S9: E21

Set Intentional Objectives: How to Drive Your Career, Not Ride Shotgun

If you’re winging it with vague goals (or whatever your manager “cascaded” down), you’re driving your career with a blindfold on. Felicia breaks down what objectives really are, why they’re the engine of promotions and pay, and how to use them to drive your internal reputation, not just fill a form for HR. You’ll learn the differences between KPIs, OKRs, and MBOs, plus how to turn objectives into your personal brand soundbite all year long.

Key Takeaways in this Episode:

1. Understand the Power of Objectives: Learn why objectives aren’t just corporate busywork, and how they’re your GPS for navigating your career and controlling your professional narrative.
2. Differentiate Between KPIs and OKRs: Get clear on the two main types of workplace objectives and how to use each one to measure progress, demonstrate impact, and make your results undeniable.
3. Own Your Career Story: Stop letting cascading goals define you. Use your objectives to highlight your unique strengths, achievements, and the value you bring to the organization.
4. Use Objectives as a Career Strategy Tool: Treat your objectives as more than yearly tasks. Use them to drive conversations about growth, promotion, and alignment with your long-term goals.
5. Quantify Your Wins: Replace vague deliverables with measurable outcomes that show how you make or save the company money, removing subjectivity from your performance review.
6. Stay Consistent and Visible: Revisit your objectives throughout the year, track progress, and talk about them often so decision-makers associate you with results, not just effort.

Time Stamps:

• 00:00 – “You’re in the driver’s seat” intro: objectives as your career GPS
• 00:01:12 – Why everyone moans about objectives, and why that’s holding you back
• 00:02:53 – Objectives as cheat codes: stop button-mashing your career
• 00:05:52 – Tools break: FMLA & Quiet Firing guides (Stand Store)
• 00:07:03 – Definitions: what objectives are (specific, measurable, time-bound)
• 00:09:30 – KPIs: the concrete scorecard (make/save $$, track progress)
• 00:13:11 – OKRs: objective + key results for longer plays like awareness growth
• 00:14:53 – MBOs: cascade goals (how to avoid getting buried by your boss’s goals)
• 00:17:47 – Using objectives to craft your personal brand (your soundbite)
• 00:19:19 – Example soundbite: tie goals to top-line revenue and repeat everywhere
• 00:21:12 – Biggest takeaway: objectives = story, strategy, receipts
• 00:22:58 – What’s next: Part 2 on how to actually write winning objectives

Resources & Next Steps:

• FMLA Leave & Retaliation Tracker – Protect your job before and after leave. Document retaliation, track every move, and get paid if they play dirty.
• Career Coaching with Felicia – Book a personalized strategy session.
• Listener Letters – Send your questions to ask@trillmba.com (subject: “Listener Letter”).
• Subscribe & Leave a Review – Subscribe on YouTube and drop a comment to help us grow.
• Follow @TrillMBAshow – Stay updated on Instagram and LinkedIn.

Until next time, keep it trill!

Editing and Sound Design by Chris Mann of Podshaper