Effective engineering managers

The 10 traits that make great managers from Google's Project Oxygen

Today we’ll talk about 10 data-driven traits that make an effective manager, through the lens of Google’s Project Oxygen. This challenged preconceived notions about the role and usefulness of managers at the company and had a large impact on Google.

Do managers matter?

When Google launched Project Oxygen in 2008, it marked a pivotal moment in the company's approach to leadership. Since our early days, skepticism about the value of management permeated the company’s engineering-centric culture. Many employees believed managers got in the way rather than enabling breakthroughs.

As one software engineer, Eric Flatt, puts it, “We are a company built by engineers for engineers.” And most engineers, not just those at Google, want to spend their time designing and debugging, not communicating with bosses or supervising other workers’ progress.

This skepticism reached a fever pitch in 2002 when founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin briefly eliminated all engineering management roles. They believed innovation would accelerate in a completely flat organization. However, it quickly became clear this structure was untenable. 

Page and Brin realized managers did serve important functions, even in Google's unorthodox environment. But doubts lingered about management's marginal utility, especially among engineers and developers who prized autonomy.

To address this lingering skepticism with hard data, Laszlo Bock, Google's SVP of People Operations, launched Project Oxygen in 2008. Partnering with statistician Prasad Setty and Google's pioneering People Analytics team, Oxygen aimed to quantify the impact of management through rigorous analysis.

The Oxygen team drew from a wealth of internal Google data, including:

• Performance reviews 

• Employee satisfaction surveys

• 360-degree manager feedback 

• Manager ratings

• Award nominations

Project Oxygen colead Neal Patel recalled: “We knew the team had to be careful. Google has high standards of proof, even for what, at other places, might be considered obvious truths. Simple correlations weren’t going to be enough. So we actually ended up trying to prove the opposite case—that managers don’t matter. Luckily, we failed.”

Patel and his team reviewed exit-interview data to see if employees cited management issues as a reason for leaving Google. Those didn’t apply to the company more broadly, given the low turnover rates overall. Nor did the findings prove that managers caused attrition. As a next step, Patel examined Googlegeist ratings and semiannual reviews, comparing managers on both satisfaction and performance. For both dimensions, he looked at the highest and lowest scorers (the top and bottom quartiles).

Statistical analysis of this data upended prevailing assumptions. It revealed that having an excellent manager was the strongest predictor of an employee's performance, happiness, and retention at Google. 

In other words, management mattered tremendously. This insight was pivotal for shifting mindsets in Google's engineering-driven culture.

Armed with proof that management impacted performance, the next crucial question emerged: what behaviors defined an excellent Google manager? 

To decode this, the Oxygen team undertook extensive qualitative research, surveying over 10,000 employees and interviewing high and low-scoring managers from engineering, sales, marketing and other functions. Their rigorous process yielded over 400 pages of insights.

Google first had to figure out what its best managers did. So the researchers followed up with double-blind qualitative interviews, asking the high- and low-scoring managers questions such as “How often do you have career development discussions with your direct reports?” and “What do you do to develop a vision for your team?” Managers from Google’s three major functions (engineering, global business, and general and admin-istrative) participated; they came from all levels and geographies. The team also studied thousands of qualitative comments from Googlegeist surveys, performance reviews, and submissions for the company’s Great Manager Award. It took several months to code and process all this information.

What makes a great manager?

Analysis of this rich qualitative data identified 8 consistent habits that distinguished Google's highest-rated managers:

1. Is a good coach

2. Empowers team and does not micromanage   

3. Creates an inclusive team environment 

4. Is results-oriented

5. Is a strong communicator - listens and shares information

6. Supports career development

7. Has a clear vision and strategy  

8. Has key technical expertise

The most surprising revelation from the original analysis was that technical expertise ranked lowest in importance for Google employees. This ran counter to assumptions that engineering knowledge was paramount for managers in tech.

Instead, Google employees overwhelmingly valued emotional intelligence, support, and interpersonal skills in their managers. They desired coaches who developed talent, communicated transparently, removed obstacles and fueled an inclusive culture.

“Engineers hate being micromanaged on the technical side but love being closely managed on the career side.”

Project Oxygen today

We found that over time, the qualities of a great manager at Google had evolved and we grew the list to 10 habits. This isn’t too surprising as the size, scope and culture of large companies can subtly influence its approach to management. Behaviors 3 and 6 have been updated and behaviors 9 and 10 are new:

These insights highlighted the need to rethink management training, even at a technology powerhouse like Google.

Above illustration is from Harvard Business Review where we shared insights into Project Oxygen back in 2010.

In response, the company incorporated the new behaviors into manager feedback surveys and made them the cornerstone of new leadership development initiatives.

For example, Google:

• Tailored upward feedback surveys to align with the behaviors so managers received clear coaching on areas to improve

• Created a "Start Right" program to train new managers on the behaviors

• Launched an intensive 6-month Manager Flagship course focused on enacting the behaviors  

• Revamped its Great Manager Awards selection criteria to recognize behaviors like coaching, support and communication over pure productivity

This data-driven approach enabled Google to tangibly strengthen its management bench depth. It also provided enduring, often counterintuitive insights into the human realities of management that extended far beyond Google. 

While Google has gone through different changes over time to how it evaluates managers and individual contributors (such as GRAD introduced in 2022), I wanted to share this outcome of Project Oxygen from a few years ago where Google managers received semiannual feedback reports like this fictitious sample we shared with Harvard Business Review back when Oxygen’s insights were first shared:

At its essence, Project Oxygen underscored that management excellence stems from meeting universal human needs for growth, inclusion and purpose. While technical expertise is a minimum requirement, Google's people analytics revealed employees fundamentally seek inspiration, development, and compassion from their managers.

If you’re interesting in learning more about leading effective engineering teams, my O’Reilly book focused on this topic is coming out during 2024 and is available to pre-order.

Case studies outside of engineering

While Project Oxygen originated within Google's engineering-driven culture, its insights have proven widely applicable for elevating leadership across diverse functions. Through rigorous people analytics, Google identified universal human truths about the behaviors that distinguish high-performing managers - no matter their specialty.

Consider the story of Sebastien Marotte, a sales leader who joined Google from Oracle. Despite quickly delivering strong results, Marotte was shocked upon receiving low scores in his first Upward Feedback Survey. Struggling to reconcile the stark disconnect between his manager's positive review and team's negative perceptions, Marotte dug into the comments.

With help, he systematically addressed areas like communication and transparency highlighted by his reports. Through demonstrating responsive care and clarity around direction, Marotte raised his team's favorability score from 46% to 86% within months.

Margaret Davis, a director managing large sales accounts, experienced similar surprises from her first feedback results. Though seeing her team daily, survey responses revealed individuals desired more one-on-one coaching and vision setting from Davis. By simply scheduling regular check-ins and directly interpreting company goals for her reports, she quickly boosted engagement.

The journeys of both sales leaders underscore how Project Oxygen's findings apply outside engineering roles. The principles of support, inspirational leadership and development resonate universally across functions. Further, Oxygen's rigorous data-gathering prescribed the means for leaders like Marotte and Davis to pinpoint then close experience gaps tailored to their teams. These case studies illustrate the unmatched value of people analytics in revealing precise areas for management improvement - if leaders courageously confront the truths surfaced.

Key Lessons from Project Oxygen

1. Leverage Rigorous People Analytics

Project Oxygen pioneered using sophisticated people analytics to decode management excellence. Google demonstrated the immense power of applying data-driven scrutiny to people processes.

Organizations can replicate this approach by leveraging employee surveys, performance data, exit interviews and other sources of insight. Look for discrepancies between assumptions and hard evidence on management behaviors that drive engagement and performance. 

2. Coach for Soft Skills

Oxygen's most pivotal insight was the primacy of emotional intelligence, inclusion, and interpersonal ability in distinguished management. Even at a tech giant like Google, technical expertise paled in importance compared to coaching, support and communication.

This highlights the need to coach managers of all backgrounds on "soft skills" like conflict resolution, inspirational leadership, influence and empathy. Evaluate your management training curriculum - does it sufficiently develop these capabilities? 

3. Localize Insights 

Google’s data revealed company-specific nuances about valued management behaviors. While Oxygen's lessons are broadly applicable, each organization should utilize people analytics to identify what works best for its unique culture. Balance universal management principles with tailored insights.

4. Cascade Learnings Across Processes 

Project Oxygen was impactful because Google cascaded its learnings across core talent processes. From performance management to training programs and feedback tools, the behaviors became embedded companywide. 

Operationalize people analytics findings holistically to maximize impact. Sync insights across surveys, goal-setting, training, rewards and metrics.

5. Speak to Employees with Data

Project Oxygen influenced behavior change at Google by speaking the language of data to employees. Qualitative insights directly from co-workers were extremely credible, especially when backed by statistics. 

Use people data as an anchor for change management. Demonstrate links between behaviors and outcomes. Transparently share findings from internal surveys and interviews.

6. Balance Skills and Attributes

Google's management behaviors exemplify how people analytics can identify specific learnable skills along with required attributes and mindsets.

Look for a balanced set of granular competencies, motivators and traits your organization needs in management roles. Map key strengths to target in recruiting and development.

7. Focus on Supporting Humans  

At its core, Project Oxygen highlighted that employees want to feel recognized, included and inspired by their managers. Analytics proved management's value lies in fueling human potential. 

People-centered management that supports growth, purpose and flexibility remains crucial. Regularly diagnose and enhance how well your managers connect, develop and care for their teams.

Project Oxygen's Impact at Google

Project Oxygen's data-driven insights catalyzed a profound evolution in Google's engineering-oriented culture by proving managers' immense impact. 

Oxygen's findings enabled Google leaders to conclusively address skepticism about management's value. They spoke to employees through credible data that resonated in Google's rigorous, empirically-driven culture.

Armed with specific behavioral insights, Google could systematically improve management quality companywide. The implementation of aligned feedback tools, training programs and processes had tangible benefits:

• 75% of Google's lowest-rated managers markedly improved after adopting the 8 behaviors

• Manager feedback survey favorability rose from 83% to 88% over two years

• Management training program completion increased 87% 

• Google increased the proportion of high-potential managers promoted to VP by 10%, with Great Manager Award winners strongly represented

Why did we add two more items to the original list of 8?

Collaborates across Google

As Google has expanded into a global technology conglomerate with over 200,000 employees, effective collaboration across functions, business units and geographies has become increasingly crucial.

Team members expect managers to demonstrate strong partnership abilities to break down silos, tap expertise globally, and build alignment behind priorities.

This management behavior also ties to Google's signature focus on innovation. The company recognizes that its next big breakthroughs will likely emerge from combining capabilities across teams. Managers who model and foster interfunctional teaming are best positioned to spark the serendipitous creativity that comes from bridging disparate perspectives.

Is a strong decision maker

Rounding out the updated list of 10 management attributes is "is a strong decision maker." This competency speaks to the mounting complexity leaders face in charting direction amidst today's VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous) climate. Employees yearn for decisiveness from managers to maintain momentum while also enabling quick pivots.

Yet rapid decision-making must also be balanced with soliciting diverse inputs and bringing others along through reason and clarity. Google employees appreciate leaders who drive sound choices transparently backed by compelling logic focused on people, the mission and desired outcomes.

While built initially from Google's unique engineering culture, Project Oxygen's framework for management excellence has proven durable as the company has morphed.

At its core, Oxygen highlighted the universal human foundation of impactful leadership: supporting growth, sparking innovation and imbuing work with purpose and meaning. The behaviors it illuminated remain highly relevant for all organizations aiming to lead through connection, development and care.

How can you apply Oxygen’s insights to your team?

While Project Oxygen was conducted within Google's unique large-scale technology environment, many of its lessons around high-impact people leadership are broadly applicable. Teams and companies of all sizes in various industries can reference and tailor Oxygen's insights to strengthen their own management practices.

“Project Oxygen is WAY more powerful if you customize it for your individual organization. The relative power and interactions of the dimensions matters a lot” - Laszlo Bock

Here are some practical and realistic ways other organizations can translate Project Oxygen's findings:

1. Conduct Lightweight People Analytics

Emulate Google's discovery mindset by regularly diagnosing your workforce's experience and views through pulse surveys, focus groups and exit interviews. Ask targeted questions to decode improvements areas related to factors like work empowerment, career support from managers, and feedback effectiveness. Look for assumptions your culture holds about management.

While statistical analysis capability may be limited in smaller teams, thoughtfully gathering even directional people insights can reveal management blindspots.

2. Build Core Management Skills

Keep the management behaviors identified by Project Oxygen front of mind during hiring and in developing your management bench strength. Highlight competencies like coaching, communication, support for work-life integration and cultivating an inclusive culture. This can help articulate the attributes of high-performing leaders within your organization's context.

3. Align People Processes

Just as Google embedded Project Oxygen's insights across core HR programs, assess how thoroughly your performance management, learning programs, and feedback tools reinforce effective management skills. Though resources are limited in smaller companies, look for cost-efficient ways to cascade key priorities through people practices.

4. Address Burning Barriers

Project Oxygen built proof to change Google's entrenched skepticism about the need for management. Identify and tackle your most persistent, unspoken people management myths by naming concerns transparently, gathering objective counter-evidence and making balanced decisions.

5. Focus on Trust & Connection

At its heart, Google found employees want to be developed, included and connected to purpose by their managers. No matter your size and industry, anchor management leadership in genuine care for people’s wellbeing and ability to make meaningful impact.

While not every team operates at technology giant scale, concentrating leadership on humane, engaging and development-focused interactions generates outsized returns for organizations of all types by empowering people to bring their best.

Conclusion

The success of Project Oxygen underscored the benefits of applying Google's signature data-driven approach to the messiness of people management. Through sophisticated analysis, the company uncovered universal human truths about what employees need from managers.

Over a decade later, Project Oxygen's insights remain highly relevant. Management excellence stems from fueling human potential through support, communication and development.

At a company like Google, managers have a complex, demanding role to play. They must go beyond overseeing the day-to-day work and support their employees’ personal needs, development, and career planning. That means providing smart, steady feedback to guide people to greater levels of achievement—but intervening judiciously and with a light touch, since high-performing knowledge workers place a premium on autonomy. It’s a delicate bal-ancing act to keep employees happy and motivated through enthusiastic cheerleading while helping them grow through stretch assignments and care-fully modulated feedback. When the process works well, it can yield extraordinary results.

With technology continuously evolving, understanding the fundamentals of good leadership is more valuable than ever. These 10 habits have continued to serve us well as we look at what makes for effective managers:

1. Is a good coach

2. Empowers team and does not micromanage   

3. Creates an inclusive team environment 

4. Is results-oriented

5. Is a strong communicator - listens and shares information

6. Supports career development and discusses performance

7. Has a clear vision and strategy for the team

8. Has key technical skills to help advise the team

9. Collaborates across Google

10. Is a strong decision maker

Though Google was on the vanguard of using people analytics, organizations of all types can follow its lead. The possibilities are tremendous when you combine curiosity with data to decode and develop high-impact management. Ultimately, Project Oxygen proved that management done right delivers outsized returns by empowering people to do their best work.

When human potential is unleashed, organizations thrive.

If you enjoyed this write-up, you might also like Leading Effective Engineering Teams.

Where did the name “Project Oxygen” come from?

“Neal was in the habit of naming his projects after elements from the periodic table, so Michelle proposed Project Oxygen, because “having a good manager is essential, like breathing. And if we make managers better, it would be like a breath of fresh air.” - Laszlo