Good Counsel

BusinessWeek ran a great article about our General Counsel, Brad Smith. In it, they interview Smith, and ask several questions about his role in changing Microsoft's culture, and the perception of our customers and partners.

Some time ago, I had the chance to be among a small group of managers that had dinner with Brad, and heard him speak about his role. He was genuine, warm, open, and smart. I was genuinely inspired that there was someone at his level that genuinely cared about our customers, our partners, our employees, and our company. It prompted me to give a more personal commitment to excellence in my own job, especially when building relationships. It had a lasting impression on me.

From the BusinessWeek article, A Mellower Microsoft In Court?

"What I can tell you is when it comes to my approach, there are a few themes I try to emphasize. Don't allow something to become personal if it's not. Always maintain an open and direct channel of communication. Try to focus as much on listening as on speaking. So at the end of the day, if you disagree it's because you have a disagreement and not because you failed to have good communication.

The other part of my approach is to focus on win-win opportunities, to try to have all of us think creatively where we can. If you're looking at a single issue, it can be hard to bridge differences. But if you can expand people's horizons so that we're looking at three or four issues, we sometimes create opportunities to fashion a win-win that wasn't there before." [...]

One of the things I've tried to do -- with people in Silicon Valley in particular -- is just go down and spend a day every couple of months and go see four or five people [at tech companies]. I started doing that just after I got the job, saying I wanted to come by and just introduce myself. And initially, people thought, "Why's he coming?" But when issues do arise, you can sometimes solve a problem in a half-hour that might have taken you a couple of months if you didn't have that relationship.