Microsoft’s CEO Satya Nadella spoke in a plenary session last week at the Grace Hopper annual conference. The discussion produced a lot of negative press about his advice to women for advancing their careers. He recommended (paraphrasing) that women should believe in the system and karma for reward. I agree with the press, it was bone head advice.

That wasn’t his only mistake; reviewing Satya’s overall performance in the plenary I give him a C-.  Due mostly to him seeming ill prepared to champion women. He was long on generalities. He named names of women in leadership, but didn’t discuss how they were fostered into their positions, or how the culture was changing to encourage more growth. He mentions problems, but not solutions beyond naming existing programs.

The first question Maria Klawe asked was “What made you want to come speak here today?” His answer was flimsy; he said he was soaking it all in, his friend had encouraged him to go to the conference to get a feel for what it means to stand out (among women). .. Are you kidding me? This is the response from the CEO of a major tech company at a major tech conference for women? Was he not briefed by his event or PR people prior?

When asked about how to inspire women in tech, he spoke about the importance of being comfortable, confident, and passionate about their individual excellence. I thought, ok this is a reasonable start. Then he spoke about how each of us has super powers we should exercise. He did this without really defining what he meant by super powers. He went on to tell a story of a learning moment (super power?). He was in a job interview and was asked what he’d do if he saw a baby fall.  He seriously suggested calling 911. It’s a funny story about how he lacked empathy at the time. That said, this is how he wants to inspire women? Perhaps his next learning challenge is contextual appropriateness.

Maria guided him at times in the conversation recommending different ways to better connect with women. For example not using the term “boot-camp” for a re-entry program after coming back from family leave, or talking about tracking, re-evaluating and making changes to bad situations in order to have a better work/life balance.

Circling back to his advice for career advancement, he mentioned a few times to believe in the system.  In my not so humble opinion, continuing to believe in a system that was originally designed to support young male engineers is the antithesis of critical and agile thinking.

Satya went to the conference with the hope of inspiring talented female engineers to continue pursuing careers in technology while also making valuable connections with potential candidates for Microsoft. Um, I doubt this conversation will do that because instead of being jaw dropping awesome, he was just “meh”.

Enough bashing Satya, the conversation wasn’t all bad.

He was articulate about how today is the best time to engage in tech because we have the best tools for creating positive world impact; the role of tech is touching all economies and enabling richness in human experiences, especially mobile.

He is passionate about Microsoft’s vision and how they can uniquely contribute to the world through empowering productivity and platforms that support a mobile first/cloud first world for a multiplicity of interests.

He had excellent advice for encouraging everyone to find both mentorship and sponsorship; someone who is willing to take a risk and back you. Hear, hear.

He was gracious to immediately and publicly admit to his mistake about career advancement. On a positive note, his blunder has put the spot light on the continuing issue of gender inequality.

Maria clearly champions Satya as well as everyone I’ve spoken to in and outside of Microsoft. There is great faith in him. He has a clear vision, is charismatic and has passion. And, using this conversation as an example, like any other leader he’s not great at everything. In his favor is that he seems to care about doing the right thing when it comes to encouraging women to pursue technology careers. To do so, he’s going to need the right mentorship and leadership team to support a culture that makes it so.

Ultimately it’s about putting social accountability at the center of business.

Below is the session. The conversation start point is at 48:32, the career advice blunder is at 01:34:00