In this episode of C-Suite Signals, Jordan and Isaac discuss Satya Nadella's frequent use of multimedia, how he presents himself on screen, and what other executives can learn from him.
Each episode dives into the career paths, management styles, and current activities of today’s top business leaders, giving listeners a front-row seat to leadership in action.
Satya Nadella is Chairman and CEO of Microsoft. He initially served as Vice President of Microsoft's cloud and enterprise group before succeeding Steve Ballmer in 2014 as CEO and John W. Thompson in 2021 as Chairman.
Nadella has played a key role in Microsoft's resurgence as a global powerhouse over the past 10 years. He has pivoted the technology giant from a Windows-first company to a cloud-first company, spearheaded Microsoft's investments and growth in AI and quantum computing, and overseen major acquisitions, including GitHub, LinkedIn, and Activision Blizzard.
Nadella's management style emphasizes a growth and customer-centric mindset, which can be seen in the way that he frequently communicates with stakeholders across various channels, particularly multimedia.
In 2019, he was named Financial Times Person of the Year and Fortune Magazine Businessperson of the Year. He was also recognised as a Time 100 honoree in 2018 and 2024.
Jordan (J): Welcome to C-Suite Signals, the podcast where we break down how today's top CEOs are showing up in public. I'm Jordan Greenaway, CEO at Profile, and on each episode, I'm joined by a colleague from the profile team to unpack the leadership signals that matter.
In 10 minutes or less, we assess one high profile CEO's public profile and ask: are they building trust, showing leadership and cutting through the noise?
So let's get into it.
J: This week, we're focused on Satya Nadella, the CEO of Microsoft, of course, and specifically, looking at how he shows up on video and in multimedia content.
Nadella is known for his understated authority and precise and systematic thinking. But how well does that translate through to screen, and what can other CEOs learn from how he presents himself in a multimedia world?
So, Isaac, you are part of our multimedia team here. So, thank you for finding the time, because I think that multimedia is sometimes forgotten in the mix of thought leadership and profile raising.
And something that I always say to potential clients, actually, that they sometimes forget, is at least half of searches now are on video search, which I think is incredible.
And one of our own bits of research from the past was that when you're searching someone's name, like Satya, for example, if there's a video there, 80% of people will click the video first before they click on anything else.
So, I think that's a nice kind of background.
You've taken a look at Satya Nadella's profile. Has there been a kind of a standout example of something that he's done over the last few months that he's done well or badly, or otherwise?
Isaac (I): Yes. So, he comes across on quite a few different platforms. His content is very varied, which is very important.
One thing that he does very well, though, which I've noticed him more than others, is his direct-to-camera.
So, talking, not even from a multimedia stance, just as someone that goes on LinkedIn, has a look through, even on YouTube as well, if someone's talking direct to me down camera, I'm going to be more engaged. I'm going to listen more. I'm going to feel that it's more personal, that it's not so staged, it's not so formal, that it's coming from him, and they're points that he is passionate about and engaged about.
And I think that's something he does very well.
J: That's really interesting, because I had a little bit of a search as well.
I just dropped his name into YouTube, as other people might do. And one of the things that jumped out to me, as you've said there, you've kind of articulated it much better than me, it's not just all one type of video.
There's a conference speech, there's a podcast format, there's a direct-to-camera, there's a stage interview, and actually, there's a new bit of video content on YouTube, at least, I mean, sometimes, every day. He's doing a lot of stuff.
And actually, you look at it and you think, this is a guy that actually puts himself out there, that actually factors video into his strategy in a proper way. It's not an afterthought.
I: Which you have to do now. It has to be center stage.
If you want an audience to be engaged, you can't bluff. You have to know what you're talking about, be passionate about it, and care about what you're saying.
And with all of the things he talks about, you can hear that in his voice, that he's engaged. He's coming across with that confidence.
And I think that's key if you want to get an insight across. Because otherwise, why should your audience listen if you're not interested yourself?
J: Do you think that confidence is a learned thing, just more of it in the seat and you get more confident? Or do you think it's just something that some people naturally have?
I: I'd say it definitely gets easier with the more that you do it and the more practice you have.
But I'd say the key thing is if you know what you're talking about. Because otherwise you're going to panic if you're trying to talk about a subject and you don't know about it, and you don't have that passion about it, and you're trying to fake the passion.
You have to be genuine with what you're saying. Because people will pick up on it, and then they're not going to be interested in you. They're not going to listen to what you're saying, because why should they?
J: And I think it's interesting how when you speak about or talk about thought leadership, I think many CEOs default back to written and digital comms. You know, "let's push this out using the print press".
And there's always a role for print press. I don't want to kind of undermine the value of our media colleagues.
But I think it's really courageous to talk about those type of things on video, because you know that person is not faking it. You know that somehow someone else hasn't ghost written that content.
I: 100%. Don't hide behind text, in my opinion.
I mean, it's useful. It has its purposes. But if you want to get across something, especially if it's difficult and a difficult topic, a difficult subject, it's the best way to speak in your own voice.
Because also you've got to think about things like tone of voice and body language and how we read that, and that can only come across on video. You're not going to get that on text. And text can be interpreted in many different ways, where I think video is the clearest way to get that message across.
J: You've been a bit of a kind of a mentor to me, in some ways, because I was completely unaware of the sophistication of video content, different types of shots, different types of backgrounds.
When you think, a CEO like Satya Nadella produces a bit of multimedia content, do you think his team are thinking about that type of stuff? Or what would you think about in that kind of situation?
Because I think most people are unaware about those kind of background decisions that have to be factored into multimedia?
I: Yeah, I think you have to think about all of those things, especially if you're dealing with a topic that might be difficult. You want it to be quite simple. You don't want to over complicate it. You just want direct-to-camera honesty in the way that you're portraying it.
But if you're doing something a little bit more editorial, and it might be like an announcement of a new product you're releasing, you need to be a bit more flashy with how you're going to do it.
Think about your shots and your angles and that overall polish on the product.
So, it completely depends on what you want the purpose of the video to be. But it's something you have to always think about, and you don't want to overlook those elements because they're so key.
J: I don't want to get in the place of us recommending to Satya Nadella what to do better. Right? He heads up one of the world's biggest, if not the world's biggest, tech companies.
I: He's doing pretty well.
J: Exactly, we don't want to pretend otherwise.
But what do you think he's doing better, or perhaps, worse, than other CEOs when it comes to video visibility?
I: Firstly, he's doing it.
Quite recently, about last month, I was doing an in-depth search across mainly tech, and I was shocked to see how many of them either don't share any multimedia or don't even use LinkedIn at all.
They'll have a profile, but there's nothing posted on there, and they're missing a big trick to get that engagement and to show credibility in their voice as a thought leader.
J: And another thing that I would add, and this was just kind of from a brief scroll through on YouTube, what I liked is about 75% of the content on a general YouTube search was business centric and Microsoft centric, in the sense that he was talking about the future of the company, the impact of AI, and other business related topics.
Then, about 25% was a little bit more what I call lifestyley.
There was the occasional video of him talking about cricket. He likes watching cricket, for example. There was an interesting video that he did with the Wall Street Journal about how he works, what his kind of day is structured like. So, I like the fact that he also finds time to humanize himself a little bit.
Do you think that's an important part of a broader kind of video portfolio for a CEO? And actually, do you think sometimes that CEOs lean too much into the lifestyle stuff and don't put enough kind of hard hitting, insight-driven content out there?
I: I'd say it's definitely important.
I think you should always, if you're a CEO and that's what you do, and that's your thought leadership, you have to be focused on business. You don't want to become an influencer. You don't want to be a TikToker, and doing all of that stuff.
But that shows character, and people like that. They don't want this over polished, pure business, business, business. They want a little bit of personality.
And that doesn't have to mean that you're sharing what you're having for dinner, or you're off to a holiday in the south of France or wherever. But a little bit of like a day in the life of kind of running Microsoft, that's interesting, that's engaging, especially to other CEOs and maybe people coming up within the industry.
J: And a final question for us to end on, Isaac. If you were advising another CEO looking to replicate the kind of impact that Satya has, what would be your key takeaways? What would you tell them? If there were one or two things you could tell them. What would they be?
I: So, I'd say only speak about subjects that, one, you know a lot about. You're knowledgeable. Don't try to make stuff up on the spot, because people will be able to tell, and then they're going to shut off, and you'll lose your audience. And that instantly then takes you on to the next one of be engaging.
If you're passionate about what you're talking about, people will be engaged. You have to have that passion behind what you're saying. You can't sort of mumble and seem disinterested in your topic, because that's just going to come across as ridiculous.
And then the other thing I'd say is just be frequent and be regular with posting multimedia content, and whether that's once a month, once a week, once a fortnight, sharing some sort of video or photo with a bit of the text-based post to follow will increase your engagement a lot more, which is the best way to get your opinions across.
And I think that those are the sort of the main things to focus on because if you're sharing multimedia, you're already doing a lot better than a lot of other CEOs that just have completely neglected it, and they're going to get left behind otherwise.
J: Thank you very much, Isaac.
And that is about it for this episode of C-Suite Signals, where leadership meets visibility.
And if you're a CEO, of course, ready to lead from the front, or you're interested in getting some advice for your wider leadership team, please get in contact with us at Profile.
But until next time, stay visible!