One thing immediately jumps out: Only one of the 13 questions, question No. 9, asks employees to rate their manager's hard skills.

Every other question focuses on soft skills: communication, feedback, coaching, teamwork, respect, and consideration. The evaluation predominately assesses not what managers know but how they do their jobs.

Which means the best managers add value by helping their teams succeed -- their success comes from the team's, and each individual on that team's, success.

Of course, you could argue that possessing superb technical skills is less important for Google's team managers since it's easier for Google to recruit and retain incredibly skilled people than it is for many companies.