Assignment
Leader Name
Mark Zuckerberg
Submitted to:
[Link] Naseem
Submitted by:
Sarfraz Gill 108
Shahzad Qasim 141
INTRODUCTION
Mark Elliot Zuckerberg (born May 14, 1984) is an American computer programmer and Internet
entrepreneur. He is best known as one of five co-founders of the social networking site
Facebook. Zuckerberg is the chairman and chief executive of Facebook, Inc. Zuckerberg became
the world's youngest billionaire in 2008 when he was just 23 years-old. As of September last
year he was worth £11.5billion, making him the 66th wealthiest billionaire on the planet despite
being only 29 years-old. Facebook was founded on February 4, 2004, by Mark Zuckerberg with
his college roommates and fellow Harvard University students Eduardo Saverin, Andrew
McCollum, Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes. Zuckerberg, who was a psychology major
though he took mostly computer science classes, recounted one of the ways he hacked his
studying while he was at Harvard. He built the first version Facebook in January of 2004 during
Harvard's intersession when most students study for finals.
LEADERSHIP STYLES AND TRAITS OF MARK ZUCKERBERG
Is Mark Zuckberg and effective leader or not?
Mark Zuckberg is definitely an effective leader; he dealt situations uniquely when something
goes wrong. He uses the unique ways to deal things. First of all, “Getting to No”, by knowing
when to let go or when to say no is, it’s crucial and important part of strategic leadership.
Secondly, “Learn to say Sorry”; he works hard on correcting his mistakes and learning from
them. Thirdly, “If at first you don’t succeed, start over”, he is a very passion young man, he
believes that there is no such thing as failure if he really want to pursue his dream and he
believes false start are simply invaluable learning experiences toward the next iteration of an idea
or development of a product. I personally think that his best moment as a leader is when he leads
all his employees, working together, bringing up the company, achieving the goal and mission,
share the success with his fellow employees and change the world together, this will be the best
moment for him as a leader.
RISK-TAKER & CREATIVE
“The biggest risk is not taking any risk…In a world that is changing really quickly, the only
strategy is that is guaranteed to fail is not taking risks.” • MySpace already existed when Mark
started Facebook. He took an idea/existing product and improved it.
FOCUS
When Mark Zuckerberg founded Facebook, a part of him knew where he wanted his website to
go and what he wanted his company to become • Approachable - Current Facebook employees
laud him for giving them a clear picture of where the company is and where it’s going. Believes
in his Product – Mark Zuckerberg did not sell his company as he believed in his product and he
also believed in his vision He’s Transparent About the Company’s Direction - Mark
Zuckerberg’s logic is simple; when you have a great team, sharing your vision is the first thing
you need to do. He Has His Eye on the Clock - The fact that he didn’t sell Facebook has made
him one of the most powerful and wealthiest individuals on earth and of course his ability to buy
Instagram for half its asking price is proof enough that Zuckerberg knows when to wait and
knows when to move.
INNOVATIVE & INDEPENDENT
This interview from January 8, 2010 at Tech Crunch with Mark Zuckerberg tells a little about
Facebook's future direction, but more importantly, it illustrates a key belief and a strategic
thinking behavior of any leader that wishes to remain relevant and sustainable. Zuckerberg
(founder and CEO of Facebook) explains: "We view our role in the system to be constantly
innovating and updating what our system is in order to reflect what the current social norms are.
A lot of companies would be trapped by the conventions and the legacies of the companies that
they have built....We believe it is important to always keep a beginner's mind and think what
would be would do if we were starting the company now." The two key things are observing and
accepting changed social norms. Leaders who wish their organizations to be relevant and in sync
must learn to perceive and understand the world as it is, not as they wish it to be. Zuckerberg
explains the ability of those leading Facebook to ask what we would do today if we were starting
Facebook. This is leading backwards from a vision instead of refining and iterating from the
status quo. Those that hope to reach a modern and relevant vision by improving in small
increments the status quo will miss completely because small iterations are not radical enough to
capture current social norms
LEADERSHIP STYLE
Described as aggressive and encouraging, Zuckerberg’s leadership style sees him often
demanding constant innovation and growth, as well as loving challenges and debates. There are
even times when he is not acting like a CEO, making important decisions on his own without
consulting his board. After all, he never gets intimidated by them even if they are much older and
has a firm understanding with his ideas’ worth. He also pushes his people to make and deliver
outputs more than what is set (making them work faster under too much pressure), which can be
confusing and stressful, but is very helpful because his staff members are seeing their output way
more than what he demanded.
Being familiar with his weaknesses, Zuckerberg is always open to suggestions from his
subordinates, granting them with opportunities to speak to him on suggestions and improvements
for Facebook. While this behavior has led to debates sometimes, Zuckerberg is known for not
providing appreciation vocally to his people, but is able to adapt quickly to critical situations and
respond immediately to user complaints. Focused on building the right kind of relationships, the
young CEO does not exaggeratedly show that he wants to control everything.
Mark Zuckberg is more of a democratic leader, he focuses more of sensitivity to the people and
group relationship in the organization and subordinates are highly encouraged to share their
individual ideas and make more suggestions. This leadership style is well suited to the Facebook
Company environment especially when it comes to a company which filled with different high
level of expertise such as Product Marketing Communications Manager, Software Engineer,
Vendor Manager, Data Engineer, etc. The reason Mark Zuckberg leading the team as a
democratic leader is because this leadership style promotes a better job satisfaction and it gives
higher productivity because in tech startups, it’s strongly based on creativity and innovative. He
lead his team by always focusing on the mission of “Making the world more open and connected
by giving people the power to share whatever they want and be connected to whoever they want,
no matter where they are.” He leads his team with his three pillars strategies. First, is to build the
best and most ubiquitous mobile product. Secondly, is to build a platform where every new app
that is created can be social and enable people to share. Thirdly, is to build strong monetization
and economic engine that will build Facebook into one of the world’s most valuable companies.
From above all, there are also 5 key elements of success which helped Mark Zuckerberg to
create such a staggeringly successful business, the 5P’s.
PASSION — always is fully committed and keep the energy fully charged all the times by
chasing something you believe in.
PURPOSE — Find the purpose and have a meaningful movement to create a great product.
PEOPLE — Build a strong and powerful team which is able to achieve the visions and goals.
PRODUCT — do not just create normal product, but create innovative products which changes
everything.
PARTNERSHIPS — Build strong and powerful partnerships with people who filled with great
imagination.
GREAT COMMUNICATOR
Mark Zuckberg and his relationships with his colleagues are close, employees see Zuckberg
practically every day, and he is busy but he is always accessible. There are weekly management
meeting where co-workers present different ideas and questions to Zuckberg. Mark Zucbkerg
doesn’t position himself far above from his employees. Its importance to encouraging interaction
to promote a more productive and creative work flow, especially in tech startups which are
strongly based on creativity and constantly reinventing to keep things relevant and innovated.
SERVING A PURPOSE
Another aspect of unconventional leadership is the encouragement of serving a purpose. To work
not just for the money or the profit but for the greater good of the product or for the company.
Serving a purpose is also founding the unconventional leadership of Mark Zuckerberg which is
highlighted in his quote “At Facebook, we're inspired by technologies that have revolutionized
how people spread and consume information. We often talk about inventions like the printing
press and the television-; by simply making communication more efficient, they led to a
complete transformation of many important parts of society. They gave more people a voice.
They encouraged progress. They changed the way society was organized. They brought us closer
together"(Walter, 2014).
PURSUIT OF PASSION
Another aspect of what made up this great leader was his tenacity to pursue passion. Quoting the
great man “If you don’t love something, you’re not going to go the extra mile, work the extra
weekend, and challenge the status quo as much.”
Mark Zuckerberg in this aspect has also put in words saying "Find that thing you are super
passionate about. A lot of the founding principles of Facebook are that if people have access to
more information and are more connected, it will make the world better; people will have more
understanding, more empathy. That’s the guiding principle for me. On hard days, I really just
step back, and that’s the thing that keeps me going"(Walter, 2014).Leaders in the 21st century
that have made great companies all have a common pursue of passion that has driven them to
bring their companies to great heights and Mark Zuckerberg has taken his passion from adorn
room project to a company that is now worth more than $200 billion USD. This really highlights
what the difference is in the unconventional leadership approach (CNN, 2014)
1.11 billion People were actively using Facebook as of March 2013. I say “were” because I’m
quite sure that number has increased since then. In fact, Facebook’s annual reports have showed
an increase in its active users as well. It seems like Mark Zuckerberg’s dream of getting the
whole world online is coming true after all. This is a man who changed the way the world
communicates, meets people and hires people. This is the man who’s tapped into over 1.11
billion people’s lives and he’s not done yet.
He Stayed Focused
When Mark Zuckerberg founded Facebook, a part of him knew where he wanted his website to
go and what he wanted his company to become – it had to have a higher purpose. Dig a little
deeper and you’ll find that Facebook went through its phases of refinement with Mark at its
helm. After all, that’s the only way Facemash (Facebook’s predecessor) became Facebook. Mark
fought and settled a lawsuit filed by three seniors in Harvard who claimed that he stole their idea
and got back to doing what he did best – refining Facebook and making it the website it is and
it’s still becoming. As Facebook added to its online repertoire with business pages, etc.,
Microsoft’s purchase of 1.6% share of the website, valued it at $15 billion as far back as 2007.
And of course, after that Facebook has gone from strength-to-strength, detractors
notwithstanding. And now, besides its worldwide popularity and appeal, Facebook is an ad
revenue churner that’s making Mark Zuckerberg wealthier by the second. This man didn’t just
change the way the world networked, he’s influencing advertising and possibly what you eat as
well!
Listens to His Employees
They say that a good boss follows his instincts but great bosses listen to their employees. As far
back as 2005, when Mark Zuckerberg was busy meeting with venture capitalists for Facebook,
he was known to disappear for long stretches of time, leaving his employees with no plan and no
vision for the future. Seeing that most of his then staff was getting de-motivated, a senior
executive told him about his lack of CEO-like behavior. Zuckerberg listened, found himself
mentors who helped him improve his communication skills and now, he’s a pro. In fact, current
Facebook employees laud him for giving them a clear picture of where the company is and
where it’s going.
Believes in his Product
Facebook was all of four months old when an investor offered Zuckerberg close to $10 million
dollars for the website. As tempting as the offer was, he declined and stuck with his baby. After
that there was Google, Viacom, News Corp. Then, Yahoo came by in 2006 and decided that
millions were just not good enough and offered Zuckerberg a cool $1 billion. But, Zuckerberg
knew that Facebook was his baby and he hadn’t even tapped its potential yet. He stuck with
Facebook and watched it rise in popularity. In 2007, Microsoft came knocking with a $15 billion
offer, but this, too just didn’t cut it. Even though these were still early days for Facebook,
Zuckerberg believed in his product and he believed in his vision. And then, a few years later, the
Facebook surge conquered the world and how. Suddenly, $15 billion seemed like poor man’s
play!
He Has His Eye on the Clock
You could have an IQ that challenges Albert Einstein but you’ve got to have an uncanny knack
to own time. Mark Zuckerberg has faced this and made it an art almost. Whether it came to
ignoring Facebook buyouts or buying Instagram – time was of essence and in both cases,
Zuckerberg owned time. The fact that he didn’t sell Facebook has made him one of the most
powerful and wealthiest individuals on earth and of course his ability to buy Instagram for half
its asking price is proof enough that Zuckerberg knows when to wait and knows when to move.
Besides this, he has an innate ability to recognize the one thing, maybe two that really matter and
he acts. This is a man who knows all the cards he holds but knows what someone else is holding
even well!
CHARISMATIC LEADER QUALITY
VISIONARY LEADER
Facebook is what it is today because of Mark Zuckerberg. His visionary leadership has made the
company so important to the lives of all that use it. When creating Facebook, Zuckerberg had the
idea that he wanted to create something that would change the way people live for the better by
connecting them to each other. This construction of a vision is the first thing Sashkin says you
must do in order to be a visionary leader. The second thing Sashkin says is putting the
philosophy into practice. Zuckerberg has clearly done that by connecting over 500 million people
all over the globe. The third aspect of Visionary Leadership according to Sashkin is personally
creating and supporting your vision. Zuckerberg devotes his entire life to Facebook and has said
in multiple interviews that the only thing he does outside of work is sleep. A design glitch
allowed MySpace users to customize their profiles. But that mixed blessing created a
cacophonous environment which made users welcome Facebook’s clean interface.
Facebook wasn’t visionary in any revolutionary sense of the word. Where Facebook deserves
credit was that Mark et al. recognized the need for a real directory of people, not merely users.
Before Facebook it was nearly impossible to actually find people, you could “google” them but
finding the person you wanted within one search wasn’t a given. We now take it for granted, but
that extension of people search and connecting them was certainly evolutionary, and it’s worth
noting that most successes are not radically new but extensions and improvements of existing
paradigms.
The critics may note that Mark sometimes lacked charisma. In this context, charisma is a subset
of vision: it allows you to convince others to buy into your vision, but charisma in and of itself
is not a requirement to succeed, it’s an accelerant or amplifier. In Mark’s case, he has had the
good fortune to let Facebook’s massive growth rates do the talking for him.
SOCIALIZED CHARISMATIC
Zuckerberg also represents a socialized charismatic leader. Choi defines this leader as someone
who motivates his followers to maximize the gains of the organization without regard for his
own personal needs (26). People may not believe this because Zuckerberg is currently the
world’s youngest billionaire, but making money is not his primary concern. Zuckerberg is still
involved with the day-to-day operations of Facebook and shows his followers how to unite their
work to a larger sense of purpose (Choi, 27). His main goal is not to make money, but it is to
have his employees provide a network for people all over the world to share and connect with
each other. In an interview with Mike Harvey of The Sunday Times in London, Zuckerberg says
that if his employees succeed in the company’s mission, the financial rewards will come. The
mission always comes first. Recently he done a good work which shows his socialized great
example. He will charity the Facebook business to different NGO's on the birthday of his
daughter.
Lastly, and I think most importantly to understand Mark Zuckerberg as a leader, is how he
exemplifies Selznick’s idea of statesmanship. Zuckerberg has undeniably bonded his selfhood to
the identity of his institution. The fate of Facebook is intertwined with Zuckerberg’s, and vice
versa. For the rest of his life, Mark Zuckerberg will be remembered hand in hand with his
company, and I think he would not want it any other way. And that to me is what makes him a
great leader.
TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADER
He has transformational quality in him. As the ability to bring out positive and major changes in
the organization. When went to Australia to meet venture capitalists down fall came in the
organization, employees felt very de-motivated. When he came back he took the organization
back to its place by inspiring and motivating them. This is the quality which transformational
leader possess.
ABLE TO MAKE GROUP MEMBERS FEEL CAPABLE
His main focus on team work. He created decentralization in the organization which motivating
the employees as they had the right to give the opinion regarding the affair of the organization
CONSIDERATION
Mark Zuckerburg have consideration for the employees and give them emotional support,
warmth, friendliness and trust. Mark had his recent meeting with the rock star sensational Prime
Minister of India Mr. Narendra Modi and Mark also had this conference thing from people from
various spheres through NDTV network channel. The conference seemed talking about the plans
to make Facebook grow a significant numbers apart from the present growth of the company the
CEO plans to take it to a whole new level with the help of telecom providers, and keeping
whatsapp aside for a while. What are the pretty summed up deal with his recent visit to India and
the conversation with Mr. Narendra Modi on his part? Is it that Mark focuses to attract more and
more of Indian Public to make this company outrage any other nearby social media also he
seemed pretty straight forward with his things like talking about the critics and stating that his
company has some core duties apart from other fundamental things like his answer on the basic
necessities of country with huge population like India having less public toilets. He simply stated
that its part of regular chores to keep up to these problems but this is not what his company is
intended to do.
LEADERSHIP STYLE
Facebook master Mark Zuckerberg illustrates transformational leadership in action. Mark is an
American internet entrepreneur, computer programmer and a philanthropist. Together with his
friends in Harvard, they invented and created the infamous social networking site Facebook from
their dormitory room and launched it at the campus and expanded to California in a short period
of time. The total number of Facebook users online reached more than one billion in year 2012.
He even got involved on variety of legal disputes which were initiated by his other friends and
members of his group
His leadership style is described as encouraging and aggressive. A person who always demands
constant innovation and growth, he loves debates and challenges. There are times that he does
not perform like a CEO, causing him to make important decisions on his own without consulting
with his board.
He pushes the people to make and deliver outputs more than what is set, yes it might be
confusing and stressful but at the end of the day they unexpectedly see that their output is much
more from what he demanded. This makes his subordinates work faster under too much pressure,
which is great especially when need arises and needs to be done as soon as possible. He never
get intimidated by his board room, even if there are much older and makes a person feels
intimidated he does not focus on that alone. He has a firm understanding with his idea worth. He
knows when to say no, being a man of his word. Zuckerberg is familiar with his weaknesses,
causing him to be open to suggestions from his subordinates. He allows his employees to be
granted opportunities to speak to him on improvements and suggestions for Facebook. While this
may sometimes lead to a debate, Zuckerberg is known for not providing vocal appreciation to his
subordinates. He is able to adapt quickly to situation and responds to complaints right away from
his users. Focused on building the right relationships, Zuckerberg does not exaggeratedly show
that he wants to control everything.
PARTICIPATIVE LEADER
Zuckerberg also have participative leadership style. He is sharing decision making with group
members and working with them side by side has become the generally accepted leadership
approach in the modern organization. Zuckerberg is familiar with his weaknesses, causing him to
be open to suggestions from his subordinates. He allows his employees to be granted
opportunities to speak to him on improvements and suggestions for Facebook. While this may
sometimes lead to a debate, Zuckerberg is known for not providing vocal appreciation to his
subordinates. He is able to adapt quickly to situation and responds to complaints right away from
his users. Focused on building the right relationships, Zuckerberg does not exaggeratedly show
that he wants to control everything.
DEMOCRATIC LEADERSHIP
Zuckerberg is also more of a democratic leader, focusing on sensitivity to his people and on
group relationships, where members are highly encouraged to share individual ideas and
suggestions. When it comes to having to deal with different expertise, including product
marketing, communications management, software engineering, vendor management and data
engineering, this leadership style is well suited to Facebook. Another reason why Zuckerberg is
seen as a democratic leader is because his leadership style promotes better job satisfaction and
higher productivity, based on innovation and creativity. Focusing on his mission—making the
world more open and connected by giving people the power to share whatever they want and be
connected to whoever they want, no matter where they are—he leads his team with his 3-pillar
strategy, which involves building the best and most ubiquitous mobile product; building a
platform where every new app created can be social and enable people to share; and building
strong monetization and economic engine that will build Facebook into one of the most valuable
companies in the world. Aside from these, Zuckerberg also uses his 5P’s elements of success,
which are:
Passion - Always be fully committed and keep the energy fully charged all the time by chasing
something you believe in.
Purpose - Find the purpose and have a meaningful movement to create a great product.
People - Build a strong and powerful team, which is able to achieve the visions and goals.
Product - Do not just create a normal product, but create innovative products which change
everything.
Partnerships - Build strong and powerful partnerships with people who are filled with great
imagination.
ALIGNING THE EMPLOYEES
According to statistics, Facebook is the best place to work in 2013. It motivates employees by
giving them various benefits that can help them balance their work and personal life. A few
examples of these perks are paid vacation days, free food and transportation, monetary support
for new parents, day care reimbursement and much more. Also, if employees need to unwind
from the stress brought about by their work, they are provided with facilities, where they can
play table-top and video games. By motivating its employees, the company is making them
satisfied with their jobs, performing at their very best.
CONCERT BUILDING AND COLLABORATION
Zuckerberg has close relationships with his colleagues, where they see him practically every day;
though he is busy, he is always accessible. There are also weekly management meetings, where
co-workers would present different questions and ideas to the young CEO. Zuckerberg does not
position himself far above his employees and encourages interaction between them to promote a
more creative and productive work flow, which is highly important especially in tech companies,
such as Facebook.
ENTREPENURE
"Facebook's mission is to give people the power to share and make the world more open and
connected."
--Mark Zuckerberg
One might assume that information would abound on the founder of a high-profile, multi-billion-
dollar social networking site. Wrong. Information on Mark Zuckerberg is surprisingly scarce.
Maybe that's just because the 31-year-old Harvard dropout has only ever held one job: CEO of
Facebook.
Zuckerberg grew up in the New York City suburb of Dobbs Ferry, N.Y., and attended the
Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire. His father is a dentist, his mother a psychiatrist,
and he has three sisters. He taught himself how to program computers, and during his senior year
in high school, he and fellow hacker-programmer Adam D'Angelo caught the interest of AOL
and Microsoft by creating a Winamp plug-in that could build customized playlists.
But both turned down job offers in order to attend college in 2002 -- Zuckerberg to Harvard and
D'Angelo to CalTech. But Zuckerberg's undergraduate career in computer science wasn't
destined to last. Not content to just study programming, he created a photo-rating site called
Facemash, using photographs of other Harvard students from the school's online facebook (a
yearbook-like publication designed to introduce students to one another). But he created his
program by hacking into student records and using photos without permission, and was
reprimanded by the administration for violating privacy rules and breaching computer security.
Zuckerberg, however, wasn't deterred. He eventually finished the platform for "The Facebook"
(sometimes at the expense of attending class), combining the concept of traditional facebooks
with large-scale social networking sites like Myspace and Friendster.
In February 2004, Zuckerberg launched the program from his dorm room with co-founders
Dustin Moskovitz, Chris Hughes and Eduardo Saverin. In just a few weeks, more than half the
school had opened accounts. The group quickly expanded to more universities and colleges, and
that summer, Zuckerberg and his team moved to Palo Alto, Calif., renting a sublet and hooking
up with investors like PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel and Napster co-founder Sean Parker.
By August 2005, Zuckerberg had officially changed the company's name to Facebook, and after
raising $12.7 million in venture capital, was ready to move the company to the next level.
The site gradually expanded from college networks to include high school and work groups, and
in September 2006, anyone with an e-mail address was allowed to join. Today, there are more
than 110 million active users, and according to comScore Media Metrix, which tracks Web
activity, Facebook rates as the Web's top photo-sharing site, and is the fourth most-visited site in
the world, accounting for more than 1 percent of all internet use.
LEGITIMATE POWER
Mark Zukerberg has legitimate power because he is the CEO of his company and refuses to
accept an IPO. He reminds his employees to stay focused on their job and not the payout. He still
has full control of his company including 3 out of the 5 seating votes for his board. He also has
reward power because he gives his employee’s stock units instead of individual pay. Therefore
even if Mark does accept a payout his employees will get money out of the company either way.
Zuckerberg also has referent power because Mark is a strong, visionary leader who has made
Facebook a billion dollar company by himself. He has a vision for Facebook and he is making it
come true. Mark uses inspirational appeals by telling his employees about his vision for
Facebook and including them in most all of the decisions. He uses consultation by asking
everyone’s thoughts on different ideas and then decides on what to base on their opinions. He
uses ingratiating tactics by asking for help and getting an objective point.
