Did Steve Ballmer do the right thing in stepping down?
An article by Monica Langley in the Wall Street Journal summarizes a series of interviews she had with Steve and provides fascinating insights into his thinking. It also serves as excellent learning for leadership.
In the interview, Steve talked about a significant event that occurred at a Starbucks when he asked his longtime friend, Ford's CEO Alan Mulally, how he had turned around Ford. Alan basically said he focused on teamwork. This was a big wake-up call for Steve.
He ran Microsoft like a conglomerate where he consulted with business unit chiefs individually and dispensed marching orders. He focused on data and details and expected the same from his business leaders. After meeting with Alan Mulally, he "...realized he had trained managers to see the trees, not the forest." He had an image of himself as, "...big, bald, and loud" and forced his will on his executives. He says that it finally hit him that he was the problem---"Face it: I'm the pattern."
It's no wonder he missed epic changes, including Web-search advertising and consumer shift to mobile devices and social media.
According to the WSJ article, Steve met with his executives bi-laterally, rather than in a group, and he pitted them against one another in a competitive contest that reinforced the status quo. By focusing on data and details, he kept the organization in the past domain where it supported its legacy, rather then seeing new possibilities in a dynamic external environment.
Source: WSJ article, "Ballmer on Ballmer: His exit from Microsoft" and