Link: New York Time's: Google's Quest to Build a Better Boss
What's the new next thing in leadership? Leave it to Google to mine through tens of thousands of their own HR data - employee feedback, surveys, performance reviews, promotion nominations, etc. to come up with a succinct 8-Point Plan. Their findings (from Project Oxygen) in a nutshell: deeper technical expertise is not as important as it was thought. Being a good coach, empowering and stretching your employees and showing genuine interest in them as people makes a team that is happier and performs consistently better.
Why is a recruiter writing about this? Because when I work with clients, I need to be confident that they are, indeed, a good company people like working for: a company with happy employees that perform well. That's my leverage in getting the best people for that company. Highly-sought-after people join companies most often because of the leadership, company culture and the opportunities there to grow. If the leadership isn't there, then there's problems. People leave their jobs for three most common reasons: 1) they don't feel a connection to their company or their own purpose and value 2) they don't like their colleagues, and 3) they have a bad manager. According to Google's Project Oxygen, this third reason - how employees viewed their manager, had the most impact on employee happiness and performance.
Happy employees are the biggest recruiting tool a company could ever use. If you want to hire the best, make sure your current employees have a great manager or team leader. See Google's Rules on Eight Good Behaviors for Managers.
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