The ‘Google’ Boss
The importance of a good boss
We all know how much time we spend at work and we all want to be happy. We all have a boss.
Some of us are lucky to have a good boss, some a great boss – the less fortunate have an ok, or if we’re honest a pretty damn awful boss!
And it’s one of the main reasons people decide to change jobs according to research, ‘Successful people don’t want to work for incompetent people'(forbes.com) and so they move on.
So – what to do if you’re one of the unlucky ones?
We’ve gathered some great articles for you on what to do if you’re unlucky enough to have a ‘bad boss’ it’s a tricky situation to deal with. But there’s lots of advice on muse.com, if you’re unfortunate to be in this situation, including: How to deal with a difficult boss .
The Google Boss
We all recognise Google is a forward thinking, innovative organisation and I wanted to share Inc.’s findings on Google’s approach to identifying the traits of it’s successful managers.
Google have recently shared the results of extensive research they’ve been doing over the last 10 years, looking into what makes good management material within their organisation – but the great bit is that they have then tried to roll this out across the company.
According to Inc.com, they’ve used this to build their own training programme to give others the key traits that make a great manager or boss – for Google.
This is what they found:
- They are a good coach
- Empowers team and does not micromanage
- Creates an inclusive team environment, showing concern for success and well-being
- Is productive and results orientated
- Is a good communicator, listens and shares information
- Supports career development and discusses performance
- Has a clear vision/strategy for the team
- Has key technical skills to help advise the team
- Collaborates across (the company)
- Is a strong decision maker
These traits are desirable in any organisation I would say, what is most interesting about Google’s approach is that they’ve tried to analyse what their organisation needs from it’s managers, not just generic skills. They’ve also tried to review and refresh and act on the results each time. This is what makes it such a refreshing way to do things.
We can all learn from this.
Sources
Muse.com
Inc.com
Forbes.com
Image – many thanks to Kumar Appaiah for image use
