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Google has launched itself into the booming leadership development sector, with a new course offering its management training to the public for the first time.
The program, called People Management Essentials, was developed by The Google School for Leaders and designed to help aspiring and early-career managers build high-performing teams.
The leadership development program market is reported to be a multi-billion dollar industry.
The self-paced course translates two decades of Google’s research into practical techniques for people leadership, including coaching, feedback, and performance management. Participants also learn how to integrate artificial intelligence into day-to-day management tasks.
Google said the course arrives as global search interest in “best leadership practices” has risen by 300% over the past year. Searches for “AI leadership” are up 390%, and “how to lead a team” reached an all-time high in September 2025.
Better managers through AI
The curriculum is divided into four core topics: building high-performing teams, setting and achieving goals, supporting employee development, and growing as a manager. Learners will hear directly from more than a dozen Google managers who share their experiences and approaches to leadership.
A key component of the course is applying AI as a partner in management. Participants are shown how to use tools such as Gemini and NotebookLM to create SMART goals, craft project plans, and adapt communications for different audiences.
Google said the course is designed to be completed in under eight hours, with no prior management experience required. It has already been adopted by organizations including E.W. Scripps, Shutterstock, the University of Illinois’ Gies College of Business, and Blue Star Families for use by employees, students, and members of the military community.
Turning workforce data into early warnings for high-cost employees
Many employers only learn about high-cost claims after the fact, relying on annual health plan reports that provide little opportunity for prevention. Yet when absenteeism, disability, and workers’ compensation are included, the top 5 percent of cases drive nearly 60 percent of total costs. Looking only at medical and pharmaceutical claims limits an employer’s ability to understand where risk is forming and how costs escalate over time.
By integrating medical, pharmaceutical, disability, absence, compensation, and broader human capital data, employers gain a more complete and predictive view of workforce risk. Workpartners’ Human Capital Risk Index (HUI) leverages this integrated data warehouse to flag emerging high- and moderate-risk cases early, enabling timely, HIPAA-compliant outreach and clinical prevention.
Through a holistic, person-centric care model, individuals receive high-touch support across health, work, and family dimensions—helping shorten or prevent periods of high risk and high cost. The result is earlier intervention, improved outcomes, and measurable reductions in utilization, lost time, and total cost.
What You’ll Learn
Why high-cost claims are often identified too late
How integrated data improves risk prediction
How our HUI flags emerging risk early
Why holistic, person-centric care matters
How early intervention reduces total cost
From feedback to influence
Among the course’s key lessons are five leadership practices drawn from Google’s Project Oxygen research. These include delivering feedback using the Situation-Behavior-Impact model, managing through coaching rather than authority, linking individual goals to broader business outcomes, and fostering collaboration over individual talent.
Ginger Summers, Senior Director of Learning and Development at E.W. Scripps, said the partnership will strengthen the company’s leadership pipeline. “Our research has shown many new people managers face significant challenges during their first two years,” she said. “This new training provides aspiring Scripps leaders with practical, scenario-based exercises that not only build critical skills but also give them a clear sense of what people leadership entails.”
Summers added that Scripps’ collaboration with Google has allowed it to expand access to “high-quality, easy-to-use content” across the organization.
Google said its goal is to make proven leadership principles widely accessible, giving future leaders the tools to “build a better future for teams, one manager at a time.”
