A friend in need is a friend indeed: How OKR becomes a leader’s best friend — part 1 (of 2)

Good leadership is always human. It takes time and energy. It is hard work. Which is why good leadership is so special when we find it. — Simon Sinek

Author’s note (8/20): Hello, we’re moving most of our articles to our website. Our articles — including this one — and brand new materials can be found there. Click here to read the article in its entirety. Thank you!

Being a leader in itself is challenging. You need to set the tone, understand your team’s characteristics, and mobilize them to reach a common goal.

Now, imagine you led four teams; two teams didn’t have their leads yet, and some members were juniors. In addition, you had to deal with unexpected circumstances — like this COVID-19 pandemic — that disrupted the overall business process and how your team worked.

To say that it was hard would be an understatement.

In this conversation, we had the chance to talk with the person who went through that exact situation and still managed to pull it off smoothly. Meet Ellia Bachtiar (“Ellia”), the lead in Risk Management in one of the business functions in Gojek that focuses on financial products and services. A self-described structured person, Ellia has years of experience as a people manager under her belt. We learned many insights regarding how she led her teams.

Our candid conversation uncovered a wide range of topics: from the difference in OKR — compared to KPI — that allowed her to manage her (large) teams, to how the teams themselves weathered this pandemic-induced storm.

Let’s dive in.

A. Structure

One of the burning questions people often asked is: what’s the difference between OKR and KPI? It isn’t about knowing which one is better as much as understanding how they differ in implementation. Our personal view on that matter is to find a way in which they can co-exist: both are being utilized and we play to each of their strengths so they can complement each other.

Please click here to read the full version of this article.

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