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You Are a Strategist: Use No-BS OKRs to Get Big Things Done
Your vision of change matters.
And to make it happen, you need a strategy.
But conventional approaches to strategy prioritize certain voices over others, overcomplicate simple concepts, and get lost in translation across teams.
What if you could translate your vision into measurable impact -- regardless of your title, role, or thinking style?
This book shows you how.
For too long, strategy has been treated as the domain of executives and consultants armed with complicated frameworks and beautiful slide decks that leave people with more questions than answers. But what if it doesn't have to be that way?
"You Are A Strategist" is the practical playbook for anyone who wants to translate their vision into undeniable impact -- including people who feel like a square peg in traditional business environments. No matter where you sit in your organization, or how differently you're wired, this book gives you straightforward tools to:
* Create a one-page Connected Strategic Framework that clarifies your vision and rallies others to your cause
* Develop No-BS Objectives and Key Results that measure what actually matters—even if you don't have perfect data today
* Build alignment without endless meetings or workplace politics
* Apply evidence-based practices for architecting behavior change to increase the odds of goal achievement
* Establish rhythms that transform your strategic thinking into measurable results
Author Sara Lobkovich has trained over 2,000 OKR coaches across 300+ organizations globally, and facilitated multi-thousand person OKR roll-outs and resets including within Fortune 500 companies. Drawing from her executive leadership experience and board-certified health coaching background, she brings a uniquely human-centered approach to strategic planning that works for everyone—not just those with traditional business backgrounds or positions of power.
This isn't another theoretical strategy book or complicated goal-setting system. It's a step-by-step guide that strips away confusion and complexity, replacing them with clear frameworks anyone can use to increase their strategic impact.
Perfect for:
* Leaders looking to transform their team's approach to strategy achievement
* Mid-career professionals who see problems clearly but struggle to implement solutions
* Individual contributors who want to make a bigger impact from any seat
* Professionals who process information differently, face unclear expectations, and feel like everyone else knows something they don't about succeeding in their careers
* People struggling with OKR implementations that feel overwhelming, bureaucratic, or ineffective
Stop wondering what's 'wrong' with you when your ideas don't get traction. Your ability to see what others miss and challenge established ways of working isn't a liability—it's your strategic advantage. This book gives you the tools to translate your unique perspective into real-world results.
The strategist in you is ready to make an undeniable impact. This book shows you how.
And to make it happen, you need a strategy.
But conventional approaches to strategy prioritize certain voices over others, overcomplicate simple concepts, and get lost in translation across teams.
What if you could translate your vision into measurable impact -- regardless of your title, role, or thinking style?
This book shows you how.
For too long, strategy has been treated as the domain of executives and consultants armed with complicated frameworks and beautiful slide decks that leave people with more questions than answers. But what if it doesn't have to be that way?
"You Are A Strategist" is the practical playbook for anyone who wants to translate their vision into undeniable impact -- including people who feel like a square peg in traditional business environments. No matter where you sit in your organization, or how differently you're wired, this book gives you straightforward tools to:
* Create a one-page Connected Strategic Framework that clarifies your vision and rallies others to your cause
* Develop No-BS Objectives and Key Results that measure what actually matters—even if you don't have perfect data today
* Build alignment without endless meetings or workplace politics
* Apply evidence-based practices for architecting behavior change to increase the odds of goal achievement
* Establish rhythms that transform your strategic thinking into measurable results
Author Sara Lobkovich has trained over 2,000 OKR coaches across 300+ organizations globally, and facilitated multi-thousand person OKR roll-outs and resets including within Fortune 500 companies. Drawing from her executive leadership experience and board-certified health coaching background, she brings a uniquely human-centered approach to strategic planning that works for everyone—not just those with traditional business backgrounds or positions of power.
This isn't another theoretical strategy book or complicated goal-setting system. It's a step-by-step guide that strips away confusion and complexity, replacing them with clear frameworks anyone can use to increase their strategic impact.
Perfect for:
* Leaders looking to transform their team's approach to strategy achievement
* Mid-career professionals who see problems clearly but struggle to implement solutions
* Individual contributors who want to make a bigger impact from any seat
* Professionals who process information differently, face unclear expectations, and feel like everyone else knows something they don't about succeeding in their careers
* People struggling with OKR implementations that feel overwhelming, bureaucratic, or ineffective
Stop wondering what's 'wrong' with you when your ideas don't get traction. Your ability to see what others miss and challenge established ways of working isn't a liability—it's your strategic advantage. This book gives you the tools to translate your unique perspective into real-world results.
The strategist in you is ready to make an undeniable impact. This book shows you how.
- GenresBusiness
306 pages, Paperback
Published May 6, 2025
12 people are currently reading
18 people want to read
About the author
Sara Lobkovich
1 book4 followersSara Lobkovich is a strategy coach and OKR activist known for helping clients transform their visionary ideas into undeniable impact. As creator of the Connected Strategy on a Page and No-BS OKRs, she has trained over 2,000 OKR Coaches in 300+ organizations globally, including Fortune 500 companies. Her methodology strips away the confusion that typically surrounds strategic planning, replacing it with clear frameworks that drive real results. A board-certified Health and Wellness Coach, Sara brings a unique perspective to organizational strategy, integrating evidence-based approaches to behavior change and wellbeing into her work with organizations and individuals.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
January 7, 2026
If you are running a business or working toward important goals, then congratulations: you are a strategist. As outlined in the book You Are a Strategist: Use No-BS OKRs To Get Big Things Done by Sara Lobkovich, a strategist—a leader or contributor—must be able to get objectives and key results (OKRs) in order to keep a business running smoothly and be successful. The author writes on page 31,
“Being strategic is a set of skills that not everyone possesses—sometimes even people who lead may be wired more for tactics than strategies. You need both. The practices you’ll learn in this book will make you a better strategic communicator of expectations.”
And learn these practices you will, after reading this book. There are many exercises, graphics, and samples to illustrate the author’s message and share her extensive knowledge of getting a business in order. The information in this book is very helpful, and it gives the reader a lot to think about.
So, what exactly are OKRs? As the author explains on page 53:
“Ah, the infamous OKRs: Objectives and Key Results. You may have never heard the acronym before this book. If so, you’re not alone. While ubiquitous in some corporate environments with global reach and adoption, they’re virtually unheard of in others. Or, you may have worked with them already ad nauseum, in management-mandated books, seminars, and workshops; they may have been bandied about for a few cycles without any real traction.”
Get used to seeing that acronym a lot in this book. In fact, Part 2 takes a deeper dive into OKRs in a way that helps the reader unfamiliar with this method to understand them and put them to use in their business strategy. Of course, people working for companies may have already been using and prioritizing their objectives and key results without really thinking about them as OKRs, but here the author not only makes you think about them but understand how they can make your business more effective and your role as a leader stronger than ever before.
Team members also stand to benefit when learning about the “No-BS OKRs” framework that this book is about. The author writes on page 64:
“Everyone benefits from No-BS OKRs, not just leaders. Team members can use No-BS OKRs to create their own clear expectations, even in environments where expectations communicated by colleagues and leaders are not clear.”
This is true for large businesses and corporations and for someone who is a solopreneur, entrepreneur, or co-owner of a small business. She suggests at the beginning that whoever reads this book can absolutely read only the chapters that apply to their situation and still benefit from the book’s overall message. This is supported by her suggestions at the beginning of chapters that if one is, for example, a solopreneur, then the content in the chapter is likely not for them and they can skip over it without issue. As the author states on page 181:
“Apply what is relevant to your situation, and skip the parts that aren’t.”
In fact, some parts of the book may also be applied to personal goals rather than business goals. As the author writes on page 206:
“I consider these “personal OKRs.” They sit separate from theorganization’s system of OKRs and even separate from aligned individual goals you may have set to align your workplace goals to the organizational OKRs. They may relate to your personal life, or they may be work-related.
Personal OKRs are objectives and key results you create personally and usually privately—only for you and purely for your own reasons. Personal OKRs can be motivating, encouraging, and have all the benefits we’ve talked about with other types of well-formed, inspired, challenging goals.”
So, in a way, this is not so much a “business book” as it can also be a “personal strategy setting” kind of book for people who set personal goals for themselves. Of course, applying the tips in this book to a personal goal-setting program would require some modification and creativity, but there are ways to make it work for you.
You Are a Strategist recognizes the strategist in you and guides it along on how to not only create and implement OKRs that work for you and your company but putting the “No-BS” into this strategy in order to take your business to the next level. With exercises, helpful graphics, and sample sheets outlining useful tools, this guide will help people in business stay on track and achieve favorable results.
“Being strategic is a set of skills that not everyone possesses—sometimes even people who lead may be wired more for tactics than strategies. You need both. The practices you’ll learn in this book will make you a better strategic communicator of expectations.”
And learn these practices you will, after reading this book. There are many exercises, graphics, and samples to illustrate the author’s message and share her extensive knowledge of getting a business in order. The information in this book is very helpful, and it gives the reader a lot to think about.
So, what exactly are OKRs? As the author explains on page 53:
“Ah, the infamous OKRs: Objectives and Key Results. You may have never heard the acronym before this book. If so, you’re not alone. While ubiquitous in some corporate environments with global reach and adoption, they’re virtually unheard of in others. Or, you may have worked with them already ad nauseum, in management-mandated books, seminars, and workshops; they may have been bandied about for a few cycles without any real traction.”
Get used to seeing that acronym a lot in this book. In fact, Part 2 takes a deeper dive into OKRs in a way that helps the reader unfamiliar with this method to understand them and put them to use in their business strategy. Of course, people working for companies may have already been using and prioritizing their objectives and key results without really thinking about them as OKRs, but here the author not only makes you think about them but understand how they can make your business more effective and your role as a leader stronger than ever before.
Team members also stand to benefit when learning about the “No-BS OKRs” framework that this book is about. The author writes on page 64:
“Everyone benefits from No-BS OKRs, not just leaders. Team members can use No-BS OKRs to create their own clear expectations, even in environments where expectations communicated by colleagues and leaders are not clear.”
This is true for large businesses and corporations and for someone who is a solopreneur, entrepreneur, or co-owner of a small business. She suggests at the beginning that whoever reads this book can absolutely read only the chapters that apply to their situation and still benefit from the book’s overall message. This is supported by her suggestions at the beginning of chapters that if one is, for example, a solopreneur, then the content in the chapter is likely not for them and they can skip over it without issue. As the author states on page 181:
“Apply what is relevant to your situation, and skip the parts that aren’t.”
In fact, some parts of the book may also be applied to personal goals rather than business goals. As the author writes on page 206:
“I consider these “personal OKRs.” They sit separate from theorganization’s system of OKRs and even separate from aligned individual goals you may have set to align your workplace goals to the organizational OKRs. They may relate to your personal life, or they may be work-related.
Personal OKRs are objectives and key results you create personally and usually privately—only for you and purely for your own reasons. Personal OKRs can be motivating, encouraging, and have all the benefits we’ve talked about with other types of well-formed, inspired, challenging goals.”
So, in a way, this is not so much a “business book” as it can also be a “personal strategy setting” kind of book for people who set personal goals for themselves. Of course, applying the tips in this book to a personal goal-setting program would require some modification and creativity, but there are ways to make it work for you.
You Are a Strategist recognizes the strategist in you and guides it along on how to not only create and implement OKRs that work for you and your company but putting the “No-BS” into this strategy in order to take your business to the next level. With exercises, helpful graphics, and sample sheets outlining useful tools, this guide will help people in business stay on track and achieve favorable results.
March 18, 2025
“The job isn’t to convince people that you’re a smart person, it’s to clarify situations so everyone can do the smart thing.”
And with that sentence (plus other gems), I knew this book was for me.
I am the strategist talked about in this book. I can be um, difficult, if I don’t understand the full background of a plan, but I’m amazing at getting things done with little direction.
This book breaks down what OKRs are and how to create a simple one-page sheet to clearly communicate them with the “why” (important for us strategists!). The clarity is inspiring and halfway through the book, I started a draft of my own 1-page summary.
And with that sentence (plus other gems), I knew this book was for me.
I am the strategist talked about in this book. I can be um, difficult, if I don’t understand the full background of a plan, but I’m amazing at getting things done with little direction.
This book breaks down what OKRs are and how to create a simple one-page sheet to clearly communicate them with the “why” (important for us strategists!). The clarity is inspiring and halfway through the book, I started a draft of my own 1-page summary.
February 10, 2026
You Are a Strategist is a refreshingly practical and empowering guide for anyone who wants to turn their vision into measurable impact. Sara Lobkovich strips away the unnecessary complexity of traditional strategy approaches and gives readers actionable tools that work across roles, thinking styles, and organizational levels. The book’s core strength lies in its ability to make strategy accessible without diluting its impact, providing readers with frameworks that are clear, repeatable, and immediately usable.
The step-by-step approach to creating a Connected Strategic Framework and No-BS OKRs ensures that readers can translate ideas into action, achieve alignment across teams, and measure meaningful outcomes. Lobkovich’s human-centered perspective, combined with her executive experience and health coaching background, makes the book approachable yet authoritative. This guide is perfect for professionals at any stage who want to make a real difference without getting lost in bureaucracy or overcomplicated planning.
The step-by-step approach to creating a Connected Strategic Framework and No-BS OKRs ensures that readers can translate ideas into action, achieve alignment across teams, and measure meaningful outcomes. Lobkovich’s human-centered perspective, combined with her executive experience and health coaching background, makes the book approachable yet authoritative. This guide is perfect for professionals at any stage who want to make a real difference without getting lost in bureaucracy or overcomplicated planning.
March 11, 2025
You Are a Strategist is one of those books that the moment you start reading you feel like was written just for you. What's great about Sara's approach is the recognition (and acknowledgment even) that what can be a superpower for some (you, your team, etc) can also have a darker more challenging side BUT... if we know HOW to leverage these strengths, we can be more effective Strategists.
Not all of us identify as "Strategists" but - as this book so clearly shows - many of us ARE exactly that. And... if we want to do a better job of getting our ideas out into the world, we can use proven frameworks to lead, inspire, and accomplish our strategies.
Sara's process for boiling a strategy down to a single page, paired with her "No BS OKRs", lets you take your big vision, get your team onboard and aligned, and accomplish great things together.
If you're the kind of person who looks around and thinks "this could be better", than you, too, are likely a Strategist, and "You Are a Strategist" will help you to challenge the status quo, use Sara's powerful framework for dialing in your strategy, and then actually see it through.
Not all of us identify as "Strategists" but - as this book so clearly shows - many of us ARE exactly that. And... if we want to do a better job of getting our ideas out into the world, we can use proven frameworks to lead, inspire, and accomplish our strategies.
Sara's process for boiling a strategy down to a single page, paired with her "No BS OKRs", lets you take your big vision, get your team onboard and aligned, and accomplish great things together.
If you're the kind of person who looks around and thinks "this could be better", than you, too, are likely a Strategist, and "You Are a Strategist" will help you to challenge the status quo, use Sara's powerful framework for dialing in your strategy, and then actually see it through.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews