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In our blog post titled Advantages of Using OKR methodology, we have touched upon the benefits of OKR to companies. Although it is easy to understand the basis of OKR methodology, having a grasp of the philosophy behind it allows it to become a more meaningful and effective method. Accordingly, transitioning to next-gen performance management with OKR means a critical cultural transformation for companies that will adopt the OKR system for the first time.

Having a supervisor that can suggest the optimum performance management solutions for OKR practices and approaches that your company will encounter first-time, train your employees at all levels, and help you adopt this method readily provides you a rapid progression on your journey to success. These kinds of partners are called OKR coaches, and the scope of all the services provided by them is OKR coaching.

What Characteristics Should Your OKR Coach Have?

Understanding your need for an OKR coach, don't you know how to choose this person? Here are the key traits of a great OKR coach:

Firstly, an OKR coach should learn the current culture and dynamics of the company they will provide coaching services.

Each company requires various steps while integrating the OKR methodology. Thus, only an OKR coach who can analyze the needs of the company and employees can make an accurate integration. Therefore, an OKR coach should have comprehensive knowledge about the available company culture. An OKR coach can ask questions to identify the obstacles to success your organization faces, evaluate the available data, if any, on employee loyalty and motivation, and try to find out the engagement level between the manager and employees or among employees. Here, there are various ways and questions OKR coaches can follow and ask in mutual interaction. We can say that an OKR coach is the person who discovers the things that should change and implements them together with the members of the organization.

An OKR coach should also be a patient, meticulous, and communication-oriented educator, both theoretically and practically.

An OKR coach plays a crucial part in writing OKRs for all employees that best suit their abilities and job descriptions and contribute to one another and the company's primary goals. Before moving on to writing OKRs, however, OKR coaches should ensure that they comprehend the Objectives and Key Results methodology accurately. The better an OKR coach demonstrates what benefits employees and directors will gain with such a methodology, the better team members will understand what to do and why. OKR coaches experience that the OKR system is a methodology that enhances the value of employees, thus seeing themselves as a part of the big picture. Therefore, OKR training based on the needs of companies is the first step towards expanding transparency, identifying and aligning with the accurate objectives, and, conclusively, boosting efficiency. Here, the OKR coach can leverage model OKRs and exemplary success stories based on the industry. The coach can also discuss the basic don'ts while setting objectives or moving towards them.

Moreover, a coach can also train a company member to be an OKR representative. With OKR representatives brought to an adequate level of knowledge and skills on the methodology, in-house OKR specialists are created, while the OKR coach proceeds to support externally. Thus, companies have a more supported performance management system, more agile organization, and riveted overall success.

The coach should also know the company goals well and whether they are aligned well enough.

You should work with an OKR coach who understands the company's available strategies and recognize the satisfaction level of managers and employees with these strategies. However, an OKR coach who has analyzed your current position based on the alignment of your objectives with your organization's vision and available success criteria can provide you with high-level advantages. For the enhancements of the alignments, it is highly required for an OKR coach to meet with the managers first, find out what they think about the existing goals, and discuss the alignment of individual and team goals with the company's primary goals.

OKR coaches should not set the objectives themselves but be mentors in identifying the best of them.

An OKR coach is not the person setting the objectives. While employees set their objectives, the coach observes whether they comprehend the methodology accurately and their success in implementation, guiding them with the OKR know-how.

A coach should also remember that the OKR methodology is more than just a performance assessment.

Even though company employees may currently be at a successful level in terms of performance assessments, OKR coaches still have a lot to deliver in such a situation. Motivating employees and guiding them to perform better by getting them out of their comfort zones, the OKR coaching service should involve coaches who always think about future contributions while exploring and pointing out new avenues of growth for the company.

A coach should also practice in a people-oriented way.

Inherently, OKR is a people-oriented approach. Coming together with the employees after meeting with the managers first, an OKR coach should deliver crucial employee-based assistance. Thus, a coach should clarify issues such as how employees feel about transitioning to the OKR system, how they find adopting a new methodology difficult, and which basic elements distract them while determining their OKRs. The OKR methodology is not a self-operating system after the OKRs are determined. Thus, achieving success is impossible without the successful adaptation of the employees. Likewise, the same applies to managers. OKR coaches also track the managers' use of the methodology and take action to identify and resolve the issues, if any, preventing active OKR usage.

An OKR coach should provide accurate supervision of feedback processes.

The concepts of feedback and feedforward have a highly critical role in next-gen performance systems. Accordingly, ensuring the adoption of the feedback culture by the company is an essential responsibility of the coach for the implementation of people-oriented performance management. OKR coaching helps implement accurate check-in processes where new objectives are determined, considering where you are on the journey to success cyclically, to what extent you have achieved the objectives set at the beginning of the period, and what kinds of revisions are needed. Providing suggestions to companies by analyzing how was the process following a particular OKR project is finalized, OKR coaches deliver various benefits to your organization.

Twiser is here for you on your journey to success!

Twiser's 360-degree OKR coaching solutions will provide you with rapid business growth. Determining your company's new vision with you and building your OKR system tailored to your company, our OKR coaching service will remodel your performance management system via a fresh approach, practice, and dialogue.