Is being humble a good trait for workers? Google's hiring chief answers yes and explains why
If you want to hire good workers, look for people who are smart, conscientious and humble, according to Google’s human resources chief.
Laszlo Bock, who heads “people operations” at Google, is offering his advice on hiring and motivation in a new book called Work Rules! The Wall Street Journal (sub. req.) and the Washington Post have stories.
Bock explained why humility is important in a February 2014 interview with the New York Times. Research has shown that many people from the top business schools plateau, and the reason is lack of intellectual humility, he said.
“Successful bright people rarely experience failure, and so they don’t learn how to learn from that failure,” Bock told the Times.
“They, instead, commit the fundamental attribution error, which is if something good happens, it’s because I’m a genius. If something bad happens, it’s because someone’s an idiot or I didn’t get the resources or the market moved.”
The best people at Google, he said, will be “zealots about their point of view,” but when confronted with new information, they will say, “Oh, well, that changes things; you’re right.”
At work, managers should empower employees to solve problems themselves, Bock says. He also encourages frequent performance reviews, as well as employees reviews of their bosses. At Google, boss critiques are used to help managers improve.
Google’s best managers weren’t necessarily football team captains or chess club presidents, Bock tells the Washington Post. “Instead our best leaders were the ones who, when they saw a problem, were conscientious enough to and step in and fix it—and low ego enough and self-aware enough to then step out and let other people fix the next phase.”
