The Bottom-Line Impact of Mindset
Satya Nadella, the CEO of Microsoft, credits the company's shift to a Growth Mindset culture with being largely responsible for the company tripling in value over the past six years. Microsoft is now one of the the first trillion-dollar companies in history - and Mindset has been at the absolute epicenter of this transformation.
Why Did Microsoft Decide to Focus on Mindset?
When Satya Nadella became CEO of Microsoft in 2014, he felt the company had become complacent and risk-averse - both of which represented major threats to the future of the company in a world obsessed with innovation. He immediately began the massive undertaking of fundamentally shifting the culture of the entire organization - and he chose to place Growth Mindset at the center of these efforts.
Nadella has been quoted as saying that his primary focus was creating a culture where the goal was no longer to be a "know-it-all" - but instead to be a "learn-it-all."
How Did Microsoft Embed Mindset into Their Culture?
As an example, Microsoft realized that their 18,000 managers represent the make-or-break point for any cultural shift. As go the Mindsets of the managers, so go the Mindsets of the 148,000+ employees around the world.
In 2019, the company introduced a new, Growth-Mindset-focused set of expectations for managers called "Model. Coach. Care." Model means not only to live the Microsoft values - but also to demonstrate what Growth Mindset behaviors look like in practice, every day. Coach means creating an intense focus for your people on experimentation and learning, based on the belief that everyone has tremendous potential to grow and improve. Care means truly getting to know your employees and being personally committed to helping them maximize their potential.
Where Can I Learn More?
For more information about Microsoft's ongoing Mindset transformation, check out several of the articles that served as input for this case study, including this article from Business Insider, this one from Inc., as well as this second one from Inc., one from Forbes, and this HBR article. (Note that some of these sources limit the number of articles you can access per month if you're not a subscriber.)
You may also want to check out Satya Nadella's book, "Hit Refresh: The Quest to Rediscover Microsoft's Soul and Imagine a Better Future for Everyone."