Google’s Best Leaders Stretch and Grow Their Teams in These 4 Savvy Ways
Oct 8, 2019
One of the main duties of a leader is to discover techniques to get more out of the teams they manage. The best leaders are the ones that find means to do all of this while developing each team member as an individual (and the team as a collective unit) as well. We look at the most skilled leaders at Google who do four things, in particular, to develop and expand their teams better than your average leader would. Want to lead like Google? Try these four leadership methods:
1. Macromanaging is preferable to micromanagement.
The Google model urges supervisors to delegate tasks to their teams. You have to effectively delegate, not dump everything at once. For a leader to be efficient at delegating, he or she must set clear intentions, timelines, and criteria for the delegated activity. This form of macro-management demands definition as to what the work will require, giving direction on how to defeat any impediments that may arise, and administering the required overall leadership coaching and support required to do the job properly.
Delegating also doesn't imply you can just transfer away from the work and then check out. It demands that a leader and coach stay open for mentoring throughout the process and set routine check-in periods to help break through any obstacles that may arise.
2. Give those you mentor the freedom to sprint--but not into a brick wall.
This is a complex balance to get correct but is remarkably empowering when you do. The greatest leaders know that people have far more enthusiasm for their individual ideas than when they are simply told to take the boss's idea and "go to town". I imagine you find this to be true for yourself, as well?
It's essential to not only let workers run with their concepts but also to show genuine interest in those ideas. Help the ideas on by giving input (when relevant), support, and key relationships to help the plans progress and by setting up connections with the appropriate people when it comes time for the employee to market the plan.
3. Deliver the team the gift of your faith and confidence.
One of my preferred methods as a manager and leadership coach is to go to a project meeting that a subordinate team member was also attending, and then, just before the meeting was to start, tell my direct report that they have my full confidence to lead the meeting themselves. Watch them bust through any nerves and exceed your expectations.
4. Broadcast the team's achievements.
Some of the greatest leaders I've served under were skilled at making sure our team's endeavors and successes did not go unrecognized. They put an intention behind how to herald the team's successes with the wider organization, stoking their team's confidence with individual and insightful observations about each team member, and sharing what about the achievement was so significant. Empowering. Energizing. Essential.
Here's to hoping you develop and increase your leadership skills as you learn from Google how to help your organization do the same.
Read the source article at inc.com
One of the primary responsibilities of a leader is to find ways to get more out of the teams they lead. More top and bottom line growth, greater productivity, bigger ideas, more efficiency, greater cost savings. The best leaders find ways to do all of this while growing each team member as an individual (and the team as a collective unit) as well.
And the best leaders at Google-- who are already a pretty darn talented group -- do four things in particular to stretch and grow their teams better than your run-of-the-mill leader would.
Google even shares an online guide detailing exactly what it takes to do this. Here, I'll share a synopsis of how to empower, stretch, and grow via the four points that follow along with my own perspective from stretching and growing teams over a three-decade career.
