Zuckerbergs Leadership Qualities and Styles - Essay Example

Zuckerberg’s Leadership Style Introduction Since its formation in 2004, Facebook dominates among the most used social network sites, globally. Zuckerberg, the CEO, expressed his pursuit for innovation by creating a social network site to make the world stay connected. Besides his innovative ideas behind Facebook, Zuckerberg is equally successful in leadership and management. His transformational leadership style is vital in enhancing the success of the company. Despite years of criticism as a leader through, in some instances, negative press, Zuckerberg focused on his passion of making Facebook an interactive platform to ensure a networked world. He has managed to drive Facebook to attaining great possibilities through exceptional styles, skills, and expertise in management. Zuckerberg’s Leadership Qualities and Styles Believes and keeps his product simple According to Gallo (2012), Zuckerberg keeps the Facebook website clear and simple. It provides a user-friendly platform for social networking. Samson (2013) refers to Zuckerberg as a leader who owns the product he promotes because of the inherent passion for which he conducts his managerial affairs. The love for his products saw him deny offers to sell the Facebook account. For instance, Zuckerberg identifies thoughtful potential in his products. Passion to his fulfill his Mission The initial purpose for the innovation of Facebook was to connect people (Gallo, 2012). According to Samson (2013), Zuckerberg had an insight of the path Facebook would take. The future of Facebook became his obsession. Passion to achieve his goal has seen the website progressive improvement. According to Walter (2014), Zuckerberg has a fascination about making the world more open. The state of Facebook in the world and the power of its influence in various aspects of life currently resulted from Zuckerberg’s effort courtesy of passion to his mission (Samson, 2013). Facebook mission has remained consistent over the years since its start (Walker, 2014). This has concentrated efforts towards improvisation of social networking systems. Persuasive Leadership According to Gallo (2012), Zuckerberg believes in being a great leader and communicator. He puts efforts to improve his communication skills as a way to improve his persuasive leadership in the company. According to Marshall (2009), Zuckerberg underwent through a training in speaking to improve his communication skills. Zuckerberg has an inclination to interact with people to improve his leadership qualities. Marshall (2009) accounts for the structural positioning of Zuckerberg’s office in the new building of the company. The centric positioning of his office with offices of other leaders surrounding his office encourages frequent interaction with them. The accessibility of Zuckerberg has also seen the development of good relations in the company. Good relations are vital in the company’s operations due to information sharing required. Focused on his vision The reason for developing Facemash, Facebook’s predecessor, was to provide a platform to allow social connection of the people. According to Gallo (2012), Zuckerberg stipulated his vision of connecting people and geared all his efforts towards achieving it. He identified smart people to share his vision with and undertook the initiative of implementing it. Walker (2014) attributes the success to teamwork and relates this to be a consideration of Zuckerberg. He knew that he was good in providing insights, but not as good in implementation. He therefore identified smart people who could help in execution of the insights. Democratic leadership in coordinating teamwork Zuckerberg is democratic in his leadership. He concentrates on his relationship with others and encourages them to share their ideas. Zuckerberg is open to suggestions from his employees. He calls for suggestions concerning the company’s issues. According to Walker (2014), Zuckerberg gives his employees freedom to develop projects of their choice. The initiative is critical in developing courage of the employees through conviction. Zuckerberg also encourages freedom of speech of the employees. Marshall (2009) further supports the democratic nature of Zuckerberg by giving his employee, chances to work in the area that best suits them in the company. However, Zuckerberg is intolerant to failure to deliver. Time consciousness Marshall (2009) outlines Zuckerberg’s sensitivity to time. He describes him as a person who owns time. The attribute to do so makes him identify suitable time to take critical managerial decisions concerning his operations. Zuckerberg knows when to say no in issues relating to his management. Interested in a movement According to Walker (2014), Facebook is not just a social network site but also a way for Zuckerberg to keep in touch with the people and to enable them to connect. In his article, Pullen (2012) includes Zuckerberg’s statement asserting the fact that Facebook mission was for social reasons rather than corporate reasons. According to Gallo (2012), Zuckerberg does not make products to make money. He is customer oriented and he directs his efforts towards meeting the expectations of his customers. Aggressive and Encouraging Zuckerberg constantly pushes his employees to come up with innovations. He encourages the employees to deliver more than what the company has set. With his added aggressiveness, he pressurizes employees keeping them at their toes. Zuckerberg possess an exceptionally competitive character and zeal to drive success in teamwork. Marshall (2009) accounts for an instance where Zuckerberg challenged one of his staff to complete 5,000 pushups. To achieve his goal, he would do the pushups even during meetings. The implication of his consistency in keeping his schedule shows his extremism and commitment. Zuckerberg gives his employees benefits to his employees as a way to motivate them. This ensures employee satisfaction in their working. The motivation acts as a way to oblige the employee to maximum delivery in their work areas. Mastery of problem solving and social judgment skills Zuckerberg has owned decision-making skills, which have credited him with proper judgments pertaining to the company. His love for the improvement of the social life of the people has opened his perceptiveness to the social aspect and behavioral flexibility. These aspects have enabled him to make excellent judgments pertaining the progress of the company. Social perceptiveness defines the company’s customer defined product. Zuckerberg gives the customers’ needs an upper hand in the making of the company’s decisions. The love to hear and learn from others has perfected social flexibility of Zuckerberg. Behavioral flexibility has enabled Zuckerberg to deviate from his decisions after being enlightened on an issue by his staff. Shortcomings of Zuckerberg’s leadership Dressing code According to Futrell (2012), Zuckerberg need to act like a CEO. He should be considerate of his dressing code. Dressing gives impression of a person. Zuckerberg violates the official dressing giving bad impression. Poor Investment Choices Zuckerberg is suspicious of investing in the capital market. The company however needed money for the proper running of the company (Vardi, 2012). The failure to invest resulted in the downfall in the company’s as of 2012. Failure to invest may result in the development of the company’s products at the expense of its stocks. Zuckerberg also delayed the launching of an IPO. The company was highly valued by the time the IPO launching occurred. The implication of his investment decision was that the company had no alternative opportunity apart from good performance. The downfall of the company’s stock in 2012 proved to be detrimental to its operations. Zuckerberg recruits young staff members through social media recruiting with the intention of training them the hacker’s way (Walker, 2012). This deprives the company experience related skills necessary for long-term management and good mobilization skills. Despite the shortcomings of Zuckerberg’s leadership, it is clear that his ground as a leader is very crucial in the running of the company. His passion for the company’s goal has seen its progressive growth despite the sparse development constraints within the years. Zuckerberg is among the best performing CEOs, today. Zuckerberg’s performance challenges critics responsible for negative media reports that condemn his management styles. References Futrelle D. (2012, Aug 01). Is It Time for Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg to Step Aside as CEO? Time. Retrieved December 5, 2014 from http://business.time.com/2012/08/01/is-it-time-for-facebooks-mark-zuckerberg-to-step-aside-as-ceo/ Gallo, C. (2012, May 17). The Leadership Secrets of Mark Zuckerberg. Forbes. Retrieved December 5, 2014 from, http://www.forbes.com/sites/carminegallo/2012/05/17/the-leadership-secrets-of-mark-zuckerberg-video/ Marshall M. (2009, Oct 2). Mark Zuckerberg: The evolution of a remarkable CEO. VB. Retrieved December 5, 2014 from http://venturebeat.com/2009/10/02/mark-zuckerberg-the-evolution-of-a-remarkable-ceo/ Pullen P.J. (2012, May 18). Jobs or Zuckerberg: Who’d Make the Better Boss? Enterprenuer. Retrieved December 5, 2014 from http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/223570 Samson N. ( 2013, Nov 7). 6 Leadership Lessons from Mark Zuckerberg. MensXP. Retrieved December 5, 2014 from http://www.mensxp.com/work-life/leadership/21016-6-leadership-lessons-from-mark-zuckerberg.html Vardi N. (2012, July 27). Mark Zuckerberg’s Big Facebook Mistake. Forbes. Retrieved December 5, 2014 from http://www.forbes.com/sites/nathanvardi/2012/07/27/mark-zuckerbergs-big-facebook-mistake/ Walker E. (2014, May 14). How to Lead Like Zuck. Inc. Retrieved December 5, 2014 from http://www.inc.com/ekaterina-walter/as-zuckerberg-turns-30-leadership-lessons.html Read More