Leadership Style at Google

1. Introduction Google, which was founded in ___________by

________now provides free net-search services in more than 120 languages, with a
large number of web-based products in its portfolio The Google (Alphabet) brand is
valued at USD 1820 billion, in 2021. It has been consistently ranked as the best
place to work ,which is indeed a tribute to the company’s leadership and people-
management practices. Both Page and Brin were researchers at heart . Their
venture was a rather ‘unanticipated’ outcome of their research project on “The
Anatomy of a Large-scale Hypertextual Web Search Engine. The academic ancestry
of the founders and their own inclinations for independent thinking and research has
had an impact on their leadership style, especially in matters of empowering their
employees and encouraging them to come up with innovative ideas and implement
them. They have a policy of recruiting only class-A employees and giving them the
freedom to exercise their creativity.

2. Leadership Style The founders managed the company until 2001, with
Larry Page as the CEO. By the year 2001, Google had grown to more than 200
employees, and it had widened its board to include representatives of the venture
capitalists. They brought in a professional manager, Eric Schmidt, as the CEO, with
the responsibility for providing the organizational and operational expertise and
company leadership.
Google’s leadership style is called distributed leadership, and it’s a blend of
democratic and laissez faire styles. That’s because Page and Eric Schmidt had
different styles that mixed to create the company’s culture. The company was initially
more laissez faire and focused entirely on hiring and promoting talented engineers.
Some managers thrived in this free-wheeling environment, while others floundered.
This began an internal research project to determine the best path forward. After
collecting and analyzing all the data it could from performance reviews, surveys, and
other feedback methods, the company zeroed in on eight key leadership
fundamentals. They are:

1. Be a good coach
2. Empower your team and don’t micromanage
3. Express interest in your team members’ success and well-being
4. 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 technical skills so you can advise the team

3. Google leadership Fundamentals

(a) Be a Good Coach Great managers are not simply great performers.
They invest the time and energy to coach others. Great managers share best
practices so that their teams can grow. The top trait of a successful manager
at Google is that the person is considered “a good coach” by employees,
meaning that they are able to effectively teach and advise employees on how
to perform tasks, while offering constructive feedback.. Eric Schmidt used to
make a list of his best employees, as identified by multiple levels of peer-
references, and interact with them personally to encourage them to implement
their innovative ideas and to insulate them from unwanted interferences by
others. Increasingly, managers need to apply coaching skills in their role to
support team members’ development. Part of developing a coaching mindset
is to show openness to growth through feedback. Managers should
encourage and ask for upwards feedback to help learn in which areas to
improve. Don’t sugar-coat a critique, but deliver it with compassion. Without
the right fuel-air mixture of empathy and directness, you’ll veer off into
coddling, manipulative, or aggressive territory. The best way to make
feedback actionable is to make it immediate. Whenever possible, deliver
feedback within a day of whatever event you’re commenting on so it’s fresh in
everyone’s minds.

(b) Empower Your Team Micromanagement is one of the great

blunders of poor managers. The idea that it's the manager's job to inspire
rather than the underling's responsibility to follow orders teach humility.
Micromanaging is a common mistake managers make without even realizing
it, one that discourages and frustrates employees. Good managers at
Google do not micromanage employees , they empower their team to
take control of their own work and projects. In other words, employees
need to be given enough reign to get their work done without constant
interference that can cause delays and hurt performance. Give your team
space. Be flexible. In order to make the employees the owners of their work,
Eric Schmidt used to provide a very broad definition of the company goal and
leave the implementation entirely to the employees. Good managers are
able to give direction and autonomy all at once. By setting team goals,
managers provide people with clarity on what they’re working towards and
align with how they are contributing to the team and business success. At the
same time, they cultivate trust in giving employees the freedom to work on
their tasks with minimal hand-holding. Empowering people is helping them
to uncover and focus on their strengths, encouraging professional
development. Best managers offer the right balance of freedom and advice,
showing they trust their direct reports, and advocate for the team. When the
company became too large to easily manage the flow of new ideas and
projects, Google instituted a schedule of meetings between employees and
the company’s founders and chief executives. At these meetings, employees
can pitch new ideas and projects directly to the top executives.All Google
employees follow a rule called the 70/20/10 rule. 70 percent of the time
should be devoted to Google’s core business of search and advertising, 20
percent to off-budget projects related to the core-business, and 10 percent to
pursue ideas based on one’s own interest and competencies. Though
employees perceive such systems as perks, the company sees these systems
as “the seed corn for its future,” as it would ensure that entrepreneurial
employees implement their innovative ideas within the company rather than
go out and create a competing new venture. It is estimated that about 50
percent of Google’s new products are generated using the ‘free’ time that
employees are granted.

(c) Express interest in your team members’ success and well-being

Embrace your team and make them part of the mission. Create an
environment where anyone can ask a question, experiment and propose a
new idea. As part of the manifesto of the good Google manager, you will
express an interest in team members’ success and personal well-being. For
many managers, this may seem outside the realm of responsibility. And
yet, it plays a key role in employees feeling engaged and recognized in the
workplace. While revenue and profit is important, we should also remember
that people are the ones helping us achieve our targets. As a good leader,
you must allow employees to function outside the company hierarchy.
As corporate hierarchies can often obstruct employees’ work, Eric Schmidt
reinforced the existing system of allowing employees a certain degree of
freedom to create their own projects and choose their own teams. It’s not
enough just to have a diverse team, good leaders and managers strive
to create an inclusive environment every day. Employees want to feel
valued by their managers, so a good boss takes an active interest in their
employees’ individual success and happiness with their work. You will
celebrate the small wins. A team lunch after reaching an important goal
shows you care and helps team members form personal connections. Even a
quick public acknowledgment when somebody turns in outstanding work goes
a long way. Managers should be attuned to their team members’
wellbeing, demonstrating that they are valued members of the team.
Being able to sense when people are not doing well, are overworked,
stressed, or are in a conflict, are key qualities that help managers delegate
and re-prioritize tasks, to help their team be more effective. Showing an
interest in people’s wellbeing also helps to develop a greater sense of
trust. You will try to be open-minded about flexible working arrangements. If
you’re willing to entertain reasonable requests, they’ll pay you back in
dedication and loyalty.

(d) B e R e s u l t s D r i v e n R esults matter, but you need to create a

culture in which everyone can thrive to produce the desired results. Show your
team how to produce the results that you want. Don't just set goals and then
expect outcomes. Employees don’t want to work for a lazy boss. They’d rather
be part of a team that’s productive and successful, and that’s hard to do if the
leader doesn’t set the tone. As a manager, you’ll be looked to as a role
model. You can’t expect people to give their best at work if they don’t see you
doing it, so be sure you’re always on your A game. That means putting in the
effort and getting results. Whilst having high emotional intelligence is an
important skill, it’s natural that managers are expected to be results-
oriented. Having a clear and established set of goals for your employees can
help a manager keep them on track to produce consistent results. It’s
comforting to think in terms of tasks to complete. But the business
doesn’t care about your to-do list. It cares about what you were able to
achieve. Outcomes count. Outputs of effort  don’t. Setting clear
expectations might be the most foundational element for employee
engagement. Great leaders give people a measurable target to hit and
give them the space to run at it. In a study by Gallup, only about half of all
workers surveyed strongly indicated that they knew what was expected of
them at work. “Underpromise and overdeliver” is pretty good advice in most
corporate settings, but it’s the opposite of what leaders were taught at
Google. There, overdelivering meant you weren’t setting your targets high
enough. As leaders, we have a responsibility to ensure our teams are
delivering on key results and are achieving the goals set out. We also
need to ensure these results are contributing to the company’s overall
success. In this scenario, the ability for managers to strategize, organize,
execute and delegate is extremely valuable.

(e) L i s t e n M o r e , S p e a k L e s s Too many managers fail because

they can't communicate. Communication is not top-down or unidirectional. It's
essential to be a good listener. Invest the time to get in the arena and listen to
your team. Communicating effectively is one of the basics of being a good
manager (or a good employee for that matter). But it’s also important to
remember that great managers prioritize listening. Good communication
skills are a must once you find yourself in a leadership position. Leaders
need to be able to communicate when there’s room for improvement, but also
know how to provide recognition when it’s due. When you listen to people,
they feel personally valued. It signals commitment. No matter what the
situation, managers should practice their listening skills, which in turn will help
them get a better understanding of the team dynamics and interactions.
There’s a reason Google-speak like “moonshot” and “10Xer” has
because standard startup lingo. Even though it’s the ultimate culture of
engineers, Google founders appreciated the power of language to inspire
people across a huge organization to accomplish huge things.
Communication skills are necessary for success in nearly any position. In fact,
billionaire investor Warren Buffett has said that “one easy way to become
worth 50 percent more than you are now — at least — is to hone your
communication skills.” As a leader, you must understand the importance
of storytelling. Great leaders are great storytellers because narrative is how
we learn. The power of a story is to inspire your teams and help them feel
connected to the company’s mission and vision.

(f) Serve Your Team Don't focus on what your team can do for
you. Focus on what you can do for them - and how you can work with them to
advance the goals and mission of the organization. The best bosses at
Google show a vested interest in their employees’ growth and future success.
Such support can make them happier, more effective workers. Leaders have
to play many different roles and one of those is supporting their direct
reports’ professional development. Learning how to identify and leverage
strengths in the workplace is the main differentiator between high performing
teams and those underperforming. Career development and guidance are
essential — give your team the tools they need to thrive. The trick is being
willing to guide them away from your team if that’s what is best for them. Have
career-related discussions in your 1-on-1s twice a year, and fuel them with
open-ended questions. In reviewing employees’ performance, Eric Schmidt
made it a point to identify reviewers from among professionals whom the
concerned employee respects for their objectivity and impartiality. Leadership
isn’t about us, it is about others and how we can help them grow,
achieve and reach the goals they and the organization set. To inspire high
performance, leaders need to set hold employees accountable for meeting
expectations and respond quickly when

(g) G i v e A V i s i o n If the manager doesn't have a clear vision and

strategy, how can the team thrive? It starts with the manager to set the tone
and lay the foundation and direction for the team. A strong leader needs to
present employees with clear and articulated goals, along with a road map to
achieving them, to ensure that they can work efficiently and at a high level.
It’s vital for leaders to have a vision of what they want their team to
achieve and how they plan to do so. This helps give focus and direction to
everyone on the team and also to the rest of the business to know what each
team is doing to contribute to the business strategy. Each team is composed
of individuals with their own unique talents, and leaders need to
coordinate and guide these individuals to work together. There is a
strong positive correlation between performance and a shared sense of
purpose: two thirds of high-achieving teams understand how their work
benefits customers and the business, whereas only one third of low-achieving
teams do. Leaders who are transparent whenever it’s practical help build
trust within their organization. Plus, your team will accomplish more when
they see how their work fits into the larger picture. A clear and shared vision
can help members of your team work well together.
 (g) S u b s t a n c e M a t t e r s Leaders don't "check out" when they
become leaders. Rather, they get in the weeds. Not only can you help achieve
better outcomes, but also you can gain credibility with your team when you
demonstrate your technical expertise. In most cases, a leader at Google
needs to have a strong grasp of the same skills their employees must possess
in order to advise them on how to best complete their tasks.Chances are,
you earned your leadership position by being an exemplary individual
contributor. Now you need to keep your skills fresh enough to understand
the work your team is doing and give them valuable feedback. It’s hard for a
manager to guide the team if he or she doesn’t have the right technical
skills. Managers increase credibility when they can practice what they
preach. But don’t go too deep. The fastest way to be relieved of your
leadership role is to keep doing the same work you were doing before. Great
leaders understand the jobs of their people, including their everyday tasks
and challenges. If the leader is moved into a new department, he or she will
take time to get to know how things are done, and work to build trust before
making drastic changes or offering advice. You don’t have to come up with
the boldest ideas or be the best coder. You do have to show up for your
people. Build a solid platform for them to stand on, then get out of the way so
they can do the best work of their lives.

4. Conclusion As a leader, It is important to not just see your own success, but
focus on the success of others.Sundar Pichai Google took the time and effort to
determine the leadership qualities that are most important in their culture. Yes, they
could have borrowed a list of competencies from the latest leadership best-
seller, but they didn’t. They tackled this challenge the same way they improve their
search results; by analyzing their own data and drawing their own conclusions.
Google uses those traits as guidelines for training its own managers and
improving their performance. The qualities identified are amazingly simple and
do not require a manager to change his or her personality. Rather, the changes
required are a matter of behavioral changes, which can be accomplished by regular
and deliberate practice. Strategy is important. Scenario testing provides focus.
However, there is no replacement for being a strong decision maker. You can
spend unlimited time analyzing, strategizing and scenario-testing. It’s eventually the
action that matters. These behaviors and leadership traits make a great manager
at Google.