The 10 Things That Separate Good Managers From Great Ones

Good managers are made, not born.

Most people become managers by accident.

One day you're good at your job. The next day you're responsible for five people who are trying to be good at theirs. Nobody hands you a manual. Nobody tells you that the skills that got you promoted are almost entirely different from the skills you now need.

I've been on both sides of this. I've had managers who made me better. I've had managers who made me smaller. And I've been a manager myself — which means I've probably done both to people without fully realizing it.

Google spent years studying what actually separates their best managers from the rest. What they found wasn't about intelligence or technical brilliance. It was about behavior. Consistent, repeatable, learnable behavior.

They called it Project Oxygen. Here's what they found.

The 10 Behaviors of Google's Best Managers

1. They coach — they don't just direct. The difference between a manager and a coach is simple: a manager tells you what to do, a coach helps you figure out how to think. The best managers ask more than they answer.

2. They empower — they don't micromanage. If you hired someone to do a job and then watch over their shoulder every hour, you haven't delegated — you've just added a layer of anxiety. Trust is the foundation. Accountability is the structure. Micromanagement is neither.

3. They build environments where people can actually succeed. Psychological safety isn't a soft concept. It's a performance multiplier. People do their best work when they're not spending energy managing how they're perceived.

4. They are productive and results-oriented. Good intentions don't move things forward. The best managers translate vision into action, and action into outcomes. They care about what actually gets done.

5. They listen first, then share. Most communication problems are listening problems in disguise. Before you share your view, understand theirs. This sounds obvious. It is also rarely practiced.

6. They invest in the people under them. A manager's job is not just to extract performance — it's to develop it. If the people on your team aren't growing, that's on you as much as it is on them.

7. They have a clear vision and communicate it. People can handle difficulty. What they can't handle is uncertainty about where they're going. Clarity about direction is one of the most underrated gifts a manager can give.

8. They know enough to be useful — not just administrative. You don't need to be the most technically skilled person on the team. But you need to understand the work well enough to give real guidance, not just process management.

9. They collaborate beyond their own team. The best managers understand that their team exists inside a larger system. They build bridges, share context, and create allies — not silos.

10. They make decisions. Indecision is a decision. It just tends to be the worst one. The best managers gather what they need, weigh it honestly, and then commit. They course-correct when needed — but they move.

The One Practice That Ties All of This Together

There's a simple framework for regular one-on-ones that I've found genuinely useful: Rose, Thorn, Bud.

What's going well — Rose. What's causing concern — Thorn. What has potential that hasn't fully developed yet — Bud.

It sounds almost too simple. But creating a predictable, honest space where someone can tell you all three things — without fear, without performance — is rarer than it should be.

And when something specific happens — good or bad — address it immediately. Name the situation, describe the behavior, explain the impact, suggest the action. Don't let it sit. Don't let it fester. Feedback delayed is feedback diluted.

The Honest Part

I print lists like this and ask myself whether I'm actually doing any of it.

The answer, on most days, is: some of it. Not all of it. Not consistently enough.

Leadership is not a destination. It's a practice — and like any practice, the gap between knowing what to do and actually doing it is where the real work lives.

The ten behaviors above aren't a standard to achieve once. They're a mirror to return to, regularly, and ask: am I showing up the way I intend to?

That question alone, asked honestly, is worth more than most leadership courses.

If this resonated — subscribe. More coming.

— The Andes