What Makes a Great Manager?
10 Lessons from Google’s Project Oxygen Research
A company’s success depends on more than hiring talented employees. Even the most capable professionals can struggle under ineffective management, while strong leadership can help individuals and teams reach their full potential.
But what actually makes someone a great manager?
Google set out to answer this question through an internal research initiative known as Project Oxygen. Beginning in 2008, the company examined management effectiveness, employee feedback, and team performance to identify the behaviors associated with its most successful managers.
The research initially identified eight important management behaviors. As Google continued studying its managers and gathering employee feedback, the list expanded to ten in 2018.
One of the most interesting findings was that technical expertise alone did not define an effective manager. Interpersonal skills, including coaching, communication, empathy, and the ability to develop employees, played an especially important role.
The findings offer valuable lessons for managers across nearly every industry, including information technology, where technically skilled employees are frequently promoted into leadership positions.
1. Be a Good Coach
Effective managers do more than assign work and solve problems. They help their employees develop the knowledge and confidence needed to solve problems independently.
Rather than immediately providing an answer whenever an employee encounters a challenge, a good manager uses the situation as an opportunity for learning.
For example, when an IT technician encounters an unfamiliar issue, a manager might guide the technician through troubleshooting instead of simply taking over the ticket.
This approach develops technical ability, critical thinking, and independence while reducing the team’s long-term reliance on management for routine decisions.
2. Empower Employees Without Micromanaging
Micromanagement can reduce employee confidence, discourage initiative, and create unnecessary dependencies.
Effective managers establish expectations, provide appropriate resources, and trust employees to carry out their responsibilities.
Employees should have the freedom to approach problems creatively, make reasonable decisions, and learn from mistakes without constant supervision.
This does not mean abandoning oversight or accountability. Managers must remain accessible, establish appropriate boundaries, and intervene when circumstances require their involvement.
The objective is to give employees sufficient autonomy to perform effectively while maintaining clear expectations for results.
3. Create an Inclusive Environment and Support Employee Well-Being
Employees perform better when they feel respected, supported, and comfortable contributing to their team.
An important concept associated with Google’s broader team-effectiveness research is psychological safety. This describes an environment in which individuals feel comfortable asking questions, presenting ideas, acknowledging mistakes, and raising concerns without fear of embarrassment or unfair punishment.
For example, an IT technician should feel comfortable reporting an unsuccessful configuration change immediately rather than concealing it out of fear of being blamed.
Creating this environment does not eliminate personal responsibility. Instead, it encourages transparency, constructive discussions, and learning from mistakes.
Managers should also recognize the importance of reasonable workloads, employee well-being, and the effect that workplace conditions have on performance.
4. Be Productive and Results-Oriented
Successful managers focus on achieving meaningful results rather than simply measuring how busy employees appear.
They establish realistic objectives, remove obstacles, and make sure their teams have the resources necessary to accomplish their work.
An effective manager also leads by example and is willing to assist when the team faces difficult circumstances.
Within an IT service desk, for example, resolving a large number of tickets may look impressive. However, ticket volume alone does not necessarily indicate success.
Customer satisfaction, resolution quality, recurring issues, and the need for repeat support can provide a more complete picture of team effectiveness.
The manager’s responsibility is to help the entire team succeed, not simply demonstrate individual productivity.
5. Communicate Effectively and Listen to Employees
Communication is one of the most important responsibilities of management.
Effective managers listen to employee concerns, communicate expectations clearly, and provide the information employees need to perform their responsibilities.
Communication must also flow in both directions. Employees should have opportunities to provide feedback, ask questions, and challenge ideas constructively.
Transparency is particularly important when implementing organizational or operational changes.
For example, if an IT department introduces a new ticket assignment procedure, employees should understand what is changing, why the change is necessary, and how it affects their responsibilities.
When managers communicate the reasoning behind decisions, employees are better positioned to understand and support those decisions.
6. Support Career Development and Provide Constructive Feedback
Great managers take an active interest in their employees’ professional growth.
This includes recognizing accomplishments, providing meaningful feedback, identifying opportunities for improvement, and helping employees work toward their career objectives.
Feedback should be specific, timely, and constructive. Employees should understand both what they are doing well and where improvements are necessary.
Career development should also extend beyond annual performance reviews.
For example, an IT support technician interested in becoming a systems administrator might benefit from additional responsibilities, mentoring, training, or opportunities to participate in infrastructure projects.
Investing in employee development strengthens individual capabilities and helps build a more knowledgeable and versatile team.
7. Establish a Clear Vision and Strategy
An effective manager understands where the team currently stands, what it needs to accomplish, and how it plans to reach its objectives.
Equally important, employees must understand how their individual responsibilities contribute to those goals.
Without clear direction, employees may spend considerable time completing tasks without understanding their relative importance.
For example, an IT department might establish a goal of reducing recurring support incidents.
Achieving that goal could involve improving technical documentation, identifying common root causes, standardizing procedures, and strengthening collaboration between support teams.
A clear strategy allows employees to understand how their daily activities contribute to broader organizational objectives.
8. Maintain Sufficient Technical Knowledge to Advise the Team
Although Google’s research emphasized the importance of interpersonal and leadership skills, technical knowledge remains valuable.
Managers should understand the work performed by their employees, the challenges they encounter, and the tools and processes required to complete their responsibilities.
However, being the most technically knowledgeable person on the team is not necessarily what makes someone the best manager.
An IT manager does not need to personally resolve every complex networking, server, or cybersecurity issue. They should, however, understand enough about these areas to evaluate situations, ask appropriate questions, identify resources, and support informed decisions.
Managers entering unfamiliar departments should also take time to learn existing workflows and understand employee concerns before introducing significant changes.
Technical credibility matters, but it should complement effective leadership rather than replace it.
9. Collaborate Across Departments and Teams
Effective managers recognize that organizational success often depends on cooperation between multiple departments.
Teams that operate independently without sharing information can create unnecessary delays, duplicated efforts, and conflicting priorities.
Managers should encourage collaboration, communicate across departmental boundaries, and consider how their decisions affect other parts of the organization.
Within IT, resolving an incident might require coordination between the help desk, network administrators, systems engineers, security personnel, and external vendors.
A manager who encourages knowledge sharing and effective handoffs can help reduce confusion and improve the overall support experience.
Strong leadership involves looking beyond the immediate interests of one department and considering the needs of the organization as a whole.
10. Be a Strong Decision-Maker
Managers regularly face situations that require decisions involving incomplete information, competing priorities, and differing opinions.
Effective managers gather relevant information, consult appropriate individuals, consider the available options, and make decisions within a reasonable timeframe.
Being decisive does not mean acting impulsively or ignoring employee feedback.
It means recognizing when sufficient information is available to move forward and accepting responsibility for the decision.
For example, during a major IT outage, a manager may need to determine whether to initiate a rollback, escalate the incident, or temporarily suspend a service.
Delaying a necessary decision can sometimes create additional problems.
Once a decision has been made, the manager should communicate it clearly, coordinate its implementation, and remain willing to reassess the approach if new information becomes available.
The Importance of Emotional Intelligence in Management
One of the broader lessons from Project Oxygen is that being highly skilled at performing a job does not automatically translate into being effective at managing others.
Technical knowledge, experience, and problem-solving ability are valuable, but management introduces responsibilities that require a different set of skills.
Emotional intelligence refers to the ability to recognize, understand, and manage emotions in oneself and interact effectively with others.
For managers, these abilities can influence how they provide feedback, handle disagreements, respond to stressful situations, and build relationships with employees.
This distinction is particularly relevant in technical fields, where individuals may be promoted primarily because of their technical accomplishments.
A highly capable engineer or technician may understand complex systems but still need to develop coaching, communication, delegation, and conflict-resolution skills to become an effective manager.
Organizations should therefore consider leadership potential and interpersonal capabilities alongside technical expertise when selecting and developing managers.