- This year, Satya Nadella marks 10 years at the helm of Microsoft.
- He's previously been voted one of the top CEOs of his generation.
- Here are some of his principles for leading and managing a team and company.
Satya Nadella celebrates 10 years as CEO of Microsoft this year.
His leadership has been credited with revitalizing the company's culture, driving growth in partnerships, and even guiding the company in dethroning Apple as the world's most valuable public company earlier this year.
So what is his management approach that has helped him achieve such success?
Here are some of his best leadership and management advice over the years:
Create clarity
Nadella says being able to "create clarity when none exists" is the "most important attribute that any leader needs to have."
"You don't need a leader when everything is well-defined, and it's easy, and all you have got to do is follow a well-written plan," he said in a 2019 interview with Chicago Booth Magazine. "But in an ambiguous situation, where there cannot be complete information, that is when leadership will matter. Your ability to come into an uncertain time and an uncertain future and bring about clarity is key."
Energize people
Nadella also looks for job candidates who can "create energy."
"There is no simple thing that is always under your control, so the idea that you have got to create energy all around you is another element—you have got to really pick up the skills to do it," he also told the magazine. You have got to be at your evangelical best. You have got to have followership all around you."
"In the long run EQ trumps IQ," he also said on the subject in 2014. "Without being a source of energy for others very little can be accomplished."
Deliver success
A leader must also be able to "create success in what is an overconstrained space," he says.
"Life is an overconstraint problem," he said in the magazine interview. "So you can't say, 'You know what? I'm just waiting for you to remove all the constraints and I'll be perfect.' When leaders come in and say, 'I'm not able to do this or I'm not able to drive success or achieve success because of all these exogenous factors,' guess what? Everything is exogenous."
Listen in meetings — and be decisive
Nadella has also offered advice for running meetings.
"Listen more, talk less, and be decisive when the time comes," he said in a 2015 interview with The Wall Street Journal.
Foster psychological safety
Nadella says he's big on fostering psychological safety at work, which creates an environment where employees don't fear punishment for asking questions, sharing concerns, or making mistakes.
"The psychological safety that you create around you, especially the more senior you are, becomes super important," he said in an interview at the 2022 Wharton Future of Work Conference. "One technique of that is to share your own fallibility because that gives confidence to others."
Be empathetic
Nadella doesn't consider empathy a soft skill; in fact, he thinks it's "the hardest skill we learn," he said in a 2023 interview with Axel Springer CEO Mathias Döpfner.
"If you have empathy for your people, they will do their best work and you'll make progress," Nadella said in a 2020 episode of LinkedIn's "Hello Monday" podcast.
He added that empathy also helps foster innovation.
"Innovation is about meeting the unmet unarticulated needs of customers," he said on the podcast. "What's the source of it? You could say it's design thinking, but design thinking is empathy."
