Episode 4: Balancing OKRs and SMART Goals in Leadership

Everyone has goals. In fact, everything we do has a motive behind it. A motive is a goal. But some people are aware of their goals, they choose them consciously, they write them down, they tune them. The best leaders turn goals into fuel for their teams. They use them to provide structure, clarity, and unifying power. If that’s what you’d like for your teams, I’d like to help you harness that power by discussing two popular goal‑setting frameworks—SMART goals and OKRs. Both can sharpen your strategy, but they’re far from identical tools. SMART Goals, coined by George T. Doran in 1981, stand for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time‑bound. Example: “Increase customer retention by 10% in Q3.” They’re excellent when priorities are well‑known and clarity is king. OKRs that stands for Objectives and Key Results. It’s a framework that originated at Intel in the 1970s and was famously embraced by Google starting in 1999. John Doer who introduced OKRs at Google, wrote a book I highly recommend called “Measure What Matters” Objective: the inspirational “what.” Key Results: are the measurable milestones that lead to that objective For Example: Your Objective might be: “Delight our customers with exceptional support.” One Key Result leading to that objective might be: “Achieve a Net Promoter Score of 65+ by year‑end.”