Nate’s Notes 188: Sabina Nawaz, former Microsoft Executive | How Pressure, Not Power, Corrupts

What great insight Sabina shared…that the pressure she felt caused her to act in predictable ways that made her team members and colleagues cry. And then what great tips she shared to help leaders deal with the pressure.

Use your shut up muscle. Take margin notes, and let team members speak before you do.

Don’t treat delegation like an on/off switch, but rather treat it like a dial which is calibrated to people’s readiness and ability.

And remember that our behavior as leaders gets amplified on the way down, and peoples’ responses get muted on the way up. But by reacting to feedback kindly, and consistently asking for specific feedback, we can amplify the volume of the responses coming back to us.

In summary, pressure can corrupt. So we need to learn how to successfully deal with that pressure to lead effectively. It’s a simple idea. Please take it seriously.

Sabina Nawaz Bio:

Sabina Nawaz is a former executive at Microsoft and a coach for C-level executives at Fortune 500 corporations. During her fourteen-years at Microsoft, she led the company’s executive development efforts for over 11,000 managers, advising Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer directly. She has written for, and been featured in, Harvard Business Review, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Inc., Fast Company, NBC, and Nasdaq.