Leadership is defined as a process of encouraging or influencing others to achieve common organizational goals. (William & McWilliams, 2010). However, leaders are different from managers. Leaders are those who aim to do the right thing while managers are the ones who do things right. (William & McWilliams, 2010). During the past years, Google has received a lot of attention regarding their unusual leadership methods that makes Google the best place to work in the US. (Fortune Magazine, 2009).

 

One of the leadership theories is leadership traits. In the traits theory, leaders are believed to have a similar set of characteristics. (William & McWilliams, 2010). Successful leaders have a strong driving force. Leaders at Google have a high level of determination and responsibility; as a result they always recruit top talent in order to keep the work place lively and innovative. Knowledge of the business and cognitive ability are important because leaders need to have knowledge and ability in order to lead. (William & McWilliams, 2010). In Google, having a lot of experience does not always mean that they are the best. For instance, Larry Page founded Google when he was in university (very little experience) but yet he was a computer scientist which gave him vast knowledge about the business and he hence went on to become the CEO. (Wikipedia, 2015). Emotional stability is a common trait in Google leaders; due to the fact that employees can plan their own schedule, leaders have to sacrifice some of their authority. This increases their self-confidence as they must have faith in themselves in order to make wise decisions. Honesty and integrity makes employees believe in their leaders and work under their authority. (William & McWilliams, 2010). Google highly values leaders with honesty and integrity because the first step is to make employees trust their leaders.

 

Another theory is called leadership style. Leadership style is the leaders’ behaviour towards their followers which includes providing direction, implementing plans, and also motivating employees. (William & McWilliams, 2010) Generally, there are 4 types of leadership style which are directive, supportive, participative, and achievement oriented leadership. Google mainly uses a combination between participative and supportive leadership. Participative leadership means that leaders give staff freedom of decision-making and leaders ask for suggestions from staff before making decisions while supportive leadership creates a friendly atmosphere in the organization. They treat staff equally and show concern in their welfare. (William& McWIlliams, 2010). Google gives freedom for their staff to make decisions on their own. Not only that, leaders also consult their staff members when making decisions so that each employee feels respected and has a strong sense of belonging to the company as they contribute in each decision that is made. Google also provides their staff many facilities and services that encourage them to work hard such as free hair-cut, gym, free massage, billiards, even free laundry and many more (Strickland, n.d.). Moreover, in order to reduce stress, Google has a 70-20-10 policy about time allocation. 70 percent for Google's main business, 20 percent for off-budget project related to Google, while the remaining 10 percent can be used to pursue their own interest and skills. It is estimated that 50 percent of Google’s new products come from that 10 percent free time. (Manimala & Wasdani, 2013).

 

In conclusion, Google as an international level company works by empowering leaders to make great products and services.