Episode 19. 7 Lessons from 7 Years at Microsoft (and Why I’m Leaving)

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Marie Groover (00:03.695)

Hello and welcome to the Spiritual 9to5 podcast hosted by myself, Marie Groover from The Corporate Psychic. My 7 year Microsoft anniversary is coming up and I'm also leaving the company. So this episode is an honouring of both events and a tribute to some of the things that I have learned in my time here thus far. 7 things to be particular.

July 6th, 2022 will be my seven year anniversary at Microsoft. It will also be my very last day. So I want to share some things that I've learned, seven things to be exact. And we're always learning as we go and I'm not gone yet. So stay tuned for an update. In the meantime, in the now, we'll start with number one. One of the first things that I learned at Microsoft,

that was actually directly spoken to me and to my incoming class of peers was, work-life balance is on you. It is at the discretion of the employee. And I have to say a hundred percent yes, at least in my experience and from what I have observed, to be really good with work-life balance is to become a master of boundaries. And it is also a lesson in teaching others, our peers, our managers, our mentors, our leaders,

how to be in working relationship with us. If there is ever an entity that can continually, without stop, without fail, produce more and more work for you to do every single day, every single minute of every day, it's gonna be a business. Now, something that I learned from TCP is that the energy behind corporations and businesses and roles is an all encompassing energy because it is not bound by anything physical or earthly.

there is truly no limit to it. Business energy is endless energy. And if you are not sure about this, I want you to think about your work day and when you decide to end it. Have you ever ended a work day where you have finished literally everything that is possible to do? And when you thought about your work on a project or on a team or for your organization, have you ever found a limit that you could do?

Marie Groover (02:28.086)

in improving the work that you're doing? I think not. Is there ever been a limit in knowing when something's completely gonna be finished or perfect? I think not. And I can echo the sentiment from an employee where I think I could work 24 hours a day and I still would not get everything that I would wanna get done. I still wanna get everything that I would think in my mind that I needed to get done.

And as a business owner, could triple this feeling. So lesson number one, work-life balance is on you. You decide what works for you, and then you have to follow through and enforce it. If you don't want anyone calling you when you're on vacation, then don't put your cell phone number and you're out of office. Lesson number two, soft skills are more important than hard skills. And I would extend this to say,

How you do one thing is how you do most all things. What I mean by this is that within our being, we have many habits and patterns that make up our character and how we tend to action, respond, react, et cetera. Some of these are conscious patterns. Some of these are subconscious patterns. The more aware you are of yourself, the more effective you will be in any role or environment that you serve within. I have worked in

extremely technical roles. I've worked in high level programmatic roles. I've worked in deep and operational business roles. I have flexed between the field, the customer, the product, corporate, you name it. And it has been my soft skills every single time that have tended my growth, that have solutioned my way out of every dilemma that I have faced. And that ultimately makes me someone that you actually want to work with.

Soft skills and personal development is important. Why is this more important than hard skills? Some of you might say, I just need someone who can do the actual job. And you do need that. But likely you want someone who is capable and competent enough to do the job, but that is also able to see and read context, who can look beyond the job itself, who can contribute to the team intentionally and who can get along diplomatically with others. Someone who can grow with you, who

Marie Groover (04:48.558)

can grow with your team and your business. Because seldom are we working in silos and seldom do we work on things that don't evolve over time. If you have a competent employee with good character or soft skills, you can teach them most any hard skill. It's way easier to teach someone how to deploy PKI than it is to teach them how to have a growth mindset, how to be excited about their work, how to be kind to other people. Though these are not impossible to learn or teach, by the way.

There just needs to be a willingness. Okay, the third thing I learned. Being busy and being productive are not one and the same. I'm gonna say that again. Being busy and being productive are not one and the same. Productivity knows the bottom line. Productivity moves the needle. Productivity prioritizes projects and tasks based on what moves the needle.

And actually, productivity and work-life balance are very good friends. It is easy to become busy. It is easy to find work. It is easy to create work, to live a life constantly checking off boxes, to constantly be planning as opposed to doing. It is easy to get carried away by the list. And sometimes, busyness feels like productivity. But being busy is actually equivalent

to cleaning your room when you should be writing a paper. It might feel good when you're done cleaning your room that is, but it doesn't get you closer to the finished product. It is not what moves the needle. If you can learn to discern and act in productivity rather than in busyness, then you will thrive and your career will grow. Number four, the importance of managing up.

I cannot stress this one enough. Just like you are the owner of your life and thus your work-life balance, you are also the owner of your career. No one else is managing your career for you. In fact, it is not even in your manager's job description to be managing your career. Your manager is supposed to manage you to ensure that you are productive and not busy and that your work is moving the needle, not that your work

Marie Groover (07:14.998)

is moving the needle of your career. Not that you are happy and thriving in your workplace and job and team. These are bonuses by the way, because a good manager will do these too. But ultimately, it is all up to you to ensure that you are making of your work and life and career what you want of it. Your manager's job is to do what's best for the business. Your job is to do what's best for you. The fifth thing I've learned.

The best managers are the ones who are clear. Have you ever worked for a revolutionary leader, a visionary and innovator, someone that when you're around them or on a call with them, you are just blown away? There's an energy there that is palpable and it is an incredible experience. And you can draw from this energy and get so inspired and so motivated to work. And it's a beautiful thing only if their vision translates in a way.

that is clear to execute on. Now for some of you, that is your job. Your job is to make clear whatever it is that needs to happen to get the vision built. But for many people, you are not that close to the vision and it can be quite hard to determine what exactly it is that you can do or should be doing that moves the needle. And what I've found is that while it's amazing to work for a leader that inspires you, it's actually better

It's easier, it's much less stress inducing. When you have a manager who can translate to you clarity of what exactly needs to be done. And I have to say my current manager is a gold star clarity producer. And this my friends has been a game changer for me. If you are a manager out there, if there is one thing that I would advise you to work on and value as a manager, it would be to bring clarity to your people.

People, no matter how visionary you are, no matter how inspiring you are, no matter how people-oriented you are, if your people do not know what their jobs are or how to do them, they will eventually leave, probably because they have anxiety that they are not doing it right, or because they actually aren't doing it right. And manager, that is on you. People who have managers,

Marie Groover (09:39.178)

If there's one area where you can constantly be improving your relationship with your manager, it is to increase the level of clarity that you can draw from them. Again, this will be a game changer for your career because it's so much easier to do your job when you know what your job is. Okay, so number six, the sixth thing that I've learned. Leaders are humans, just like anyone and everyone else.

this learning right here. I remember before I worked in my first chief of staff office, I would get on calls with leaders on a somewhat regular basis and I would just share about the work that I was doing at that time or report something out. I was very rarely nervous, but I didn't really see them as real people. I was so far removed from understanding what our leaders, our top leaders and executives did. I was so far removed from understanding what they really cared about and

I had a bit of conditioning that taught me to look a certain way around them, speak a certain way around them, to maybe embellish whatever I was working on. I don't know. And I did feel a desire to impress or in the very least to get it right. Except I had no idea what get it right meant because again, I was so far removed and I don't mean by level. I don't mean by like number of people between me and my leaders.

I mean, I was so far removed in experience and knowledge and awareness of what they cared about. And then I started working in a chief of staff office focusing on leadership enablement. So suddenly I was in a room of leaders on a weekly basis and I was preparing their agendas and content for meetings and gathering content across the orgs and hearing them talk and hearing their feedback. And I realized that the beautiful presentations with the perfect phrasing and the

the nice looking data, it didn't matter so much. It didn't matter so much as the work that was actually being done. I learned that there was far too much polish and far too much context and far too much fawning over our leaders as opposed to just showing the work. And that our leaders just wanted to see the work because ultimately they are accountable for the work just like literally everyone else. On top of that,

Marie Groover (11:56.32)

our leaders, all have their own lives and their own interests. And most of them are actually not interested in working 24 seven. Of course they aren't, but there is still this interesting thing that happens. I witness it all the time where when someone is in the presence of a leader and by leader, by the way, I mean like executive corporate vice president, general manager, someone like really high up in your company. When, when someone's in front of or in the presence of a leader, something that I've seen is that it takes

almost nothing for misunderstanding to occur. You see, I think there's a disconnect because other people also forget that our leaders are human. So I see this a lot where a leader will ask for something, something simple, something pretty clear, and an entire team will spin up around building out the deck and the context and sometimes even go off in the wrong direction because they failed to hear from the human in front of them what was asked. And this is on our leaders to demonstrate and hold people accountable

but it's also on us as individuals to remember that when you are working, engaging with anyone, you can drop the corporate speak and you can just be you. And you can just see the person in front of you as a human being. And I promise you that when you do, you will become far more productive together. Okay, number seven, how you lead yourself is how you lead those around you.

I know I already said that soft skills are more important than hard skills, but to go even deeper than that, I have learned that personal development is unavoidable if you want to grow in your career. I have learned that every moment is an opportunity to lead ourselves and thus will impact those we work with, thus will lead the people around us. You don't have to have a title of manager or GM or VP to be in leadership.

And leadership is definitely not about control or providing direction or even injecting your opinions or insights or making anyone do anything for you. Leadership is a way of being in the world. It's a way of being in your workplace. It is a form of integrity in self. Leadership is an embodiment of values and principles and character. It is a deep rooted confidence and knowing.

Marie Groover (14:19.572)

It is an openness in receiving and learning, a flexibility of boundaries, enough to listen to those around you, but an ultimate groundedness in what is true. It is not about expressing, guiding, directing, managing, definitely not about controlling anyone around you. And actually you are always in leadership. If you can become aware of that and practice embodying the leader that you would like to become,

If you can extend yourself grace and kindness and compassion with accountability, the greater and faster you and your career will evolve.

So that sums up the seven things I learned in my seven years at Microsoft. Don't get me wrong, there are so many more than these seven things, but I felt that these were pretty important. And if you haven't signed up already, sign up for the Quantum Leap. It's a four to four and a half week series that I'm leading in my last four weeks at Microsoft. It will include one to three live sessions a week, plus a beautiful organization of all materials and video replays in a course format for you to keep.

The theme is around building your own business, product, team, offerings, whatever you want, in integrity, with sustainability, with scale in mind, and while managing your nine to five alongside it. Many of these lessons, the ones from here, like the seven things that I've learned working at Microsoft in the last seven years, and so much more will be covered in in-depth training and coaching throughout this series. I hope to see you there. And thank you.

for being here.

Marie Groover (16:03.382)

Thank you for listening to this episode of the Spiritual 9to5 podcast hosted by myself, Marie from The Corporate Psychic. If you enjoyed this episode, if this episode resonated with you or even triggered you, I invite you to share it, rate it five stars, follow it and reach out with any questions, topic requests or to work together on your career, business, life or healing. I am here and I can't wait to meet again, maybe next week.

on this podcast.