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Microsoft CEO says he learned this management lesson from sports


Satya Nadella, chief executive officer of Microsoft Corp

Mark Kauzlarich | Bloomberg | Getty

Satya Nadella, chief executive officer of Microsoft Corp

“I was a ‘baller,’ or a pitcher,” Nadella says, “and I was serving up real trash one day.”

His pitches were giving the opposite team easy points, and his team was falling behind. So the captain called him off the field and stepped in to take his place. Nadella stood on the sidelines, thinking he wasn’t going to get a chance to play again in the game.

But after a few rounds, the captain gave Nadella another shot to get back on the field and redeem himself.

“I’ve always asked myself, “Why did he do that?” Nadella says. “He could have just replaced me and moved on.”

According to the CEO, the team captain knew that by taking a player out of the game and keeping him out, he would have discouraged him and chipped away at his will to succeed.

“I did much better during the second half of that game,” he recalls in his new book “Hit Refresh,” “and then I had a pretty decent season.”

That particular match, and the second change he was given to succeed, taught Nadella that when it comes to boosting someone’s performance, encouragement is the best strategy.

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