Satya Nadella at Microsoft: Instilling a Growth Mindset Case Study
Assignment 2 Part A: Analyzing the Case
Write Your Name here
Jack Welch Management Institute
JWI 510: Leadership in the 21st Century
Write Your Professor’s Name here
Write the Date here
Introduction
Nadella was elected company CEO of Microsoft, after 22 years of service as Microsoft employee under many capacities. He was viewed as a leader of change due to his style of approach. He concentrated on identifying the problem through listening. Nadella later developed a team of executives, encourage, company culture change, enhanced growth mindset within the organization and propelled change through creativity, innovation and prototyping (Welch, 1). He was never afraid of failure and took each loss as a success. The future for Microsoft is bright as he envisioned the firm as a change to the world through the provision of quality services and products to increase effectiveness and efficiency.
Diagnosis of the Problems at Microsoft
The identification of problems in Microsoft was easy for Nadella as he was part of the team for 22 years and was willing to listen to what his colleagues thought. The solutions to the dysfunctions identified in Microsoft based on the employees’ willingness to change and adapt to the new culture.
Major Challenges
The growth pattern of Microsoft significantly challenged by the need for the employees to rise ranks rather than focus on the core value of innovation and creativity. The second challenge was the wave for the external competition, which fished talent from Microsoft. Google was paying its employees twice the pay in other tech companies. Thirdly, rigidity to change the adoption of new technological trends essential for the growth of the company significantly. For example, Ballmer opposition of the open-source operating system Linux terming it as cancer attaching itself in everything but he was perceived as shortsighted by the industry.
The fourth was the mandatory ranking which categorized employees’ unfairly regardless of their contribution towards the firm. The order was unjustly viewed due to the statics that claimed one employee often as low and unproductive. However, in reality, there was a significant contribution of each employee regardless of how small it may be. Fifth, the politics of the company suppressed creativity, innovation and growth for the junior staff. The permission to engage a junior team, the immediate supervisor and departmental heads must verify first. These would limit the transparency and engagement of talent, and the junior staff had no way of expressing their minds through the lenses of the company’s goals (Welch, 1).
Areas of Dysfunction
According to Lencioni’s areas of dysfunction, two dysfunctions were evident; lack of commitment and avoidance of team accountability. The lack of commitment is viewed in light to the employees focusing more on ranking and status within the organization, not the overall welfare of Microsoft. Every employee has the mandate to be committed to serving the goals and objectives of the firm. Microsoft goals and objectives required commitment to creativity, innovation and teamwork. The lack of responsibility leads to avoidance of team accountability which brought in politics that were in operation when Nadella took over. The internal competition for ranks causes inattention to team objectives bleeding less productivity of the overall company. The value attached to teamwork works towards the development of the whole firm and encompasses productivity towards set goals.
Goals for Transformation
Learning, according to Nadella, was the key to solving all the problems in Microsoft. Knowledge equips a person with new ideas to develop more and advance their thinking. He claimed that she enrolled in more online classes than he could complete and buy more books than he could finish. Learning allows one to be open to ideas and learning from even the junior staff. Listening was another method Nadella used to understand and invent ways to develop solutions (Goleman, 2). Through listening, he developed; customer obsession, diversity and inclusivity, and one Microsoft. He was allowing the egocentrism among employees to focus more on what to deliver, not what they get in return.
Nadella as a Change Leader
Nadella identified the need for the adjustment of Microsoft operations to incorporate the changing technological world. The power of change based on understanding the current status and mitigating ways to reach the expected future goals and objectives’.
Leadership Style
Daniel Goleman’s “Leadership that Gets Results” presents an affiliative leader. There is a leader much concern with the harmonization of a team to work collaboratively while eliminating negative energy. Affiliative is a leadership style characterized by problem-solving. It creates a team that is accommodative of all the team players. All the team members are influenced by these leaders to put the team first place. Nadella was affiliative, having realized the disconnect in Microsoft, he was determined to build a team that would forge his vision for the organization (Lencioni. 3). The executives’ section, as defined in the case study entailed of the great minds of the firm who had never considered working together, but we’re serving the same goals and ambitions. Creating the team was the easy part, conforming them to his idealization of change was a task only Nadella and his close associates understood as hard but were willing to take up the challenge.
Jack’s 8 Rules of Leadership
Jack Welch’s in his “8 Rules of Leadership” describes a leader as a person who makes sure people not only see the vision; they live and breathe it. The #2 rule describes a leader as the vision carrier of the organization with a contagious role to influence others to live and breathe the vision without question. Nadella defined Microsoft afresh with the aim of the organization propelled to the future through interfering with the culture of the firm (JWI510, 8). He wanted to change the culture of the organization while maintaining the vision in a better perceptive. Nadella made his team of executives own his project and develop the company culture through dialogue. These empowered the team to carry the vision of the firm, live it and breath it as a way of furthering the successful transition of culture.
Improving Teamwork
Nadella developed a team of 180 executives who represented the departments of the firm. Nadella changed systems and processes at Microsoft to improve teamwork through designing 17 units out of the 180 executives (Welch, 1). The teams were to dialogue on the kind of culture the team wanted to have as the organizational culture. To improve the teamwork he had created Nadella used the strategy that a person couldn’t think they know it all and change. There had to be a shift from being a know-it-all to being a learn-it-all. The system behind know it all and learning it all was derived from the need to want to change the mindset and focus on growth (Goleman, 2). For growth to occur, it is the mission of each team player to learn new things and incorporate the knowledge into new ideas for the firms’ growth. Nadella believed that everyone could change if they will to change. He was persistent to ensure that all the team members embraced the change at their own time because the diversity within each individual allows them to respond differently to change (Katzenbach, 8).
Growth Mindset
A growth mindset is the ability to accept change and learn new ideas while trying to implement them, whether they fail or succeed. The main idea behind this utilization of the growth mindset is the will to change based on an individual perceptive. All people tend to change, and on most occasions, change is inevitable (Gleeson, 6). Although many people fear it, it is present and real. A growth mindset set to learn, transform, create, innovate, and design the future in all ways possible without fearing failure. There is no defeat in a growth mindset but always set to see every challenge, failure, setback or collapse as a progression towards a successful end. Nadella believed that just as Carol Dweck classified the world into learners and non-learners, Microsoft success story was founded on learners who were ready to generate change without fear of failing (Herminia, 5). Nadella’s answer to the question on women pay raise was wrong, and he used it to teach that each person has their own biases and accepting it makes you a better learner and leader.
Assessment of Nadella’s Effectiveness
Nadella’s change efforts were met with both criticism and support, with only individual and organizational performance metrics to measure the change. He has to identify how to sustain the wins achieved through hard work and identifies the future challenges associated with growth.
Assessment of Nadella’s Change Efforts
Nadella is a change agent from building teams to encouraging positive growth throughout the organization. Microsoft transformation was initiated by listening. Listening allowed Nadella to learn from the minds of the employees at all levels and use these views to develop the leadership strategy for his tenure (Welch, 1). Through listening, Nadella identified the key issues and set out change as the mandatory term to refocus the company towards a new era (Goleman, 2). Building a team of executives to design the new company culture, ensuring each employees vision and growth is made possible and carrying out the firms’ agenda as personal. He had a devoted growth mindset which allowed him to focus on the core values of the firm and establish them in a new culture that incorporates modern and evolving technologies.
Metrics to Measure Success
The metrics that could be used to evaluate the success of Nadella’s change efforts are; measuring company performance, individual performance, management activity effectiveness, and change management performance. Change management activates, and understanding is essential to understand the significance of the changes that have occurred within the organization (Herminia, 5). The two management metrics accessed through ensuring the management plan followed training tests and effectiveness measures, and communication delivery and effectiveness. Individual and company performance evaluate the extent to which change affects the individuals and the organization at large. Individual performance is measured by employee readiness assessment and satisfaction survey, observation, feedback, awareness and understanding change. Organization performance is reviewed through adherence to project plan, adherence to timelines and speedy execution of tasks.
Sustaining the Wins
The way to success is hard and what was harder is maintaining success. The first way to keep the win is to increase learning, creativity and innovation within the firm—secondly, the use of logical and well-thought decision through open discussion and allowing prototyping. Thirdly, setting high and stricter goals then monitor the progress. Fourth, ensuring to maintain a consistent commitment to each employees roles and duties. Finally, the constant evaluation of improvement for individual, departmental organizational and against competitors (JWMI, 9).
Future Challenges
For Nadella to remain relevant in the future as he continues with new products plans to strengthen Microsoft’s organizational culture and operations, he has to generate new and better products. The prediction to the culture at Microsoft is an organization that aims at making technology accessible to all people (Welch, 1). It also wants to ensure the world becomes a better place by allowing more achievements to the users of their products. The other challenge is out-growing their competition because Microsoft is in an industry with very many giant players. To outdo all these organizations and emerge the best while remaining relevant with all products and services is a tall order. The improvement of innovation and creativity to match the fast-growing technological world is another challenge for Microsoft’s future (JWI510, 5). Having to think ahead and create unique yet advanced and more sophisticated products and services is a challenge.
Conclusion
The future of Microsoft is bright due to the creative and innovative leadership skills portrayed by Nadella in his few years as company CEO (Welch, 1). It is through Dweck’s growth mindset theory that Nadella believes everyone is capable of change. The problems within Microsoft were first leadership based and secondly team-related challenges. Growing a team and developing a culture that is new and can carry the vision of Microsoft was Nadella’s strategy. Although challenging, it was worthwhile because the group of executives empowered his vision and believed in his dream, and so the story goes.
:
References
- Jack Welch. 2005. Winning
- Daniel Goleman.2000. Leadership That Gets Results. Harvard Business Review
- Patrick Lencioni. 2002. The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable
- Week 4. Lecture. Building High-Performance Teams
- Herminia Ibarra, Aneeta Rattan & Anna Johnston. June 2018. Satya Nadella at Microsoft: Instilling a growth mindset. London Business School
- Jon R. Katzenbach. 1993. The Discipline of Teams. Harvard Business Review
- Brent Gleeson. May 31, 2018. 7 Mindsets Necessary for Successful Leadership Development. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/brentgleeson/2018/05/31/7-mindsets-necessary-for-successful-leadership-development/#683c852650d3
- Week 3. Video. Jim McNerney. Characteristics of Successful Leaders
- JWMI Policy & Procedures Guide. This is the policy at my office.