The following are words of support from some of my clients. Directly below those are nominations from my former Google staff and peers for Google’s Great Manager award. I won the award, an honor given to fewer than 1% of Google’s 10,000 managers.
“Tracy has been an invaluable resource to me for some time now. Tracy has a very keen ear and applies methodology and logic blended with strong emotional intelligence into his guidance. This helped me carve out the path and define the next set of goals in my career. His background in engineering and leadership gives him a frame of reference and a broad view of people’s career progression and best practices.
I’d especially mention his structured way of going back to ‘first principles’ and his ability to ask the right questions to help define priorities and get to the core of the issues discussed. I Would recommend Tracy to anyone looking at growing their career and expanding their leadership skills.”
“I walked out of every meeting with Tracy energized and with concrete ideas on how to move forward. Tracy challenged me to think critically about my career while at the same time helping me shave off uncertainty. I highly recommend Tracy and I’m sure I’ll be seeking his support in the future.”
“Tracy’s approach is very custom - not one size fits all. He actively listens and leverages his years of experience to ask insightful questions and recommend specific action items. Tracy has a great handle on what makes executives successful and he incorporates that throughout the coaching.”
“It was an enjoyable and rewarding experience. Tracy made me realize the importance of not staying stuck on one thing but rather open-minded towards new opportunities and showed me ways to stand out even in large company full of brilliant coworkers. I felt very confident and excited about my career after talking to Tracy.”
“Tracy has been my career adviser for a few years now. I go to him with questions, doubts and ideas about my career and he scopes, provides structure of my sometimes random thoughts :) , clarifies and inspires almost every single time I have reached out to him in a way that the clouds go away and I feel more empowered and comfortable with making decisions. He also brings extensive experience in the art of communication. So, I seek his advice almost always about different career conversations which I am going to embark on. I am very grateful to Google for giving me the opportunity to find such an inspiring and experienced career guru and also to Tracy for all the exemplary support and help he has offered. I look forward to keeping in touch and seeking his insights and inputs continuously to grow my career meaningfully.”
I also coach on management and leadership. In 2014, I was named one of Google’s “Great Managers”, an award that has been given to less than 1% of Google’s 10,000+ managers in the history of the company. The award is based on endorsements from the manager’s team and peers. The following are excerpts from some of those endorsements:
“Mentor and Guide - Tracy’s active listening skills are second to none. He is willing to listen, not be listened to. He attends critical decision-making meetings where needed and listens to all perspectives. This enables him to be fair in his decisions, treat people with respect and really know his people and what they want from their careers here at Google. He has recently helped me find a new career path outside of our team after 10 years in this space. His willingness to listen to my career plans, guide me on making the right decision and support me through the transfer planning with understanding and care has been immensely appreciated.”
“Tracy Wilk is not just a great manager, but he is a great LEADER! He has an uncanny ability to set a strategic vision for the team and lead his very diverse (culturally as well as subject area wise) team to successful execution. He is a great listener, seeks bottom-up feedback as well as on-the-ground-truth and is able to provide coaching and direction appropriately - and with all this, he enables his team to deliver meaningful results for Google.”
“Tracy is a risk taker, and is so with his team to great success. He gives projects and opportunities to member of his staff he wants to challenge and see grow for their improvement, even when there’s a lot at stake. He trusts and comes alongside to remove roadblocks and wants to see his team succeed. He creates an environment of possibility and encourages us through feedback, rewards and other incentives to bring innovation to the team- to challenge the status quo. He’s built an amazing team who respect each other, work together, and support each other. There’s no ‘politics’ being played on this team. It’s because of Tracy and the amazing team he’s built that I can look forward to coming to work each day.”
“I’ve been at Google for 11 years and Tracy is by far the best manager I’ve had the pleasure to work with. He has all the standard qualities of what makes up a great manager (dedicated, knowledgeable, gets his hands dirty when needed, drives the team to success, etc. etc.). But what makes Tracy stand out is his interest in his team member’s success and personal well-being. He takes the time to get to know each person on the team and puts effort into having the team have fun together...He drives the team to strong results while making me want to come to work everyday.”