Being a Good Manager: Nature or Nurture (or Science)?

Jessica Kleiman of Forbes reports�on a recent story in The New York Times business section about Google?s quest to build a better boss, an initiative called ?Project Oxygen.? The wildly successful technology company, whose algorithms have changed the way we use the Internet, applied its scientific methods to analyze what makes a good manager and then mapped out a series of tenets called ?The Eight Habits of Highly Effective Google Managers.? These commandments, which include ?Have a clear vision and strategy for the team? and ?Don?t be a sissy: Be productive and results-oriented,? sound pretty obvious to us ? but then again, I?d like to think of myself as decent manager. Most people, in fact, are not.

In a survey by Business Insider, 41 percent of respondents said that disliking a boss was a driving force in quitting their jobs.

And according to a CareerBuilder survey, the top issues managers struggle with are dealing with issues between co-workers; motivating team members; performance reviews; finding the needed resources to support the team; and creating career paths for their employees. No one said managing people was easy. For many, it?s the most challenging part of a job.

So, is Google right? Can simple analytics make a bad manager into a better one or are some people just born to lead and others aren?t?

I actually think that the eight guiding principles Google has devised make a lot of sense. (Frankly, many seem like common sense ? did they really need to apply deep analytics to arrive at ?Be a good communicator? and ?Help your employees with career development??) But even Google admitted in the article that one of their more difficult and disliked managers showed improvement but didn?t become a great manager after following these rules.

Read the full article at Forbes Woman

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