You may have heard about Project Oxygen. A team of statisticians at Google gathered more than 10,000 observations about managers, across more than 100 variables, and crunched mountains of performance reviews, feed back surveys and reports, concluding in a comprehensive, research based, data driven analysis and framework on leadership effectiveness (for more read NYT, March 13 Business section). They have spent a year rolling out the results and translating them into a training system. Working for a weak manager is one of the major causes of employee turnover and low morale. The ability of the organization to recruit, hire, promote, and develop to the learnings of Project Oxygen can have a profound impact on Google’s competitive advantage and market leadership. The summary of the key lessons learned are not surprising but the heft of the research reinforces ways of leading I personally align with:
Applying the values of the Character Triangle supports the above analysis. The more one embraces and applies accountability, respect, and abundance, the more likely and easier is the connection to Google’s Big 8!
Character Move: if you want to be a strong leader, start applying purposeful practice in all 8 areas. Get feedback on each element and develop from there. It is not too late or early in your career to start.
Leading in the Triangle,
Lorne