My Journey: 4 Leaders Discuss Life’s Lessons

“I’m a pretty pushy guy and I like being out of my comfort zone.” The Chairman of Microsoft Europe, Jan Muehlfeit, offers this self-analysis with a smile as we begin our interview. It’s not easy to describe meeting with him, but this quote from someone who has known him for years sums it up pretty well, “Everything about him says ‘LEADER!’. He has enough presence, energy and charisma to take over a room just by walking into it.”

It’s also clear that I’m sitting across from someone who is, what a friend of mine used to call, “Microsoft-smart”. It’s difficult at first to process what I’m hearing at the speed in which it’s coming at me. It takes concentration and focus, but soon I notice my hand moving, my pen starts making notes and I begin to get into the pace of the interview.

“I have always been driven, so-to-speak, but I guess this passion I feel now came from a mid-life crisis of sorts.” Approximately 5 years ago, when he was Vice President Public Sector for Europe, Middle East, and Africa, he was spending quite a bit of time talking to and occasionally travelling with someone who has been a mentor to him, Bill Gates. “In many respects it was a time of convergence for me—many things coming together. I was asked to address the World Economic Forum in South Africa and a bigger world began to open up for me. In travelling around Africa I saw the most extreme poverty I could ever imagine and I saw, first-hand, the devastating effect of AIDS, both of which showed me how little this thing we call ‘globalization’ has benefitted certain parts of the world and I became aware of an imbalance. At the same time my mother became seriously ill, which focused my thinking on my personal life, too, and its need for more balance. This whole experience was a real wake-up call for me.”

Not long after that wake-up call, Muehlfeit was made Chairman Microsoft Europe, giving him a unique opportunity to interact with world leaders in government and business. “I take every opportunity I have to share my passion for inclusive globalization, Europe’s relevance and sustainability in the 21st century, and my belief that free trade should be fair trade.” In his role as Chairman Europe, he was able to move back to Prague from Munich, for family reasons—another part of the balance he felt he needed.

“I’m still paying a price for this—my success—but I’m getting closer to that balance I want.” He describes how he has scheduled family vacations every three months and that he is almost always home on the weekends.

As our discussion continues, I’m curious about lessons that helped him find out more about himself. “What personal shortcomings have you had to overcome along the way?” He smiles, “I’m a pretty aggressive guy, you know. It’s not easy for me to listen—still working on that one—but what comes to mind is learning to admit my own mistakes. Years ago I took a psychological profile test and learned that my personality type has a problem with admitting mistakes, which,” he adds with a wink, “was no surprise to those around me. Well, I was given an opportunity to put this awareness to the test soon after that. One of my major customers called me into his office one day and explained how my software really made a mess of his inventory—he was very upset. My initial reaction was, you guessed it—pilot error. But, I held my tongue and told him I would look into it and get back to him. I later found out that it was, in fact, our screw-up. He was right! I went right back to see him and said, ‘you are right, we screwed up.’ From that moment on the defensive barriers were dropped and we began discussing how to solve the problem. My being able to openly admit the mistake made me less of an adversary and more of a partner—it created a nexus of trust in our relationship, which lasts to this day. I don’t know why I had such trouble seeing that. I mean after all, in school, isn’t the most hated kid in the class the one who always thinks they’re right?”

This leads us to what Muehlfeit thinks may be the most important thing for a leader to know: one’s self—self-awareness. “Sure, this includes things like understanding strengths and weaknesses, but I take it further than that. In my view, the poor and average leaders are the ones who work on their weaknesses. The good ones are the ones who know and understand their strengths and build on those. Why? Because people will only move out of their comfort zone on a strength, not a weakness and that is how innovation and creativity are sparked—having the confidence and competence to try new approaches, to do new things. This is also how dynamic teams are built—by complimenting each person’s strengths. We spend too much time trying to make people better at things that are their weaknesses. Doing that is inefficient and delivers a much lower yield for effort expended.”

He smiles and concludes, “I may sound a bit ‘pushy’, but I’m right, the facts bear me out.”