How to set and achieve goals
Counter metrics, OKRs, and more.
Welcome to another edition of ProductiveGrowth 🌱, weekly stories about productivity, leadership, motivation, and anything else that helps us and our teams grow and be more productive. Plus, industry news on the companies, products, and services that allow us to work less and do more.
TL;DR
Happy New Year!
I remember the first time I had to set my goals for the quarter. My manager sent me an invite for a 45-minute meeting with a document attached to it and a note that read, “Fill them out and we will review them on Monday.”
The document contained a table with five lines and five columns. Each line represented a priority I was going to work on, and the columns were there to help me link those to a bigger company priority, expected results, key tasks within that priority, and two columns that were to be filled at the end of the quarter with achieved results and the manager’s appreciation.
I was amazed by this methodology. I had never worked at a place where goals were tracked, and especially never in such an organized way. I couldn’t believe the actions of a 21-year-old rookie were actually helping the company achieve bigger goals.
I adapted this way of thinking in many aspects of my life, and I believe this subject is spot on with the season, especially now that we better understand the context of the pandemic we now live in.
So, let’s get festive and talk about goal setting!
Best,
Steve.
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EDITOR’S PICKS
⌛ How to achieve long-term goals
One of the hardest things about being a leader is making sure goals are continuously being worked on. If we don’t consistently check in and track progress, we’ll most certainly get distracted by daily tasks and won’t reach our expected results. “Are the plans for increasing your conversion rate, removing unprofitable products, and reducing overhead in effect and working?” asks Rick Itzkowich in this Forbes expert panel. In this article, Forbes Coaches Council gives advice and shares 14 ways to achieve long-term goals.
🌟Managing north star and counter metrics.
Setting goals is always a difficult task to take on. How can you make sure you are focusing on the right things? Counter metrics focus on not over-optimizing on one thing while sacrificing other. One ideal combination might be mixing north star metrics with counter metrics. North star metrics measure the most critical outcome of success while counter metrics make sure that success doesn't jeopardize another equally important outcome, says Clement Kao. He explains, “You use counter metrics to provide alternative hypotheses for why your north star metric increased.” This article describes how to choose the right counter metrics, and how to link them to a north star metric.
📏 How to measure what really matters
Many companies and individuals are able to set, track, and meet goals, but how do they know if those goals are the right ones? According to John Doerr, author of Measure What Matters, the only way to know is by using OKRs. That is, objectives and key results. The objective is what we want to achieve and the key results are how we get there. For this system to work, these goals need to be sustained by a compelling sense of purpose. “I think of OKRs as transparent vessels that are made from the whats and hows of our ambitions. What really matters is the ‘why’ we put into those vessels. That is why we do our work”, says Doerr.
👨🏻🔬 Goal setting can also be scientific
This article by Atomic Habits author James Clear brings up a different perspective regarding goal setting. We tend to think of goals as what we want to achieve. But what if we ask what we are willing to lose when setting goals? When we set goals, instead of only defining what we want, we should also define the sacrifices we are willing to make.
Clear says we need to set goals with systems in place to actually achieve what we plan to do. He also mentions something psychologists call goal competition, which is when “... your goals are competing with one another for your time and attention,” Clear explains. Other useful concepts like goal stacking and setting upper bounds are explained in this article.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Flooded by emails? Serial entrepreneur Mohit Mamoria talks email management. -On persistence, motivation, leadership and staying productive.
Usually, when something is not working for you, it’s most likely to be bothering someone else too. Mohit Mamoria told Steve how he took the opportunity to create Mailman and change his life and the life of many others. Click here to read his story.
How my boss changed my life by promoting EQ in the workplace - And steps you can take to encourage it.
It’s rare to find managers that genuinely care about your mental health. Andrea shares a beautiful story on how her boss helped her recover from a dark moment of her life just by caring and paying enough attention. Read it here.
5 ways to regain productivity in a hyperconnected world-Set your personal goals and conquer them.
Living in a world ruled by phones and the Internet, we live through them, and we travel from one app to another. Communicating via notifications and reminders. It’s overwhelming and exhausting. Camila shares 5 tips to reconnect with your productive self while being a globalized and hyperconnected individual. Check it out here.
1 Quote
“The trouble with not having a goal is that you can spend your life running up and down the field and never score.” —Bill Copeland
1 Question
What is the most important thing you consider when setting goals?
(Add to the conversation on Twitter)
DISCOVER
Goal-tracking is a concept that has been around for several years now, but the way to track personal goals i. in fact, a personal task. Josh Win shares his experience shifting from project trackers Roam to Obsidian to track his progress. This is a detailed note on how he uses each app and how you can do it too. Read the full note here.
IN THE KNOW
Industry news on the companies, products, and services that allow us to work less and do more.
Sales, IPOs, Bankruptcies, Funding and Industry Gossip
Hopin, the virtual events platform, is growing faster than any other company and just announced their news acquisition: StreamYard -another live-streaming startup.- The deal was closed at $250M, and Hopin is now valued at $2.125 billion.
Mindzie, Inc., the business process optimization software, raised $2.3 million during the seed round. The money will be used to continue the company’s growth and to improve their work with AI, amongst many others.
Releases
The Windows10 taskbar is getting bigger and better, adding news and a weather widget.
Job Opportunities
Culture Amp - Melbourne, Australia - Senior People Scientist
Ally.io - Seattle, US - Executive Assistant
Koan - Portland, US - Software Developer
Events
Jan 13th (Virtual) - ATX January Event with Jason Reynolds by Miro
Jan 21st (Virtual) - Live Chat with Google Product Manager by Product School
Jan 27th (Virtual) - Mind Mapping for Your Business by Business Centre Guelph-Wellington
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Edited by: Lauren Maslen.
