Employees look to leaders for clarity when chaotic situations or sudden change arise, and Nadella prioritizes open communication among his team by regularly sharing his vision for the company with all employees.
His approach to leadership, which emphasizes growth mindset and other philosophies advocated by Berrett-Koehler authors, has proven highly successful. Here are some qualities that set him apart as a leader:
1. Empathy
Empathy in leadership goes far beyond being “touchy feely.” Being able to see things from someone else’s point of view can be invaluable assets in any company. Though empathy may take time to develop, it is crucial for leaders to comprehend and meet employees and customers needs effectively for successful business relationships.
Nadella has received widespread acclaim since becoming CEO of Microsoft in 2014. As an authentic leader, he prioritizes people over things and encourages team members to do the same. His visionary approach has led to renewed growth and success at Microsoft; Nadella embraces a culture of humility, individual empowerment, positivity to improve productivity while foster loyalty; while supporting education initiatives while resolving global conflicts are just among his other ideals.
Nadella details in his book Hit Refresh how empathy has become the cornerstone of every relationship he’s established. One key component of empathy, according to Nadella, is soliciting feedback from others with genuine care; doing this allows leaders to know what’s working or not for their employees and make appropriate adjustments accordingly.
Nadella notes that some leaders may find it challenging to show empathy; however, anyone can learn the skills necessary for being an empathetic leader. He references studies which demonstrate a high level of empathy can increase job satisfaction and performance. Managers can demonstrate this trait by encouraging employees to discuss their concerns openly with one another and having regular open dialogue sessions.
2. Vision
One of the key ingredients of Nadella’s success at Microsoft is his clear vision. He passionately embraces innovation, sharing it with both his team and customers of the company – enabling everyone involved in it all to feel like part of something larger than themselves and their individual roles and projects.
He makes sure his vision is accessible to all employees by regularly emailing all company employees with his thoughts and plans for the future. This helps keep everyone aligned on one common vision while motivating everyone toward reaching shared goals.
Nadella has long championed diversity in the workplace and strives to foster an inclusive workplace culture. He understands the significance of having an interdisciplinary workforce for creativity and innovation, as well as implement new technologies to support accessibility; for instance, AI for Accessibility uses artificial intelligence technology to assist those living with disabilities.
Nadella’s leadership style includes celebrating and acknowledging his team members’ successes, which serves to motivate and inspire his members. Recognizing these achievements helps promote hard work and achiever success among team members as well as create positive relationships among them and build trust between team members.
Nadella embraces a growth mindset philosophy centered on his belief that people can learn and develop over time, emphasizing character qualities over abilities as key factors for development. He encourages his team members to embrace failure as part of the learning experience – similar to ideas proffered by Berrett-Koehler authors like Kim Cameron in her book Practicing Positive Leadership: Tools and Techniques That Produce Extraordinary Results.
3. Influence
Satya Nadella’s leadership style is widely credited with turning Microsoft around and positioning them as one of the leaders in technology. His empathetic approach and emphasis on continuous learning has helped fuel innovation throughout the company, while simultaneously shifting their culture to become more inclusive and collaborative, having had a major effect on their employees.
Starting over as CEO at such an enormous and complex organization as Microsoft can be daunting. When Satya Nadella took the helm in 2014, he found an organization mired in turmoil: they had failed in mobile phone sales; struggled in social media and search; their stock had flatlined for 14 years!
Nadella made his initial goal one of dismantling organizational structures and product-group siloes that hinder creativity and innovation in his company, as well as communicating it regularly to all employees. He created a clear vision for all to follow at Microsoft, which became one of his cornerstones of leadership.
Nadella recently wrote in his Fast Company column that reading an entry from his late mother’s diary reminded him what leadership really means. Her words quoted Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard and she wrote that leaders must “learn from history while looking ahead with optimism for future possibilities”.
Influence is key for leaders, motivating others and creating an inspiring environment. Weinberg College alumni and students provided their insights into becoming influential leaders for our fall/winter 2015 issue of Weinberg Magazine – we compiled their thoughts so you can develop your own approach.
4. Individualized Consideration
Democratic leadership involves multiple people making decisions through consensus-building processes. Under such leadership styles, the leader acts more as an instructor or coach who empowers and inspires other to work toward common goals together as part of a team (Kidwell 2015). Autocratic styles give one person complete power over all decisions within an organization (Kidwell 2015).
Satya Nadella epitomizes this form of democratic leadership despite his success as a business executive who oversees the largest tech corporation on Earth, Microsoft. He puts employees and consumers at the core of his decision-making processes (Ancona, Williams & Gerlach, 2020). For instance, Microsoft needed to shift its culture away from one marked by frequent high-intensity rants to consumer engagement in order to develop platforms such as Xbox and Azure – while simultaneously transitioning their revenue model away from desktop software licenses to subscription models (Ancona Williams & Gerlach, 2020).
Nadella is also a very humble leader, who promotes empathy and humility within his workplace. His humble nature allows him to form connections with all employees and foster unity between them all – sharing his employees’ successes to demonstrate that he cares more about their success than his own personal gain. Furthermore, Nadella invites employees via videoconference into senior leadership meetings allowing him to be transparent with regard to decision-making processes.
Satya Nadella epitomizes transformational and authentic leadership styles advocated by Berrett-Koehler authors (Salem 2018, McCracken 2017). These types of leaders are effective because they create clarity around an organization’s mission by prioritizing employee needs while simultaneously creating a growth mindset among their staff by emphasizing what can be accomplished rather than what holds people back.
5. Teaming
Nadella took the reins as CEO of Microsoft in 2014 and quickly set about dismantling an organizational structure characterized by silos between teams and departments, in an attempt to encourage product groups to work collaboratively on development efforts. His first order of business was breaking down these structures to encourage product teams.
Collaboration among teams increases creativity and innovation – both essential ingredients of business success. Nadella strongly endorses this concept and actively encourages his employees to work as one unit.
Nadella stands out among tech CEOs due to his people-centered leadership style. He emphasizes employee successes and encourages them to highlight them during senior leadership meetings – something which demonstrates humility while simultaneously motivating employees towards becoming part of senior leadership teams or earning recognition.
Nadella embraces both collaboration and continuous learning to stay competitive in today’s fast-changing technology environment, encouraging employees to take risks and pursue ambitious goals. He encourages employees to embrace an environment of constant innovation.
These characteristics have helped Satya Nadella become an exceptional leader and form the basis of his success as CEO of Microsoft. His new book, Hit Refresh, documents this journey so far and gives readers an inside view into how a man from Hyderabad, India became head of one of the most acclaimed technology firms worldwide. Nadella’s innovative yet compassionate leadership style offers other CEOs an inspiration to create more positive, collaborative cultures within their organizations.
