Google's guide to better bosses

The New York Times had an article today describing Google's plan, code-named Project Oxygen, which sought rules for building better bosses.

If these rules are generalizable to other settings, like pharmacy (and I think they are), pharmacists can learn from them.

One finding is that professionals want a boss with technical skills. These technical skills help in advising the team and when pitching in to help as needed. Having and using technical skills helps the boss retain credibility with the team and show that she cares.

The other finding is that technical skills are much less important than people skills -- ranked eighth of the eight skills measured.

These findings are consistent with my experience which is that pharmacist managers can help relationships with staff by rolling up their sleeves and helping out from time-to-time.

However, helping out too often can take the pharmacist manager away from their other job -- managing people. And ultimately, managing people is much of what managers add to the team.

Pharmacist managers who can't juggle the competing technical and people skills will ultimately hurt the team.