Man Reflects On 20-Year Journey At Google, Shares 6 Leadership Lessons

An Indian Google executive has looked back on his 20-year journey at the company, sharing the leadership lessons that shaped his career from Google's early days in India to leading teams in California.

Shankar Murali, who works as an Engineering Analyst Manager in Google's Trust & Safety Payments division in California, shared on LinkedIn that he completed 20 years at Google this month. In his post, he reflected on the company's growth and the experiences that defined his career.

Murali said he joined Google India when the company was still in its early stages in the country. He recalled that the company had small offices, no cafeterias, and a small team. 

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He added that Google was entering the payments business through a pilot project called Checkout, where he worked on designing the company's first risk, merchant review and order review models while collaborating with engineering teams. He also remembered Google's early "TGIF" meetings, where employees could openly interact with leaders and ask questions.

Over the years, Murali said he worked on Google's payments licensing efforts across the United States before moving to Dublin. There, he helped build scalable compliance systems for UK payments licences and financial reporting. 

He later led Google's counterfeit operations team during the company's early Ads policy enforcement efforts, worked on account security pilots and policy development, and eventually returned to the payments business.

Reflecting on his career, Murali shared six leadership lessons. He said the biggest lesson he learned was that leadership is about listening. He explained that he was once surprised when his managers chose to listen instead of immediately offering solutions. 

Over time, he realised that talking through a problem often helped him find the answer himself, and he now tries to give his own team the same space.

Murali also said professionals should remain curious throughout their careers because continuous learning and sharing knowledge are important. He added that knowledge shared is the only knowledge that truly scales.

He said leadership also means leading by example. Murali wrote that he has always encouraged his teams to push their limits, but never from behind.

He also stressed the importance of empathy, saying that everyone is dealing with challenges others cannot see. He advised leaders not to pass their own pressures on to their teams and to always lead with empathy while assuming good intent.

Murali encouraged professionals to build resilience as well. He said people should develop a thick skin, accept that perspectives differ and respect others even when they disagree.

He also reflected on Google's constant evolution, saying products, problems and leadership styles changed almost every year, and the people who embraced change were the ones who succeeded.

Murali said he did not know exactly what the next chapter of his career would look like, but believed his curiosity and willingness to try something different would only grow stronger.

He also thanked the managers, leaders, and colleagues who supported him throughout his journey, saying he was grateful for the opportunities, challenges, and honest feedback he received over the past 20 years.