You can use Google’s management tools for your organisation
We all use Google products for our online work from email to an never-ending array of apps offered in the cloud. Now Google is providing their own management tools as well in Re:Work blog that covers a variety of management areas like feedback and career development in a series of instructive documents used by managers at Google. These are a result of years of insights analysing reviews and other observable data to determine essential leadership traits.
Here’s a quick list what’s available. Each header below has the link to the corresponding documentation from Google.
Manager feedback survey
Employees can evaluate their managers with a 13-question survey. The first 11 measure whether employees agree or disagree with statements like “My manager shows consideration for me as a person.” The final two questions (“What would you recommend your manager keep doing?” and “What would you have your manager change?”) are open-ended.
At Google, these survey responses are reported confidentially, and managers receive a report of anonymised, aggregated feedback, plus verbatim answers to the two open-ended questions. “The feedback a manager gets through this survey is purely developmental,” Google says. “It isn’t directly considered in performance or compensation reviews, in the hope that Googlers will be honest and constructive with their feedback.”
Career conversations worksheet
Google’s management analysis reveals that above all, employees value knowing that their manager is invested in their personal success and career development. To help managers effectively discuss development with their direct reports, Google uses the GROW model — which organizes the conversation into four recommended sections:
- Goal: What do you want? Establish what the team member really wants to achieve with their career.
- Reality: What’s happening now? Establish the team member’s understanding of their current role and skills.
- Options: What could you do? Generate multiple options for closing the gap from goal to reality.
- Will: What will you do? Identify achievable steps to move from reality to goal.
“One Simple Thing” worksheet
One Simple Thing embraces the idea that the small things can lead to extraordinary life changes. To encourage personal well-being and work-life balance, Google uses this popular goal-setting practice. The goal should be specific enough to measure its impact on one’s well-being. “Managers can encourage team members to explain how pursuing this one thing won’t negatively affect their work,” Google explains. “That goal then becomes part of a team member’s set of goals that managers should hold them accountable for, along with whatever work-related goals they already have.”
Some examples of “One Simple Thing” goals include “I will take a one hour break three times a week to work out,” and “I will not read emails on the weekends.”
1 on 1 Meeting agenda template
At Google, the highest-rated managers hold frequent one-on-one meetings with their direct reports. However, as most leaders know, individual check-ins can often feel rushed and disorganized. To squeeze the most out of each one-on-one (which Google managers are advised to hold every week or two) Googlers set up a shared meeting agenda ahead of time — which both the manager and the report should contribute to.
Some agenda items Google suggests include:
- Check-in and catch-up questions: “What can I help you with?” and “What have you been up to?”
- Roadblocks or issues
- Goal updates
- Administrative topics (e.g., upcoming vacations, expense reports)
- Next steps to confirm actions and agreements
- Career development and coaching
Organisations which embrace communication and leadership will find these tools an easy starting point in their pursuit of management excellence.
