is getting more focused on what the lead domino is. I think my goals are realistic this time around. I should have adjusted Q1 goals when I knew I was coaching the altMBA.
