Priorities and Objectives can both be used to set goals in 15Five. Priorities are short-term goals or tasks that follow the cadence of 15Five reporting. The Objectives feature in 15Five uses the OKR (Objectives and Key Results) Methodology which is a framework for defining and tracking business objectives and their outcomes. Objectives are long term goals. In 15Five you can have company-wide, department, individual, and self-development objectives. For more information on the Objectives and Key Results methodology please see Methodology Explained: OKRs from our Success Center and OKR Methodology from our Science pages.
Create team objectives
Collaborative Objectives in 15Five enable teams to align and work together to drive company initiatives forward. Your team might often work together on a single objective. Objectives whose key results are owned by multiple people are called Collaborative Objectives. You can create department objectives for your team for which multiple team members contribute. Collaborative objectives have a single owner as the individual who is accountable for that objective, but the KR's within it can be assigned to multiple individuals. Align department objectives with company-wide objectives to see how department goals drive company goals forward.
You can also align your direct reports' individual objectives with department objectives, so they can see how their work drives team goals forward. Keep your teams' objectives flexible, so they can be easily adjusted and revised as your team members' work evolves and priorities change. In 15Five, you can easily edit Objectives and Key Results. OKRs are most effective when they are flexible and can adjust during the quarter to match business needs.
Setting development objectives
You can create self-development objectives in 15Five, as well! Encourage all of your team members to set quarterly self-development goals. As you and your team members identify their skill gaps, create learning goals to keep their growth and development front and center. Self-development objectives allow your team member to prioritize these skill gaps that prohibit them from doing your best work. We recommend setting short-term and general “do your best” goals for self-development objectives. Specific and challenging goals have a negative effect on performance. More general learning goals increase the growth mindset, a belief that abilities are not fixed because then your team member won't worry about failure and instead see goal setting as a chance to learn.
Best Practices for setting priorities with your team members
Gallup research also shows employee productivity increases by 56% on average when managers are involved in helping employees align their goals with the needs of the organization or overall company purpose. When employees work with their managers to both create Objectives and then align them with the organization’s mission and top priorities, productivity, and engagement soar. As a manager, you should meet with your team members a few weeks before the upcoming quarter to help them set their quarterly goals in 15Five. Always keep in mind that their goals should be personally meaningful to them.
Checking in on priorities
Your team member's objectives are at the top of their weekly check-in so that you'll always know what they're working on and to provide context during your 1-on-1s. As a manager, when you keep track of your team's goals and key performance projects and milestones, your feedback will improve and be more effective. Read your team members' Priorities as you review their 15Five and provide feedback thereby leaving them comments on their priorities. During 1-on-1s you should obtain deeper insight into your team members’ work and the factors that influence or hinder progress. To increase performance and motivation, focus on goal progress over results.
Reporting on priorities
Run a custom report on Priorities to get clear on tasks that your team members are working on. Priorities are employee-driven to-do lists, and you can run a report on them to see what tasks are getting completed, perhaps giving you an indicator to step in or a reason to celebrate. For longer-term goal tracking, report on Objectives to see the progress your team is making on their bigger goals.
It's also useful to check the Objectives dashboard on a regular basis to see what your company is working on and to follow updates and changes that impact your individual work.