Today marks my three-year anniversary at Microsoft. Referred to this phenomenal company by my fellow Navy Reservist, Mark Dowd, my interview process was a full day, meeting with my potential peers. Over the last three years, we have been on an incredible journey of digital transformation to the cloud.

I’ve learned (and relearned and affirmed) many things here. Far from an exhaustive list, here are three things:

  1. People matter more than technology. First off, Satay Nadella is flat-out the best leader that I’ve ever seen in action. He has stated that empathy drives innovation. Then he layers on his amazing awareness, self-awareness, industry awareness, awareness of the technology that is to come, awareness of his team, awareness of our corporate culture and awareness of the world. Within our teams, we regularly ensure that our managers are taking care of our people. More than a tagline, we are metric’d on healthy our work environment is.
  2. Everything is a team sport. In fact, everything is a co-op game. Partnership with each other within the company, with our partner companies and with our clients is the key to success. None of us is smart
    er than all of us. The people here at Microsoft are wicked smart. We hire incredible talent, and we take care of them. That means you are never the smartest person in the room, and being open to their help and wisdom is the only path to success. We have an active, helpful culture as a result. You can reach out to nearly anyone in the company, with a well-formed, intelligent request, and expect a response. On top of this, we give back to our communities. Every single company event includes a Microsoft Give component. And every year, we set new records in charitable giving.
  3. As much as we love our technology — and we do! — we still get on planes a lot. My team is dispersed across the Western Hemisphere. My boss is in a different time zone. Each of my direct reports works from their homes the majority of the time. My peers are in different countries. We talk nearly every day, leveraging the power of technology, of Teams, of Skype and video, to connect. And yet, we look forward to the times we can break bread, have that cup of coffee, run into each other in the hallway.

Thanks to my wonderful teammates and friends at Microsoft. I look forward to many more years empowering every person and organization on the planet to achieve more.