With over 50,000 employees (“Google-standalone” count from its current Financial statement) and a headcount growth rate of 5-10% Google’s success in maintaining its growth momentum will depend largely on its ability to attract, nurture, and sustain top talent.

Growing and keeping top talent requires not only a great physical work environment (creative atmosphere, free food, massages, etc.), but also where employees feel psychologically and professionally fulfilled (I call this food for their soul!). A few years back Google took a serious look at its star managers and codified their behaviors after taking a close look at highly successful workgroups within its growing empire to assess what characteristics in their managers bring out the best from those who work under them.

By codifying, communicating, and encouraging these “star” behaviors Google can sustain its momentum, which is limited mostly by its ability to recruit, retain, and grow creative employees. This study uncovered that top managers consistently displayed eight behaviors that their less successful counterparts did not.

The purpose of this blog is to first expound on those behaviors to help other organizations understand how they, too, can become more effective in harnessing their employees’ talents and create a sustainable work environment, and then expand that list (to 10) based on my own coaching experience with successful managers. Although the behaviors listed below are not in the rank order in which Google originally published this list, I am presenting them in the order in which I think that they should be ranked. Google’s original rank is in (# ). I do not think that this ranking had any significance as it was published by Google.

  1. Have important technical skills that help advice the team (#8): Regardless of where you are in the organization a manager’s technical skill refers to their ability to understand the complexity of the technical options (not just technology options) they have to sort through to not only make the right decision or choice, but to have the brainpower and experience to persuade those who have a different point of view. Technical leadership is critical to have your team’s respect for you as their manager. Expecting the team’s respect merely because you hold the manager title is futile. 
    “Technical” skills can extend to any area of work: from legal to contracts to writing an ad copy to good instructional design. Merely dictating your choice does not go well with independent-minded, creative team members, who are highly discerning in their choice of technical solutions, and unless their manager is able to bring everyone on the same page, the team will suffer from conflicting loyalties to the chosen solution(s). Unless everyone jumps in with their full commitment to the selected solution(s) the team members will not be able to create outcomes that wow them through the synergies such a team can create in how it collaboratively solves a problem.
  2. Empower the team and do not micromanage (#2): A manager’s job is to get out of the way once the team has bought into the solution that it has arrived at from exploring various options and from framing the defined problem correctly. Micromanaged teams produce mediocre outcomes, take longer to produce them, and are often highly de-energized—even demotivated.
  3. Have clear vision/strategy for the team (#7): One of the key success factors for a manager is to have a clear vision for what is expected of the team and then have a strategy that will help accomplish that vision in the most effective way. It is often difficult for most managers to be both strategic (including having a vision) and equally tactical in executing the strategy. once a strategy is adopted, communicated, and embraced by the team the manager must steadfastly ensure that it becomes the team’s mindset.
  4. Be very productive/results oriented (#4): A manager can make their team productive and results oriented by first providing the team members with an environment where they can productively engage in their activities that create value. Equipping their teams with highly productive work methods (customer-focused Agile workflows, automated tools, customized work units) and then establishing efficient ways to carry out work and having in place clear metrics by which team members’ outputs are measured can contribute to this factor. 
    A concomitant manager responsibility is creating clear accountabilities across team members so that individuals are clearly and uniformly accountable for what they do and fairness with which they are measured. Any arbitrariness in this critical factor can quickly demoralize the team.
  5. Be a good communicator—listen and share information (#5): Technical skills (the first factor in my list) stem from a manager’s cognitive abilities and how they have applied those to learn their trade and master this factor (IQ-based) is what gives them technical mastery, so central to earning the respect of creative team members. Being a good communicator, on the other hand, entails improving one’s emotional intelligence (EQ). This is one of the central skills for having a high EQ (self-awareness, self-control, empathy, and motivation are the other four factors that make up one’s EQ).
    Being a good communicator requires a strong ability to verbalize your concerted views, understand how to communicate those to the audience in a language that members understand, and to have the insight to assess what parts of your communicated did take hold (empathy). So, communication skill is a multi-dimensional attribute, which makes it difficult to master without constant practice, awareness, and trials. A good communicator can often compensate for some of the other shortcomings they may have in some aspects of their managerial skill-set. So, this is an important skill to master.
  6. Be a good coach (#1): This skill flows from #2 above, Empower the team and do not micromanage. When you create the right vision, establish clear measures for success (down to each team member), communicate it well across all stakeholders with consistency and purpose, and hold team members accountable for what they sign-up to, the best role you can play is that of a coach to make each individual and the team succeed in what they have undertaken. Challenging each member to bring greatness in them and helping team achieve greatness in what they produce (and greatness in others) requires inspiring each one and all of them collectively to keep them fired up about exceling to achieve greatness. 
    Spotting the need for coaching (which includes technical, social, and behavioral attributes) and then providing the right coaching at the right moment to the right person can make a big difference in how they continue to stay committed to their mission and to their team (and to you as their manager). This is learned skill (part of EQ) and worth mastering early in a manager’s journey. Providing the right coaching can move a person from being forced to do something (impel) to self-motivation to being inspired to do something great in its ultimate manifestation!
  7. Express interest /concern in team members’ success and personal well being (#3): Unless a manager is able to personally (at a professional level, of course) engage their team members and understand their aspirations, needs, and wants and find ways to support them, team members would not be inspired and committed to do their best and to bring out the best in others. This is where team members move from compliance to commitment (they are now inspired!). A little bit of personal interest and action from a manager on that front can result in a great deal of commitment from team members that far exceeds the effort the manager puts in to make this possible.
  8. Help team with career development (#6): This item (from Google’s list) is complementary to #s 6 and 7 above. As a part of showing interest in a team member’s success their career aspirations are central to any discussion about their long-term welfare (feeding their soul!). Managers must not allow their personal preferences to influence any particular career track or with a bias of their views on how they should guide their team members to plan their career. If they do not have the expertise in an area that a team member wants to grow or pursue, they must find the right resources within their organization or outside to help them with the support they need to pursue their inquiry and interest.

In addition to the list Google codified for managerial excellence I’d like to add two more to make this list complete, having now worked with over 6,000 clients, with many from the executive ranks, including CEOs, MDs, and GMs:

  1. Perspective: Having a perspective in matters involving your team’s mission entails having the ability to rise above the fray and be able to have a higher point of view (PoV) that allows you to factor in your overall business, customer, ecosystem, and other broader implications of what your job is really about. This aspect requires maturity, experience, and an ability to not get embroiled in the transactional exigencies and parochial interests of your job and role.
  2. Critical thinking: Although it is not listed as a separate attribute in Google’s list a manager’s ability to think critically can make the difference between producing a good out come and a great one. Critical thinking applies not only to making the right technical decisions, but also to making the right and sensible business decisions.

In my work the word “manager” applies to anyone who has people reporting to them or whose decisions and influence affects people around them. So, this list can apply to anyone from the first-level manager to a CEO. Now that you know what makes a manager a rock star, make a self-evaluation of your abilities and find out how you stack-up.

Good luck!

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