The leadership qualities that determine success have never been more urgent — or more misunderstood. Gallup's 2026 State of the Global Workplace report found that manager engagement dropped from 31% to 22% between 2022 and 2025 — a nine-point collapse that cost the global economy $438 billion in lost productivity in 2024 alone. The cause isn't that managers lack technical skills. It's that they've never been trained in the leadership qualities that actually drive team performance.

Google proved this a decade ago with Project Oxygen — a study of 10,000+ managers using performance data, employee surveys, and double-blind interviews. Of the 10 leadership qualities that predicted managerial effectiveness, only one involved technical expertise. It ranked last. The other nine were interpersonal and cognitive: coaching, empowerment, communication, vision, career development. The 2025 Gallup data confirms this finding at global scale — coaching-focused management training produces 20–28% higher manager performance and up to 18% higher team engagement, with effects persisting 9–18 months after training (Gallup, 2025).

For men stepping into leadership, managing teams, or building careers — this research provides an evidence-based framework for where to invest development time. And it's not where most men default.

What are the most important leadership qualities? Google's Project Oxygen identified 10 behaviours predicting managerial success, with coaching ranked first and technical expertise last. Gallup's 2025–2026 global research confirms this: only 44% of managers worldwide have received any management training, and those trained in coaching techniques show 20–28% higher performance with effects lasting 9–18 months. The qualities that differentiate great leaders are interpersonal — feedback, empowerment, communication, vision — not technical. A 2024 meta-analysis of transformational leadership across 70 studies found significant positive effects on both individual motivation and organisational performance (Bao et al., Review of Public Personnel Administration, 2024).

Qualities of a Good Leader: The 10 Behaviours That Predict Success

Google's People Innovation Lab identified these behaviours through statistical analysis spanning a decade. Gallup's 2025–2026 data — covering 263,810 respondents across 160+ countries — independently validates every one.

1. Is a good coach

The single strongest predictor. Coaching means providing specific, actionable feedback regularly — not waiting for annual reviews. It means asking questions that help people find solutions rather than prescribing answers.

Gallup's 2025 report found that coaching-focused management training boosted manager performance by 20–28% and team engagement by up to 18%, with effects observed 9–18 months post-training. The 2026 report extended this: 70% of team engagement variance is directly attributable to the manager — making coaching the highest-leverage leadership investment available.

2. Empowers the team and does not micromanage

The second behaviour flips the intuitive management model. The best leaders create conditions for autonomous performance, then step back. Research on self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 2000) shows autonomous motivation produces better performance and less fatigue than controlled motivation — a finding reinforced by a 2024 meta-analysis linking empowering leadership to adaptive performance across 21 studies (Bonini et al., PLOS ONE, 2024).

3. Creates an inclusive team environment

Psychological safety — the belief that you won't be punished for asking questions or raising concerns — is the foundation of high-performing teams. Google's separate Project Aristotle confirmed this: psychological safety was the single most important factor differentiating exceptional teams from average ones. Gallup's 2025 data adds a financial dimension: organisations matching a 70% engagement benchmark (achievable through psychologically safe environments) could unlock $9.6 trillion in global productivity — 9% of world GDP.

4. Is productive and results-oriented

Effective leaders drive outcomes — but the mechanism is clarifying priorities and removing obstacles, not increasing pressure. The best managers protect their team's deep work time, eliminate unnecessary meetings, and ensure effort targets work that matters. Microsoft's 2025 Work Trend Index found employees spend 57% of time on communication and only 43% on creation — leaders who restructure this ratio directly improve output.

5. Is a good communicator — listens and shares information

Communication is bidirectional. Google's data emphasises listening over broadcasting. The best managers share context from leadership (so teams understand why decisions are made) and actively listen (so problems surface early). This connects directly to context switching research — poor communication forces teams to guess priorities, wasting cognitive resources on uncertainty.

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6. Supports career development and discusses performance

The best leaders hold meaningful career conversations at least every six months. This is the quality that retains talent — people leave managers who don't invest in their growth. Gallup's 2025 finding that 50% of global workers are watching for or actively seeking new employment underscores the retention cost of neglecting this behaviour.

7. Has a clear vision and strategy for the team

A manager who can answer "where are we going and why" gives the team a decision-making framework that operates without them. Clear vision reduces the decision fatigue that accumulates when people evaluate every task against unclear priorities.

8. Has key technical skills to advise the team

The only hard skill — ranked eighth of ten. Technical competence provides credibility, but it's the least important leadership quality Google identified. Being the best engineer on the team does not predict being the best leader.

This finding has the most practical implications. Most companies promote technical performers into management, assuming skills transfer. Google's data — confirmed by Gallup's finding that only 44% of managers globally have received any management training — shows they largely don't. The qualities of a good leader must be deliberately developed, not assumed.

9. Collaborates across the organisation

Effective leaders build relationships across functions, connect their team's work to broader organisational goals, and prevent silos. This quality becomes more important at senior levels where navigating organisational complexity determines impact.

10. Is a strong decision maker

Added to the original eight behaviours after further analysis. Great leaders make timely, well-considered decisions rather than deferring. This connects to the neuroscience of decision making under pressure — the ability to assess information, commit to direction, and communicate rationale clearly.

Leadership Skills: The Manager Crisis of 2024–2026

The leadership qualities Google identified aren't academic. The global data shows what happens when organisations fail to develop them.

The numbers

Gallup's 2025–2026 data paints a stark picture:

  • Manager engagement dropped from 31% to 22% between 2022 and 2025 — the largest decline of any employee category
  • Only 44% of managers globally have received any management training
  • $438 billion in lost productivity in 2024 alone from disengagement
  • Young managers and women managers suffered the steepest engagement declines
  • 50% of global workers are watching for or actively seeking new employment

What fixes it

The Gallup data is equally clear on solutions:

Basic management training cuts active disengagement among managers by half. Simply providing structured training — not even advanced coaching development — produces immediate measurable improvement.

Coaching-focused training produces 20–28% higher manager performance. When managers learn to give feedback, ask questions, and develop their people — Google's behaviour #1 — the effects compound across the entire team.

Ongoing development (training plus encouragement) lifts manager thriving from 28% to 50%. The 22-percentage-point improvement from sustained development is one of the largest documented effects in workplace research.

The ROI is measurable and lasting. Effects persist 9–18 months post-training. Team engagement improvements of up to 18% follow manager development. The compound effect: better managers → more engaged teams → higher productivity → lower turnover → better business outcomes.

Best Leadership Qualities: Why Soft Skills Compound Differently

The distinction between "hard skills" and "soft skills" is misleading. A better framing: technical skills are table stakes (necessary but insufficient), while leadership qualities are differentiators (what separates adequate from exceptional).

The development hierarchy most men get wrong

Most men invest professional development time in technical expertise — certifications, tooling, industry knowledge. Google's research, confirmed by the 2024 meta-analysis of transformational leadership (Bao et al., 70 studies, 718,601 participants), suggests this is backwards for anyone in a leadership role.

Where most men invest: Technical expertise (Google behaviour #8 — ranked last)

Where the evidence says to invest:

  1. Coaching — giving feedback, asking questions, active listening
  2. Delegation and empowerment — trusting others, providing autonomy
  3. Communication — sharing context, listening actively
  4. Career development — helping others grow

Technical expertise has diminishing returns past a competency threshold. Coaching and communication improve every professional relationship and compound as your team grows. The 2024 meta-analysis found transformational leadership — characterised by inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, and individualised consideration — positively predicted performance at both individual and organisational levels across diverse industries and cultures.

The connection to cognitive performance

The best leadership qualities map directly onto cognitive performance frameworks:

The man who manages his own cognitive performance is better equipped to lead others. The protocols are the same — they just scale.

Practical: the one-week experiment

Pick one behaviour you're weakest on. Focus for one week. If it's coaching: schedule two 15-minute one-to-ones and ask "what's one thing I could do differently to support you?" If it's empowerment: delegate one decision you currently own. If it's communication: share one piece of strategic context your team doesn't have.

One behaviour, one week, one measurable action. Track the response. Over 10 weeks, you've experimented with every leadership quality — and you'll know which ones moved the needle.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the most important leadership qualities?

Google's decade-long Project Oxygen study identified coaching as the strongest predictor of leadership effectiveness, with technical expertise ranking last of 10 behaviours. Gallup's 2025–2026 data — covering 263,810 respondents globally — confirms this: coaching-focused training produces 20–28% higher manager performance. A 2024 meta-analysis of 70 studies further validates that interpersonal leadership qualities predict success across industries and cultures.

Are leadership skills more important than technical skills?

For people in leadership roles, yes. Google found technical expertise ranked last among 10 qualities. Gallup's 2025 data shows only 44% of managers have received any management training — yet coaching training produces 20–28% performance gains lasting 9–18 months. Technical competence is necessary for credibility, but the skills that differentiate great leaders are coaching, communication, and empowerment.

Can leadership qualities be learned?

Yes — and the evidence for training effectiveness is robust. Gallup found basic management training cuts active disengagement by half. Coaching-focused development produces 20–28% higher manager performance and up to 18% higher team engagement, with effects persisting 9–18 months. The qualities are trainable through deliberate practice: seek feedback, practise specific behaviours, measure results.

What is Google's Project Oxygen?

An internal research initiative launched in 2008 to determine whether managers mattered and what made them effective. Using performance reviews, employee surveys, and double-blind interviews across 10,000+ managers, Google identified 10 behaviours predicting success (Garvin, Harvard Business Review, 2013). Technical skill ranked last. Coaching ranked first. The findings have been independently validated by Gallup's 2025–2026 global workplace studies covering 263,810 respondents.

Why is manager engagement declining globally?

Gallup's 2025–2026 data shows manager engagement fell from 31% to 22% between 2022 and 2025 — driven by role expansion without support, increased workload from restructuring, and a lack of training (56% have never received management development). Young managers and women managers experienced the steepest declines. The solution: coaching-focused training combined with ongoing development support.

How do I develop leadership qualities?

Start with one behaviour per week from Google's list. Design a specific action: schedule coaching conversations, delegate one decision, share strategic context your team lacks. Track the response. Supplement with structured training if available — Gallup's data shows even basic training cuts disengagement by half. The investment compounds: 20–28% performance gains, 18% team engagement improvement, effects lasting 9–18 months.

Key Takeaways

  • Only 1 of Google's 10 leadership qualities involves technical skill — and it ranked last. Confirmed by Gallup's 2025–2026 global data
  • Coaching is the #1 predictor — training in coaching produces 20–28% higher manager performance lasting 9–18 months
  • Manager engagement collapsed 9 points (2022–2025) — costing $438 billion in productivity. The cause: lack of development, not lack of technical skill
  • Only 44% of managers globally have received management training — basic training cuts disengagement by half
  • Leadership qualities compound differently from technical skills — coaching and communication improve every relationship and scale with team size

References

  1. Gallup. State of the Global Workplace: 2026 Report. 263,810 respondents, 160+ countries. Published April 2026.

  2. Gallup. State of the Global Workplace: 2025 Report. Manager engagement, coaching effectiveness, and training data. Published May 2025.

  3. Garvin DA. How Google sold its engineers on management. Harvard Business Review. December 2013.

  4. Bao Y, Zhang Z, Yang C. A meta-analytic review of transformational leadership research in public administration. Review of Public Personnel Administration. 2024. 70 studies, 718,601 participants.

  5. Bonini A, et al. The relationship between leadership and adaptive performance: a systematic review and meta-analysis. PLOS ONE. 2024.

  6. Microsoft. Work Trend Index 2025: communication and creation time analysis.

  7. Deci EL, Ryan RM. The "what" and "why" of goal pursuits. Psychological Inquiry. 2000.

  8. Edmondson AC. The Fearless Organization: Creating Psychological Safety in the Workplace. Wiley. 2019.

This is educational content, not professional advice. Individual leadership development should be adapted to your specific role, organisation, and circumstances.