Rules to be a Good Manager, the Google Way

Via this weekend’s New York Times Google’s Quest to Build a Better Boss comes information on analysis that Google did in resulting in Eight Good Behaviours and Three Pitfalls (in priority) goes like this :

Eight Good Behaviours

  1. Be a good coach.
  2. Empower your team and don’t micromanage.
  3. Express interest in team members’ success and personal well-being.
  4. Don’t be a sissy: Be productive and results-oriented.
  5. Be a good communicator and listen to your team.
  6. Help your employees with career development.
  7. Have a clear vision and strategy for the team.
  8. Have key technical skills so you can help advise the team.

Three Pitfalls of Managers

  1. Have trouble making a transition to the team.
  2. Lack a consistent approach to performance management and career development.
  3. Spend too little time managing and communicating.

Included was this image with more details:

Googles Rules for Managers, Source NYT & Google

Common sense rules rarely taught, measured against, or applied. Occasionally given lip service. The NYT article is an interesting read.

Note that Technical expertise ranked dead last among Google’s big eight behaviours (which I take to mean that it is important but not the most important). Another takeaways is that Google does quarterly reviews. Reviews are viewed as so useless and distastefulness that they are only done yearly, which makes them even less useful (too late for the feedback – for manager and managed – to be useful)

Might I suggest printing out a dozen copies of the image out and scattering them around into the inbox’s in your Office?

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