ResumeAdapter
Updated 2026-06-04

Microsoft's leadership principles are for managers.
Candidates are judged on four values.

Why this matters

The three leadership principles, Create Clarity, Generate Energy, Deliver Success, are Satya Nadella's framework, mostly for managers. What Microsoft publishes as the bar for candidates is four values: respect, integrity, accountability, and growth mindset. This page maps each value to resume language, then covers the leadership principles accurately for the lead and manager roles where they matter.

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By the numbers
Candidate values
4
Respect, integrity, accountability, growth mindset
Leadership principles
3
Create Clarity, Generate Energy, Deliver Success
Cultural core
Growth mindset
Learn-it-all, not know-it-all
Source
Careers page
Primary, candidate-facing

The quick answer

What are Microsoft's leadership principles, and do they apply to candidates?

Microsoft's three leadership principles, Create Clarity, Generate Energy, and Deliver Success, come from CEO Satya Nadella. They are accessible to all employees but are primarily required reading for managers, and they are reported through secondary sources rather than published on a current Microsoft careers page. They are a leadership framework, not the stated bar for every candidate. What Microsoft does publish, on its careers 'How we hire' page, is what it looks for in candidates: respect, integrity, accountability, and growth mindset. Growth mindset, rooted in psychologist Carol Dweck's research and championed by Nadella as being a learn-it-all rather than a know-it-all, is the cultural core. On a resume, show these through evidence rather than adjectives: a domain you learned to ship, a hard call you owned, a result you drove, and a team you credited. Scan your resume to see which of these signals a Microsoft reviewer would actually find. Scan your Microsoft resume.

On its careers 'How we hire' page, Microsoft states that it looks for respect, integrity, accountability, and growth mindset, and that it seeks candidates who reflect its values of respect, integrity, and accountability because these principles are the foundation of trust and collaboration at Microsoft.

Microsoft publishes, on its careers “How we hire” page, what it looks for in candidates: respect, integrity, accountability, and growth mindset. Those four values are the stated bar, and they apply to every role, not just managers. The definitions for respect, integrity, and accountability come from Microsoft's About page (Mission and Values); growth mindset is the cultural core, rooted in psychologist Carol Dweck's research and championed by Satya Nadella as being a learn-it-all rather than a know-it-all.

The three leadership principles, Create Clarity, Generate Energy, and Deliver Success, are a different thing. They come from an internal Satya Nadella memo and are reported through secondary sources such as the NeuroLeadership Institute and Business Insider. They are accessible to all employees but are primarily required reading for managers, and they are not published verbatim on a current live Microsoft careers page. Conflating the two is the mistake most guides make.

The resume reading is the same for all four values: a Microsoft reviewer indexes on the value being visible in the bullet itself, not asserted as an adjective. A line that reads embodies a growth mindset and is passionate about delivering success fails, because it names the values instead of demonstrating them, and it borrows the manager-framing the candidate is not yet measured on.

A line that reads taught myself Rust to ship the storage migration after the first approach failed, cutting build time 40 percent passes, because it shows growth mindset and accountability through an owned outcome without ever using the words. The four entries below give you that pattern for each value, plus the anti-pattern to delete; the three leadership principles follow, accurately framed for the lead and manager roles where they matter.

The four values, the candidate bar

Every value with what it probes,
a do-this bullet, and the anti-pattern.

These four values are the published candidate bar on Microsoft's careers “How we hire” page, with definitions for respect, integrity, and accountability from Microsoft's About page (Mission and Values). They apply to all roles, not just managers.

01
Candidate value 01

Growth mindset

A learn-it-all rather than a know-it-all: curiosity, learning from setbacks, and adapting to new domains. This is the cultural core, rooted in psychologist Carol Dweck's research and championed by Satya Nadella. A reviewer reads for whether you moved into something you did not already know and shipped, not for a static catalogue of what you already mastered.

What Microsoft probes
Do this on the resume

Show a domain you learned to ship: name the new skill, the setback that forced it, and the result. Make the learning and the progression visible, not just the tool.

Taught myself Rust to ship the storage migration after the first approach failed, cutting build time 40 percent.

Avoid this anti-pattern

A static wall of tools with no learning or progression narrative. A list of frameworks signals what you already know, not a learn-it-all who adapts; it is the most common growth-mindset anti-pattern.

Proficient in Python, Go, Kubernetes, Terraform, and a wide range of cloud and DevOps tooling.

02
Candidate value 02

Accountability

Full responsibility for decisions, actions, and results: end-to-end ownership. Microsoft's About page states that we accept full responsibility for our decisions, actions, and results. A reviewer reads for an outcome you owned from start to finish, not a duty you were assigned.

What Microsoft probes
Do this on the resume

Pair the thing you owned with the result it produced. Name the system, the end-to-end scope, and the number, not the title.

Owned the on-call rotation redesign end to end, cutting paging volume 35 percent in one quarter.

Avoid this anti-pattern

Responsibility-without-outcome bullets. Responsible for reliability names a duty, not an owned result, and a reviewer cannot tell what you actually drove or by how much.

Responsible for reliability across the platform and involved in a range of operational initiatives.

03
Candidate value 03

Respect

Valuing others' thoughts, feelings, and backgrounds, and genuine collaboration. Microsoft's About page states that we recognize that the thoughts, feelings, and backgrounds of others are as important as our own. A reviewer reads for evidence you partnered and credited others, not for lone-hero claims.

What Microsoft probes
Do this on the resume

Show genuine collaboration: name the partner teams, the feedback you adopted, and the shared outcome. Credit the group rather than claiming sole authorship.

Partnered with two partner teams and adopted PM feedback that reshaped the API, shipping it with zero breaking changes.

Avoid this anti-pattern

Lone-hero framing that claims sole credit for team work. Single-handedly delivered runs against the respect signal and reads as ego rather than collaboration.

Single-handedly delivered the entire platform rewrite and drove every major decision across the org.

04
Candidate value 04

Integrity

Honest, ethical, and trustworthy. Microsoft's About page states that we are honest, ethical, and trustworthy. A reviewer reads for honest scope and metrics, and for trust-bearing work owned with a verifiable result, not for inflated claims a reviewer cannot stand behind.

What Microsoft probes
Do this on the resume

Keep scope and metrics honest, and own a trust-bearing thread: data integrity, security, or compliance work with a verifiable result a reviewer can stand behind.

Owned the data-integrity audit for the billing pipeline, closing 12 of 12 reconciliation gaps and cutting disputed charges 28 percent.

Avoid this anti-pattern

Inflated titles, unverifiable claims, or vague scope a reviewer cannot trust. A claim with no defensible number behind it reads as a risk, not a strength.

Spearheaded transformational initiatives that revolutionized the business across every function.

Values quoted from Microsoft's careers “How we hire” page and Microsoft's About page (Mission and Values), accessed June 2026.

The leadership principles

Nadella's three principles.
A manager framework, not the candidate bar.

These come from an internal Satya Nadella memo and are reported through secondary sources such as the NeuroLeadership Institute and Business Insider, accessible to all employees but required reading for managers. They are not published verbatim on a current Microsoft careers page. If you are interviewing for a lead or manager role you can signal them; most candidates are judged on the four values above.

01
Leadership principle 01

Create Clarity

Synthesize the complex, frame the problem, and create shared understanding where there is ambiguity.

What it means
How a senior or lead candidate signals it

A time you turned an ambiguous, contested problem into a clear plan others aligned around.

02
Leadership principle 02

Generate Energy

Energize and build optimism in teams, beyond your own group, creating momentum.

What it means
How a senior or lead candidate signals it

Rallying multiple teams or mentoring that lifted others' output, not just your own.

03
Leadership principle 03

Deliver Success

Drive results and deliver, balancing long-term and short-term.

What it means
How a senior or lead candidate signals it

A shipped outcome with a number, plus evidence you balanced a durable bet against near-term delivery.

Leadership principles attributed to Satya Nadella via secondary sources (NeuroLeadership Institute, Business Insider). Not published verbatim on a current live Microsoft careers URL.

For most candidates the move is simple: write the resume to the four published values. A clean map for a software engineer is a growth-mindset bullet that shows a domain you learned to ship, an accountability bullet that owns an outcome end to end, a respect bullet that credits the partner teams, and an integrity bullet that owns trust-bearing work with a verifiable number. Four bullets, four values, distributed across roles, none of them naming the value as an adjective.

If you are interviewing for a lead or manager role, you can add signals for the three leadership principles on top: a Create Clarity moment where you turned an ambiguous, contested problem into a plan others aligned around; a Generate Energy moment where you rallied multiple teams or mentored others; and a Deliver Success moment that pairs a shipped number with evidence you balanced a durable bet against near-term delivery. Treat these as additive for leadership candidates, not as the bar every applicant is measured against.

You do not need to name a single value or principle on the page. You need bullets where the four values are visible in the outcomes themselves. See the Microsoft levels spoke for how the bar shifts by band, and the Microsoft interview process spoke for how the values surface across the loop.

FAQ

Microsoft values and leadership principles FAQ

The questions candidates surface specifically about Microsoft's values and the leadership principles, after they have read the pillar. Answers are byte-identical to the FAQPage JSON-LD, because AI engines that extract HTML and AI engines that extract JSON-LD should not see different text.

What are Microsoft's three leadership principles?

Create Clarity, Generate Energy, and Deliver Success. They come from CEO Satya Nadella and are accessible to all employees but are primarily required reading for managers. They are reported through secondary sources such as the NeuroLeadership Institute and Business Insider rather than published verbatim on a current Microsoft careers page, and they are a leadership framework, not the stated bar for every candidate.

What does Microsoft actually look for in candidates?

On its careers 'How we hire' page, Microsoft says it looks for respect, integrity, accountability, and growth mindset. These four values are the published candidate bar, and they apply to all roles, not just managers. The leadership principles (Create Clarity, Generate Energy, Deliver Success) are a separate, manager-leaning framework, which is the distinction most guides get wrong.

What is growth mindset at Microsoft?

Growth mindset is Microsoft's cultural core, rooted in psychologist Carol Dweck's research and championed by Satya Nadella, who describes it as the everyday practice of being a learn-it-all, not a know-it-all. For a candidate, it means showing curiosity, learning from setbacks, and adapting: a bullet like taught myself a new framework to ship after the first approach failed signals it, while a static list of tools does not.

Are Microsoft's leadership principles the same as its hiring criteria?

No, and conflating them is the common mistake. The leadership principles (Create Clarity, Generate Energy, Deliver Success) are Nadella's framework, primarily for managers. The published candidate bar is the four values: respect, integrity, accountability, and growth mindset. If you are interviewing for a lead or manager role you can signal the leadership principles too, but most candidates are judged against the four values.

What are Microsoft's core values?

Microsoft's About page lists respect (we recognize that the thoughts, feelings, and backgrounds of others are as important as our own), integrity (we are honest, ethical, and trustworthy), and accountability (we accept full responsibility for our decisions, actions, and results). On the careers site these three are paired with growth mindset to describe what Microsoft looks for in candidates.

What is Model, Coach, Care at Microsoft?

Model, Coach, Care is Microsoft's expectations framework for people managers, not a bar applied to every candidate. It describes how managers should model the culture, coach their teams, and care about people. If you are applying for a management role it is worth reflecting, but individual-contributor candidates are evaluated on the four values: respect, integrity, accountability, and growth mindset.

Continue

The rest of the Microsoft
resume cluster.

01 / Pillar

How to get a job at Microsoft

The full pillar covering how Microsoft hires, the four candidate values in summary form, the Microsoft Careers application path, and the levels and interview spokes.

Read
02 / Spoke

Microsoft levels

The Microsoft ladder across software engineering and program management, with scope, how the four-value bar shifts by band, and the promotion gates.

Read
03 / Spoke

The Microsoft interview process

How the full loop fits together, where the as-appropriate behavioral round sits, and how a reviewer reads the four values across the loop.

Read
04 / Resume example

Software engineer resume

A worked software engineer resume example with the keywords, metrics, and value-bearing bullets a Microsoft reviewer reads for.

Read
Related

ATS Statistics

The underlying dataset behind the editorial findings on this page, including the median pre-edit resume score.

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All company guides

The full index of company resume hubs, each with its published hiring bar mapped to resume language.

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