Google tried to prove managers don't matter. Instead, it discovered 10 traits of the very best ones.

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• Google tried to prove that it didn't need managers with Project Oxygen. It did not work.
• Instead, the company realized the value of managers who guide their team to success.
• These 10 characteristics make a great manager, it found, including being inclusive and having the confidence to make decisions. 
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It's not every day you learn of a really smart company setting out to prove that managers don't matter. But that's exactly what Google did with Project Oxygen — or tried to.

The hypothesis was that the quality of a manager doesn't matter — that managers are at best a necessary evil, and at worst a useless layer of bureaucracy. The early work of Project Oxygen, in 2002, included a radical experiment: a move to a flat organization without any managers.

The experiment was a disaster, lasting only a few months as the search giant found employees were left without direction and guidance on their most basic questions and needs.

Never daunted, Google pivoted to extensively study the opposite question — what are the common behaviors of their very best managers? It came up with a list of eight attributes, verified quantitatively and qualitatively in multiple ways. It then rolled out those findings in 2010 to its organization to ingest and use.

The results were remarkable.

Laszlo Bock (at the time Google's VP of people operations) told The New York Times, "We had a statistically significant improvement in manager quality for 75% of our worst-performing managers." Since then, further analysis has added two more attributes to the list.

So what follows are the 10 characteristics Google believes make for the best managers (and that it expects from managers), blended with my perspective on each trait. According to Google, the best managers know how to ...

1. Be a good coach

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You either care about your employees or you don't. There's no gray zone. If you care, then you'll invest time and energy to help your employees become better versions of themselves. That's the first 50 percent of being a good coach.

The other half is knowing you're a facilitator, not a fixer. Ask good questions, don't just give the answers. Expand your coachees' point of view versus giving it to them. Sure, I'm oversimplifying. But not much.

2. Empower teams and don't micromanage

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Absolutely no one likes to be micromanaged. Research from empowerment expert Gretchen Spreitzer (University of Michigan) shows that empowered employees have higher job satisfaction and organizational commitment, which reduces turnover and increases performance and motivation. Also, supervisors who empower are seen as more influential and inspiring by their subordinates.

Everyone wins when you learn to let go.

3. Create an inclusive environment, showing concern for success and well-being

Noah Berger/Reuters

Individual fulfillment is often a joint effort. People derive tremendous joy from being part of a winning team. The best managers facilitate esprit de corps and interdependence.

And employees respond to managers who are concerned about winning, and winning well (in a way that supports their well-being).

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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• 5 tips to effectively manage employees of different ages in the workplace
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• 7 tips for keeping your long-distance relationship alive during the pandemic

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