What does scientific research have to say about great leadership?

Few scientific studies have been done about leadership in tech companies, probably because it’s so hard to quantify and it’s difficult to design a study that includes participants from multiple organizations. Few companies are large enough to have the critical-mass of leaders necessary to get a sample size that allows researchers to make statistically-significant conclusions about their findings.

Despite all that, I know of at least two tech companies that have done large research studies about their managers:

1. Google’s “Project Oxygen” studied managers and found 8 common traits shared among the most successful
2. Facebook’s VP of People did a similar study and found 7 common behaviors.

Let’s take a look at what they have to say…

Google’s Project Oxygen

I can summarize the findings of this study in a TLDR: “love your people.” Project Oxygen identified 8 traits common to their best managers. Like love, the identified behaviors are rooted in action, so it’s difficult for managers to fake them.

Here they are in order of importance…

1. Be a good coach: Provide specific, constructive feedback which balances positive and negative. Have regular 1:1s, present solutions to problems tailored to employees’ specific strengths.
2. Empower the team and don’t micromanage: Balance giving freedom to employees and being available for advice. Give “stretch” assignments to help the team tackle big problems.
3. Express interest/concern in team members’ success and well-being: Get to know employees as people, with lives outside work. Make new members of the team feel welcome.
4. Be productive and results-oriented: Focus on what the team needs to achieve, and how team members can help achieve it. Help the team to prioritize work. Use seniority to remove roadblocks.
5. Be a good two-way communicator — listen to the team and share information: Hold staff meetings and be straightforward about messages and goals. Help your team connect the dots (to other teams, the company’s vision/mission, etc.). Encourage open dialogue, and listen to employees’ issues and concerns.
6. Help employees with career development: Discuss goals at 1:1s and how they relate to long-term career path. (This sounds similar to #1)
7. Have a clear vision and strategy for the team: Even in the midst of turmoil, keep the team focused on goals. Involve the team in setting your mission and vision, and making progress towards them. (I call this “Work on your business, not in your business”)
8. Have key vocational skills that help advise the team: Prioritize conducting work side-by-side with team members, when needed.
   Understand specific challenges of the job. (Interestingly this one is last on the list.)

Facebook’s research

Facebook didn’t give their study a codename like Google, but their results are no less fascinating. They found 7 behaviors that stood out among their best managers:

1. Care about your team members: Make personal connections with your employees and actually want to see them succeed.
2. Provide opportunities for growth, to constantly learn and develop your employees’ skills.
3. Set clear expectations and goals: performance ratings should never be a surprise. Constantly let all employees know what is expected of them, as both individuals and members of a team.
4. Give frequent, actionable feedback: Build a level of trust and transparency so your reports can adapt quickly and become more productive and effective.
5. Provide helpful resources: without micromanaging, be aware of where each of your employees are at so you can remove roadblocks, provide insight or assistance.
6. Hold your team accountable for success: employees need to know that you’ll adjust their responsibilities accordingly depending on their performance.
7. Recognize outstanding work: the most engaged employees work in an environment where impactful results are celebrated.

Meta-analysis

A few themes jump out that are common to both Google and Facebook:

1. Coaching/caring: Help everyone on your team with career development, provide opportunities for growth
2. Two-way communicator: listen and share, provide frequent actionable feedback
3. Empower your team: hold your team accountable for success, recognize outstanding work, advise — and provide resources to — team members without micromanaging them.
4. Have a vision and strategy for the team, be results-oriented, and help the team prioritize work.

Lastly, it’s interesting that the strength of vocational/technical skills didn’t show up until the last item on Google’s list and isn’t present at all in Facebook’s results. Yet Engineering Manager interview loops still over-index on vocational experience, at the expense of the above traits that are scientifically correlated with success. You can coach a basketball player on shooting free throws, but you can’t coach them on being taller.

If you’re looking for a framework to improve your skills as a leader, you could do worse than one that’s backed by science!

Bonus! Pitfalls

Google’s research also identifies three pitfalls for managers. Be careful you’re not doing any of these:

1. Trouble making a transition into a team. This is often the case when a fantastic engineer is promoted to management without having the skills to do their new job (If this describes you, I can help). But even experienced managers hired from outside the org may not understand the unique aspects of managing at your org.
2. Lack of a consistent approach to performance management or career development. It’s critical to help employees understand how these things work at your company, and to coach them on their options for development. Be proactive, don’t wait for employees to come to you with these topics.
3. Spending too little time managing and communicating. Setting context is your job, so you should do a lot of it. Unless your team is saying things like “Stop giving us so much helpful information about our business objectives!” you’re probably not communicating enough.