The People Operations team uncovered what makes a great manager at Google, but that doesn’t mean what works for Google managers will work for any organization.

To determine what makes managers great in your organization, consider these questions:

• Do managers matter at your organization? Explore external research (e.g., Gallup research highlights five important manager talents) and internal input like surveys or interviews to find out if people managers matter to your team members’ performance and happiness.

• If managers matter, whom do you need to convince and how? Google used internal data to convince engineers and leaders that managers matter. How will you convince your organization?

• What makes a great manager at your organization? Google found ten behaviors of successful managers - you might find you have two, three, or twelve. Internal data, like employee survey results and interviews, can help uncover the elements of good management at your organization. You can also explore external research (below) to get started.

• Manager Research Shortlist:

  • HBR 2005 | What Great Managers Do
  • McKinsey 2015 | Decoding Leadership, What Really Matters