This Google exec became a boss 'overnight' 20 years ago—the most important lesson he's learned as a manager

Brian Glaser became a first-time manager about 20 years ago when he says he was promoted “overnight” into a leadership position at JetBlue.

He had a lot to learn as a boss and now, two decades later, is the chief learning officer at Google, where he oversees teams in charge of onboarding and training for some 150,000 employees worldwide.

One of the biggest lessons he learned while moving from an individual contributor to overseeing others’ work was “trusting others to get the work done,” Glaser tells CNBC Make It.

“I remember so much of what gave me fulfillment was getting the job done right, really tackling the project, meeting the deadline, and knowing that I was single-handedly able to contribute to the goal,” he says.

Becoming a manager, though, he had to realize it wasn’t about doing the work and getting credit for it. Rather, “it’s about getting work done effectively through others, which means you have to really understand their styles or motivations and work to bring out the best so that they can really deliver excellent outcomes.”