- Since Satya Nadella took over as Microsoft CEO in 2014, the company's market value has increased from about $300 billion to some $1.2 trillion.
- He's also credited with making sweeping cultural changes within the company, such as making the company more collaborative with its past rivals.
- A list of Nadella's leadership principles, as obtained by Business Insider, provides insight into how he leads the company.
- The leadership principles - which urges Microsofties to "create clarity," "generate energy," and "deliver success" - are accessible to all company employees, but required reading for managers.
- Microsoft even has an online course based on the leadership principles and holds sessions discussing them, the company confirmed to Business Insider.
- Click here to read more stories on BI Prime
When Microsoft promotes or hires a new manager, they're encouraged to think about leadership like CEO Satya Nadella does.
Business Insider obtained a list of Nadella's leadership principles, which are open for any employee to read, the company confirmed, but required reading for any new manager. Microsoft even hosts an online course based on the leadership principles and holds sessions discussing them, the company confirmed.
The leadership principles - which encourage Microsofties to "create clarity," "generate energy," and "deliver success" - are drawn from the strategy that helped Nadella renew Microsoft as a major player in the cloud computing era, taking the company's market value from about $300 billion when he took over as CEO in 2014 to some $1.2 trillion today.
Those principles, as confirmed by Microsoft:
Create Clarity:
- Synthesize the complex
- Ensure shared understanding
- Define a course of action
Generate Energy:
- Inspire optimism, creativity, and growth
- Create an environment where everyone does their best work
- Build organizations that are stronger tomorrow than today
Deliver Success:
- Drive innovation that people love
- Be boundary-less in seeking solutions
- Tenaciously pursue the right outcomes
Nadella's approach
Nadella has spoken publicly about his leadership style before - especially the "growth mindset," a change in thinking that he's credited with helping to rethink Microsoft's culture from first principles, including by making the company more collaborative with its past rivals.
More specifically, Nadella addresses his leadership principles, which he says are his "three expectations," in his memoir "Hit Refresh."
"The heart of my message: Changing the culture at Microsoft doesn't depend on me, or even on the handful of top leaders I work most closely with," he writes. "It depends on everyone in the company-including our vast cadre of middle managers who must dedicate themselves to making everyone they work with better, every day."
When a Microsoft investor recently asked the company's board to justify why Nadella's compensation is 249 times more than that of its median employee, Chairman John Thompson pointed to his leadership as a big reason why.
"The notion we are going to have a cultural expansion or change in this company would not have happen if it were not for Satya, quite frankly," Thompson said. "Strong execution of his vision around an intelligent cloud has clearly been the driver of growth for this company."
Got a tip? Contact this reporter via email at astewart@businessinsider.com, message her on Twitter @ashannstew or send her a secure message through Signal at 425-344-8242.
