Google Employees Just Want Their Bosses To Act Like Parents

Google, the top dog of data-driven ingenuity, recently conducted a study called Project Oxygen to help them identify and define the key traits of good management. They surveyed employees and created complex data metrics to finally narrow it down to eight traits, the least important of which ended up being the possession of a wide base of technical expertise the better to advise your team about operations-type problems with. While this knowledge is still valued in a leader by Google’s employees, it is not valued above all other things.

Commentators have been agog at the fact that tech workers, according to the study, did not demand that their bosses be technically savvy above all else, but to be honest, we were not that surprised. The employee values that we assume Google desires their workers to possess — creativity, intelligence, independence, and self-motivation, would point to the fact that these techies probably don’t need or desire that much help doing their actual jobs, they’ll figure it out on their own, rather they’re looking for support of the emotional kind.

It follows too that the technical expertise that makes them so good at their jobs — the many hours each day spent working with computers, might also make it easier to forget that working with people requires a different kind of finesse, for machines of the human persuasion won’t necessarily change their behavior when you give them a new command. We’re not judging or generalizing here, but instead attempting to form a hypothesis to explain these counter-intuitive results.

The top trait that a manager should possess as identified by Project Oxygen is “to be a good coach.” Employees are looking for one-on-one support from their boss, as well as a more intimate relationship with them that would facilitate managers being able to offer solutions to employee problems that are tailored to that employees specific strengths.

Number three on the list is “express interest in your team members’ success and well-being,” number five of eight is to “be a good communicator and listen to your team.” It seems that Google employees, perhaps without realizing it, have identified many of the qualities that make a good parent. The data shows that employees want to feel loved and appreciated, challenged, but also protected. They thrive on the positive feedback loop generated by an admiration for their superior that fuels a desire to please, which is then rewarded with positive reinforcement on the work completed or the behavior displayed. Not so different from a child and their parent, we think. Perhaps Google’s first order of business should be to hire a couple of on-staff childcare professionals to give them a few pointers.

Google

[via Business Insider]