Microsoft EVP Judson Althoff on Striving for Excellence and Finding Balance

Judson Althoff (0:00)

I am wired to continuously strive for self-improvement and learn as much as I can from my successes and failures. In fact, learn equally, balancing successes and failures, mostly so that I could try to inspire excellence in others so that they can reach their potential. And I think that that probably came most from my mom.

Michael Gervais (0:28)

Okay, for those who are new, welcome. For the rest of us party people, welcome back to the Finding Mastery Podcast. I'm Michael Gervais.

And the idea behind these conversations is to learn from people who are switched on, who are on the path of mastery, to better understand what they're searching for, to get a glimpse of how they make sense of the world, how they make sense of themselves in it, how they explain events, both success and non-success. And we call that their psychological framework. And we also want to dig and better understand the mental skills that they've used to build and refine their craft.

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Now this conversation is with Judson Althoff.

Judson is the Executive Vice President of Microsoft's Worldwide Commercial Business Organization where he leads the company's commercial strategy in over 40,000 people across the globe and a whole range of functions. And these folks that he's leading, they obviously need to work closely together. And they're in the midst of a digital transforming of themselves along right with all of us, their customers. So leading that many people to work closely together in and of itself is intriguing for sure. But doing that while being part of a leadership team that's engaged in one of the most significant shifts in how technology is sold and consumed is a whole nother level of interest.

So Judson's ability to quickly synthesize thoughts and to do so eloquently jumps out in this conversation. He has an insatiable inner drive to help others reach their potential. And we talk about what it means for him to be a leader and what Judson looks for in others when trying to help them unlock their potential while at the same time striving for excellence in what he does. And that balance between the two is really important for him.