Zillow Group employees learn about leadership via a company playbook

Take
a page out of this book.

Glassdoor

• Zillow Group has developed
  its own leadership playbook, which outlines
  four key management principles.
• The book, which is based on employee surveys and feedback,
  explains what it takes to be an effective leader at Zillow.
• According to Zillow’s chief people officer Dan Spaulding, “a
  great leader at Zillow Group isn’t perfect.”
• Instead, the online real estate company is more focused on
  cultivating adaptive and reflective managers.

At Zillow Group, everyone knows exactly what it takes to be a
leader. All they have to do is scan through the firm’s 12-page
leadership playbook.

Business Insider spoke with chief people officer Dan Spaulding
about the playbook, and the lessons contained therein. He said
the book is meant to guide the company’s 600 plus managers,
regardless of their specific role. Zillow Group CEO Spencer Rascoff even keeps a
copy at his desk.

“We set out to define a common language and a framework around
what leadership was going to look like here at Zillow Group,”
Spaulding told Business Insider.

In order to assemble a “three-dimensional image of what a great
leader looked like at Zillow Group,” Spaulding said the company
spent about six months developing the book.

“A great leader at Zillow
Group isn’t perfect,” said Zillow Group chief people officer Dan
Spaulding (pictured).
Courtesy of
Zillow Group

First, a company-wide survey on leadership and management went
out to 1,700 employees in 2016. Then, over 50 employees from the
C-suite down — all of whom had been either identified as top
leaders or who worked for a standout manager — were interviewed
directly. After that, Zillow held an in-depth feedback session
with 150 top leaders.

The goal was to get a sense of what a top leader looked like at
Zillow Group. Those snapshots of effective management were then
boiled down to four core principles: caring, trust, productivity,
and effective communication. Basically, Zillow Group employees
favored bosses who demonstrated that they cared, avoided
micromanagement, got stuff done, and maintained solid lines of
communication.

The completed playbook is chock full of leadership principles,
tactics, and examples. Zillow Group employees can access the work
through the company’s internal website.

Spaulding said he was most struck by the emphasis on caring.

“We all want to see care from our manager,” Spaulding said. “We
all want to know that our leader cares about us as individuals
and does everything they can to support us in the day-to-day
execution of our jobs. If you do nothing else, let the person
who’s working for you know that you care about them and that you
are here to do what you can to support them.”

The resulting playbook also served to dispell the “myth” of the
“perfect leader,” according to Spaulding.

“A great leader at Zillow Group isn’t perfect,” Spaulding said.
“It’s a person who is paying attention to where they and their
team are right now. They are constantly adjusting and adapting
their style to be as supportive as possible.”