Microsoft Case – Leadership
The Satya Nadella at Microsoft case describes a successful leadership intervention to transform a once great company that was severely underperforming. As you read the case and the article think about the five (5) principles that leaders use to mobilize people to do adaptive work as outlined in the Heifetz and Laurie article. Your assignment is to write a maximum of 1300 words, single-spaced paper that addresses the following questions.
5 Principles from attached article (please review article for exact definitions):
“In this article, we describe five principles that leaders can use to mobilize people to do adaptive work:
1. Identify the adaptive challenge.
2. Regulate distress.
3. Maintain disciplined attention.
4. Give the work back to people.
5. Protect leadership below.”
- First, using the information in the Satya Nadella case study and the article, “Microsoft’s Lost Decade”, summarize Microsoft’s problems and the key issues that Nadella faced. (Do not use more than 100 (of the 1300) words for this answer.
- Second, analyze the leadership style of Satya Nadella. Specifically, to what extent, in your opinion, did Nadella’s leadership behavior reflect the principles in the Heifetz and Laurie article? Be sure to provide examples.
- Third, now that you have applied the principles of leadership to the case study, apply your learnings to your “real-life” experience—either work or outside of work, and specifically, think of a situation where the leader either applied or should have applied the five principles. Describe the situation briefly, discuss how the principles were applied (or why they should have been), and what happened—either positive or negative. Be specific; use examples.
Strong answers will show familiarity with the concepts and theories as well as your ability to apply them.
Textbook: (attached)
Use the following articles as references in response:
