Page 46 - Fundamentals of Management Myths Debunked (2017)_Flat

CHAPTER 1 • Managers and Management 45
Laszlo Bock, said, “My first reaction was, that’s it?” Another • Display good communication skills, especially listening
writer described it as “reading like a whiteboard gag from an (learn to listen and to share information; encourage open
episode of The Office.” But, as the old saying goes, there was dialogue and pay attention to the team’s concerns)
more to this list than meets the eye. • Help individuals to reach their long-term work goals (notice
When Bock and his team began looking closer and rank employees’ efforts so they can see how their hard work is
ordering the eight items by importance, Project Oxygen got furthering their careers; appreciate employees’ efforts and
make that appreciation known)
interesting—a lot more interesting! And to understand this, • Provide an unambiguous vision of the future (lead the team
you have to understand something about Google’s approach but keep everyone involved in developing and working
to management since its founding in 1999. Plain and simple, toward the team’s vision)
managers were encouraged to “leave people alone. Let the • Ensure you have the necessary technical abilities to support
engineers do their stuff. If they become stuck, they’ll ask employee efforts (understand the challenges facing the team
their bosses, whose deep technical expertise propelled them and be able to help team members solve problems)
to management in the first place.” It’s not hard to see what Now, managers at Google aren’t just encouraged to be great
Google wanted its managers to be—outstanding technical managers, they know what being a great manager involves. And
specialists. Mr. Bock explains, “In the Google context, we’d the company is doing its part, as well. Using the list, Google
always believed that to be a started training managers, as
manager, particularly on the Data cruncher Google well as providing individual
engineering side, you need to coaching and performance
be as deep or deeper a tech- crunched data to find out review sessions. You can say
nical expert than the people what being a great manager that Project Oxygen breathed
who work for you.” However, involves. new life into Google’s man-
Project Oxygen revealed that agers. Bock says the compa-
technical expertise was ranked ny’s efforts paid off quickly.
number eight (very last) on the list. So, here’s the complete list “We were able to have a statistically significant improvement
from most important to least important, along with what each in manager quality for 75 percent of our worst-performing
characteristic entails: managers.”
• Provide coaching support when needed (provide specific
feedback and have regular one-on-one meetings with Discussion Questions
employees; offer solutions tailored to each employee’s
strengths) 1-17 Describe the findings of Project Oxygen using the functions
approach, Mintzberg’s roles approach, and the skills approach.
• Avoid over-managing; let your team be responsible (give
employees space to tackle problems themselves, but be avail- 1-18 Are you surprised at what Google found out about “building a
able to offer advice) better boss?” Explain your answer.
• Express interest in employees’ well-being (make new team 1-19 What’s the difference between encouraging managers to be
members feel welcome and get to know your employees as great managers and knowing what being a great manager
people) involves?
• Focus on being productive and on end results (focus on help- 1-20 What could other companies learn from Google’s experiences?
ing the team achieve its goals by prioritizing work and get- 1-21 Would you want to work for a company like Google? Why or
ting rid of obstacles) why not?

CAse AppLICATION 3
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Saving the World

ou used to be able to tell who the bad guys were. But businesses, governments, and other organizations. Surveys
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