How To Create A KRA (Key Result Areas)

Updated for 2020

On this episode of The Chris LoCurto Show, we’re discussing how to create a KRA (Key Results Areas). The KRA is all about increasing productivity on your team, because everyone knows what winning looks like in their role when you have a proper KRA in place.

The major goal of a KRA is to improve communication…

If you’re not using KRAs, you and your team members are most likely being reactive instead of proactive

What’s a KRA?:

If you’re looking for a definition or the KRA meaning, you’re in the right place. A KRA is a list of the most important tasks you do every day to win. It’s a job description on steroids.

• A good KRA includes the ongoing responsibilities of the position and the purpose and benefits of performing those responsibilities.
• Tasks and activities that focus on one or more specific areas are grouped together.
• Whatever is expected must be in writing, reviewed, agreed upon, and signed by both the employee and the leader so there’s no confusion when something isn’t getting done.

How To Develop a KRA:

The KRA should outline three to six major areas, with four to five bullets under each area drilling down on specific tasks.

• Set aside an hour to evaluate how you are currently spending your time and write down a list of things you do (or should be doing).
• Ask yourself, “What makes my position essential to the success of the company?” What are you working on every day to reach your mission and goals?
• Make sure each key results areas are specific, measurable, actionable, and essential. If you don’t do it, no one else will. If you do it, you’ll win and the company will succeed.
• Ask yourself, “Are there tasks or areas that can be delegated?” Delegation increases your productivity.
• Review your key result areas frequently, and make sure your goals align with your daily tasks.

Click Here For More on KRA

KRA Meaning (Key Result Areas)

KRA Meaning: The What, The Why, and The How of KRA

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Welcome to the show, folks. We hope you’re having a fantastic day, we are. We’re having a blast over here in Franklin, TN, where the weather is a little rainy, unfortunately. But we got a great day going on. We just sold out, and I know we actually didn’t bring this much to a public launch but we’ve got a live event that’s coming up. It actually sold out very quickly. We didn’t even get it to a public launch. Hopefully, we will be throwing some more in there. If that is something you are interested in, this one is going to be about business and leadership. That something you’re interested in, we’re probably going to do more of those in the future as well as some events on life. That’s what we’re hoping to do but we want to hear from you – what do you want to hear from us? We are looking forward to that. 

Today on the show, we are kind of clarifying some more information. We give out so much free information and many times, people have a lot of questions. We’ll explain this a little further. We’re going to explain a little more about KRA. That is something that people cannot get enough of. We have known that forever. We constantly give out what we think is really good stuff. Keith is joining me. Welcome to the studio, Keith.

>> Yeah, hey, everybody.

>> Or in this side of the studio, I should say that. I’m actually on the other side of the office, in Franklin, TN. Keith is going to ask me questions about that and, hopefully, answering any questions that you have when in comes to KRA. Keith, take it away.

>> A lot of times, you know, Chris, you and Joel are back there doing the Life Plan, Strat Plan, and I’m floating in and out. But maybe I’m a bit more forward facing, so I see and I get to hear all the questions. A got a softball pitch for you but I’m still shocked, that although KRA, there’s a lot of intimidations with doing that. We’ve got a huge range of people that listen to us. They don’t know how to get started with KRAs. They don’t even really understand what it is. If they don’t have KRAs in their business and they are not the entrepreneur or they aren’t the owner, how do you implement it? How do you go about telling the entrepreneur and the leader, hey I think we need to do this. That’s where we are going with this but restate, again, what is a KRA.

Definition of KRAS, KPIs, Goals

>> For me, KRA it shows you how to win on a daily basis. It’s the things that you do on a daily basis that cause you to win whatever area you’re in. It’s not the in depth, to the nth degree like if you are somebody who mails out stuff.

>> A mailer?

>> Yes, sure. If you’re in a shipping department and part of what you do is mail, whatever, CDs. It’s not the

>> You’re killing me. Mailing CDs? What’s a CD?

>> What is a CD? That is ridiculous! But let’s say, you were back a hundred years ago. It’s not in depth of saying, walk over, get the envelope, put a CD in it or book or whatever, clothes. It’s not like that. KRA is saying, these are the things I need to do every single day to win at my job. These are the things I need to do every single day so that the company is making way more money that it’s paying me, so I know that I am winning. I know that at the end of the day I’ve done what I’m supposed to do. There’s no confusion. Everything is spot on, rock on. For somebody who would be answering a phone, if you have a receptionist in a building. Some of the areas of KRAs might be to make sure that they answer the phone at certain amount of time, certain amount of rings. If you had somebody who is working in the shipping department, some of the things in the KRA might be to make sure that all order are in today or at least to this point, make sure that all orders are mailed out by this time, or check to make sure nothing is new has come in or anything that says, if you’ve done these things all the stuff is going out the door. 

I like to ask the question to people and by the way, for those of you that want how to put this together, we’ve got some great stuff in our site. Templates and samples. If you’re listening through iTunes, just click my head. Click my head and they’ll be the information, the show note, you can just go straight through it. So that makes it very easy. But for me, I like to get back into it and say, if I did these things am I successful on it. As I make long list of whatever it is, I’m not looking for a five-page, I don’t mind being a page, page and a half. But it’s the details that say, I do these things, I win. So I want to go through them and say, do I understand what that looks like complete. Do I understand what that looks like complete, okay? If I’ve done these things, am I winning at this position? Is there anything that’s missing. That is how I look at a KRA.

More on KRAs and KPIs

>> Whose job is it to do that? Whose responsibility, not job.

>> Coming in, it should be the leader. When you’re hiring a position or you have positions, it’s the leader’s job to get the KRAs in place. Obviously, any entrepreneurs or business owners, it’s their job to make sure to make it happen. A lot of times it’s not going to happen because they’re not thinking about it. But it should be the leader’s role to make sure that every single in the team has a KRA. One, it helps you to say, yes, this is what’s I’m expecting of you. That also says to the person, like for me, everybody that comes on board here you make you drop the KRA after we’ve discussed it. We go through it and I’ll have you write up to say, do you actually understand what we discussed. Are you on the same page? Are we on the same page? Are you going to come in and tell me that, no, you’re the CEO of the company. No, this isn’t what we said or wait a second, you’re missing a piece over here. So we’re both on the same page, I can look at the KRA that you’ve done and compared it to the one that I’ve done, and say, do you understand your role? Because if you don’t, what’s going to happen? Confusions going to happen, going forward. I’m going to be expecting you to do things we didn’t discuss or we discussed them but you didn’t pick up on them. And I didn’t make sure that it was abundantly clear.

For me it’s the leader’s role to make sure that happens. You’d said on the last one question, what if they don’t put that in there. Well then, for me, as a team member, I want to know. A champion wants to know if they’re winning, period. Now obviously, if you looked at numbers, if you’re in sales, numbers always scream that you’re winning. But in any role, a champion wants to know if they’re winning at their job. Somebody who’s there for a paycheck, the doesn’t. They don’t care. I’m here to do my thing. As long as nobody yells at me, I’m happy. Gosh, don’t be that person. Be the person who wants to know what winning looks like. So if your leadership doesn’t create KRA, do your own. Put together your own KRA. Go to your leadership and say, hey, I just wanted to say this is my understanding of what causes me to win while I’m out there. My understanding is if I do these things, you’re very happy. You’re paying me to do whatever it is that I’m doing. Do you agree with these items? Do these things lined it out?

One thing that we do during Strat Plan, as we’re going through just ripping this business apart to discover these great opportunities and these great strategies, all these things and it’s very intense. It’s very emotional. And we get to this place where we all show them our core assumptions. I do it myself, I write it all up. I say, can we assume that if we do this in our strategy, we do this operation, we do this financially, that we’re going to make a lot of money? I turn it around, I usually have it hidden and I turn it around and I show them, my assumptions of our business that’s there. If we do these things, do we explode? Every single time, we have the whole leadership jut looking at it and it gets deathly quiet. I move away and all of the sudden, they go, yes, yes. Yes, that’s it right there. That is it. Those are the things we got. If we will do those things, we are going to explode. Now it’s been a day and a half that we’ve been working on this and I still have another day and a half to go. But it’s that ability to look at, ah, that is it! That’s it in writing. If we do that, we win. And it’s the same kind of thing with the KRA. If you can look at that KRA and show that to your leader and go, is this right? And they go, yeah. If you do those things, you’re winning. Fantastic! (10:20) 

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Interested in more? Here are some related articles:

KRA: The What, The Why, and The How of KRA (Podcast)

Why You and Your Team Need KRA’s