It’s goal-setting time again. What are your OKRs? One of the best managers of our time, Andy Grove, felt that OKRs—Objectives and Key Results—were essential because they focused on execution. He felt that the actions we took determined our success.

John Doerr’s TED Talk Why the secret to success is setting the right goals outlines Grove’s OKRs and adds an important element: determining our why motivation. Determining our “why” gives us purpose.

With a foundational why, we’re better able to execute the “what” and the “how.”

Practice Tip: Find Your Why, What, and How

• Purpose (why): Set the right goals for the right reasons, ones that inspire you and give you a sense of purpose.
• Objectives (what): Objectives give you direction. Be as clear as you can when defining them.
• Key results (how): Knowing the results helps you define the processes—the hows—that you’ll do Key results need to be measurable and time-bound. A simple yes/no answer at the end of the time-bound period is all it takes to determine if you succeeded.

I suggest checking out Simon Sinek’s book: Find Your Why. It gives you practical ways to determine your why, but then also goes into the what and the how that flow from the why.