Satya Nadella: Aligning Behind a Common Purpose

Empathy is an important guiding principle for Satya Nadella in his personal life and his career at Microsoft.

Satya Nadella’s life took an unexpected turn when his son was born with cerebral palsy. During the first five years of his son’s life, Nadella’s frustration grew as he noticed that various therapies made little difference to his son’s condition. Suddenly, however, Nadella realized that he needed to embrace reality and accept his son the way he is – that he could help his son the most by trying to see the world from his perspective.

Nadella believes that the ability to empathize is innate in all human beings, and that life experiences can help people become more empathetic. Empathy also matters at the corporate level. Only people who can put themselves in their customers' shoes can pinpoint their unmet, unarticulated needs, and, for instance, muster the innovation to find a new product that might solve those needs.

To promote empathy among your ...