{"id":8966,"date":"2026-04-04T14:14:46","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T14:14:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/8966\/"},"modified":"2026-04-04T14:14:46","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T14:14:46","slug":"satya-nadellas-embrace-of-vulnerability-is-a-powerful-tool-ceos-can-use-to-gain-investor-trust","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/8966\/","title":{"rendered":"Satya Nadella\u2019s embrace of vulnerability is a powerful tool CEOs can use to gain investor trust"},"content":{"rendered":"

As workers delegate more tasks to AI, empathy has become even more important<\/a>, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella believes.<\/p>\n

Nadella has long espoused empathy is not a \u201csoft skill\u201d<\/a> because it\u2019s one of the hardest to learn. In an interview<\/a> with Axel Springer CEO Mathias D\u00f6pfner last month, the tech executive said emotional intelligence, or EQ, is only becoming a more crucial trait for workplace trailblazers.<\/p>\n

\u201cIQ has a place, but it\u2019s not the only thing that is needed in the world,\u201d Nadella said. \u201cAnd I\u2019ve always felt at least as leaders, if you just have IQ without EQ, it\u2019s just a waste of IQ.\u201d<\/p>\n

Researchers believe there\u2019s something to Nadella\u2019s philosophy. A little candor can go a long way, not just in helping to ease a company through a transition like returning to the office<\/a> or building workplace connections in a world of agentic AI, but also in gaining the trust of investors. A working<\/a> study from the University of Maryland Robert H. Smith School of Business earlier this year found CEOs who show vulnerability to investors are more likely to gain their trust. That vulnerability can even soften the blow of poor earnings.<\/p>\n

The UMD researchers recruited 249 adults in the U.S. with college degrees to act as investors evaluating a tech company. When a fictional CEO exhibits vulnerability in an interview transcript shown to investors\u2014admitting he is a poor public speaker and gets nervous before presentations\u2014 those investors are more likely to trust him compared to a group of investors shown a similar CEO interview, where the CEO instead says he is a confident public speaker. In addition to building greater investor trust, the vulnerable CEO also made investing in the company more attractive, according to the study.\u00a0<\/p>\n

When investors were shown positive or negative earnings forecasts after viewing one of the two CEO interviews, investors who saw the vulnerable CEO had a less negative response to the lackluster earnings forecasts compared to investors who viewed the confident CEO.<\/p>\n

\u201cCEOs are expected to show dominance, power, that they know everything, that they have everything under control,\u201d study co-author and UMD doctoral student Farzaneh Mahmoudi told Fortune. \u201cBut we are shifting from that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Urgency for empathetic leadership<\/p>\n

Previous research<\/a> has shown team members are more receptive and eager to work when bosses offer authenticity, transparency, and trustworthiness\u2014traits they can demonstrate through vulnerability, Mahmoudi said. Her study indicates bosses letting their guards down can extend to positive outcomes, though the benefits go beyond just winning over investors.<\/p>\n

Author, researcher, and professor Bren\u00e9 Brown told\u00a0Fortune at the\u00a0Most Powerful Women<\/a>\u00a0Summit\u00a0in October in a world where radically changing markets and workforce trends like the rise of AI are stoking fear in young workers, it\u2019s increasingly important for leaders to approach their jobs with empathy and trust.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne [capability] that I think is so lacking today that it\u2019s shocking \u2026 is deep, complex understanding of systems theory,\u201d Brown said. \u201cIf you don\u2019t understand that the world that we\u2019re operating in today is built of systems inextricably connected to other systems, and that if you move one\u00a0Lego<\/a>\u00a0piece an inch over here, you\u2019ve got fallout over here, you\u2019re not going to be able to win.\u201d<\/p>\n

When vulnerability goes too far<\/p>\n

The results of the study indicate investors\u2019 faith in vulnerable executives isn\u2019t indefinite. In a similar experimental design with 237 participants in the same study, groups of investors were presented with earning news\u2014either good or bad\u2014before or after they saw the vulnerable CEO transcript.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The research found investors had more trust and greater likelihood of investing in the company if they were shown the vulnerable CEO interview before getting bad earnings news, but not after. The results of this experiment suggest just spilling your guts does not make an effective leader, according to co-author and UMD Smith School of Business associate professor of accounting Nick Seybert.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to have build the trust somehow,\u201d he told Fortune.<\/p>\n

Developing vulnerability skills has been a tried-and-true way for leaders to connect with employees and investors, but it\u2019s also in vogue, Seybert said, with executives turning to unconventional retreats<\/a> and coaching to learn the skills espoused by bosses like Nadella.<\/p>\n

Practicing vulnerability isn\u2019t a hack CEOs can learn or start implementing overnight, Mahmoudi and Seybert argue. It\u2019s a long-term practice rather than a trick CEOs can use if they\u2019re looking for certain reactions from investors.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe dark side of this, in my view, is CEOs exploiting the trustworthiness of investors,\u201d Seybert said.<\/p>\n

A version of this story originally published on\u00a0Fortune.com<\/a>\u00a0on March 13, 2025.<\/p>\n

More on leadership skills:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As workers delegate more tasks to AI, empathy has become even more important, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella believes.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8967,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[151],"tags":[766,2685,767,8038,770,771,585,8300],"class_list":{"0":"post-8966","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-satya-nadella","8":"tag-chief-executive-officer-ceo","9":"tag-emotions","10":"tag-evergreen-refresh","11":"tag-leadership-advice","12":"tag-no-copyright","13":"tag-no-index-rec","14":"tag-satya-nadella","15":"tag-vulnerability"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@people\/116346857884073110","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8966","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8966"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8966\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8967"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8966"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8966"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8966"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}