Google People Management Essentials
What makes a great manager? With People Management Essentials, you'll gain the skills to manage people confidently and effectively. Learn actionable steps for setting clear goals, giving constructive feedback, and building a high-performing team.
Learn management skills from leaders at Google
Learn proven management strategies based on decades of research.
Earn a Google Certificate for your resume and professional profile.
Practice with real-world scenarios and use your new skills right away.
Frequently asked questions
Every organization needs great people managers. At Google, we know from our own internal research that the best managers have better performing teams, better retention, and happier team members. People managers motivate and inspire their teams, provide direction, create a supportive and inclusive environment, foster communication and collaboration, and harness their team’s strengths to deliver results.
In addition to making a real impact, people management is a path to career progression, allowing you to take on more responsibility and leadership within an organization. This opens up opportunities for advancement and increased compensation, with people managers typically earning $40,000 more per year than non-managers.¹
People Management Essentials is an online course that you can complete at your own pace.
Google People Management Essentials is available on Coursera, an online learning platform that offers access to online courses.
This course does not have any prerequisites, and you don’t need any management experience to get started.
This course is designed for new and aspiring people managers who want to build the skills to be confident and effective, as well as managers with experience who are looking to sharpen their existing abilities. No prior management experience is needed to get started.
Google People Management Essentials gives you the practical, job-ready skills required to succeed in roles with people management responsibilities. This course is designed to equip you with the essential attributes of effective managers, whether you are an aspiring individual contributor or a current manager seeking to sharpen your abilities. Upon completion, you’ll earn a professional certificate from Google and be ready to apply your new management skills across any industry.
At Google, we’ve been studying what makes managers and teams effective for nearly 20 years. We’ve analyzed millions of data points and conducted hundreds of interviews— and we continue that research to this day.
Google People Management Essentials is the result of all that research, distilled into practical, actionable lessons designed by management experts at Google. In this course, you’ll learn the same management skills that Google managers learn too.
The content features readings and interviews with leaders at Google that discuss the ways in which AI tools can help managers in their day-to-day work. You will learn how to use AI to enhance your management skills and gain access to AI prompts to help you with management tasks like setting goals and running effective check-ins. One example is using AI to set goals using the SMART goal framework.
In the U.S. and Canada, the subscription cost is $49 USD per month after an initial 7-day free trial period. All Google Career Essentials are completely self-paced, and many learners complete their certificate within one month.
In other countries where Google Career Certificates or Google Career Essentials are available, your cost may be lower. To see the exact cost in your local currency, please visit the Coursera page and view the enrollment options.
1Lightcast™ US Job Postings, 'People Management', 'Team Leadership’ and 'Team Management’ (Aug 31, 2020 - Aug 31, 2025).
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