Microsoft's CEO on Creating a "Learn-It-All" Culture

In his three years as CEO, Satya Nadella has changed the culture at Microsoft while making the company relevant again. He told Business Insider that it was Carol Dweck's book Mindset that inspired the type of culture he is trying to build at Microsoft.

"The author describes the simple metaphor of kids at school," he said. "One of them is a 'know-it-all' and the other is a 'learn-it-all,' and the 'learn-it-all' always will do better than the other one even if the 'know-it-all' kid starts with much more innate capability."

Part of this culture, Nadella explains, is making sure employees feel empowered.

"Create an environment, where everyone in the company can feel that they can bring their A-game and be respected for who they are," he said. "For example, diversity and inclusion is a major agenda for us, because first of all, we don’t want to be just successful, we want to really empower every person and organization on the planet. And if that is the goal, you have to look like the planet: have genders represented, have ethnic minorities represented, so we can create products that are really built by people for themselves. That’s a lot of what I think is what is 'driving culture'."

Moral of the story? Don't be a know-it-all, even if you are the leader of the company. Keep learning and encourage those around you to do the same.