Contemporary Business Leader Mark Zuckerberg - Essay Example

Instructor Marnie Davis

Studies support that the best managers are those who can execute multiple skills and consequently act to fulfill their duties. A manager tackles complex situations in a highly volatile and assorted environment. For them to operate an organization successfully, they need to mind the plans, organizations, and controls that will impact their capabilities. In addition, they are often wary of their communication, achievement, discipline, and empathy. Among many successful managers, Mark Zuckerberg stands out as one of the youngest and smart managers to share some critical leadership skills. He is an epitome of Facebook, "doing what they believe in and connect people" mantra courtesy of his forward-thinking and winning mentality.

Contemporary Business Leader

Started as a serial entrepreneur, Mark Zuckerberg later settled on Facebook social networking service in 2004 together with his college roommates. Facebook is a global online network with various social networks such as Facebook messenger, Facebook portal, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Oculus. The company was named among the most valuable companies globally and ranks in the same category as technology giants- Microsoft, Amazon, Apple, and Google. Mark leads the team of management personnel as the chairman to the board and CEO. He is the executive leader to at least 43,000 employees working for Facebook, and he has served in this capacity since Facebook went public between 2004 and 2007. Eight years into the business since the conception of the idea, Mark sealed a deal with NASDAQ and enrolled it in the trading market for the first time. He lived to the vision that "Facebook doesn't build services to make money; it makes money to build better services." History recognizes Mark among other revolutionary leaders for his invention, eccentric, and focus on tasks.

Leadership Approach

To say that Mark was thriving in success at the start of his company will be a fallacy. He struggled like any other entrepreneur but redefined himself through his failures and challenges and developed his managerial skills. Importantly, he sharpened his perception and personality, which is subject to change due to external events and growth and development.

Theoretically, scholars try to explain personality traits through various concepts, amongst them being trait theory, contingency, transformational, and behavioral. The trait theory alludes that people inherit some qualities and traits that define their leadership (Eysenck, 1984). The traits confine a person to a set of behaviors that impact their personality and help them excel in leadership. A five-factor model was established to summarize Cattell and Eysenck's theories into five fundamental dimensions: agreeableness, conscientiousness, extraversion, neuroticism, and openness. Scholars also define traits as certain elements that differ among people but can influence behavior when they occur relatively consistent in certain situations (Eysenck, 1984). Therefore, they are characteristics that one can either have or not have. Broadly, studies consider extraversion and introversion as the spectrum where most traits rank.

Mark embodies most of these traits in the sense that he showed surgency when he claimed the first time the Facebook idea was born in a college room. He showed strong surgency, and his ambition to lead was unmatched. In addition, in 2007, when other companies approached him, he was particularly stubborn and did not accept the opportunities because he never wanted to be a subordinate. Notably, when the Winklevoss brothers wanted to procure Mark to design and program a dating platform for dating, he denied the chance. His assertiveness and energy are demonstrated through the numerous court battles he has won. He faced criticism from his friends and co-founders, and at a point, he had to defend himself before the court. Mark showed a highly impressive presentation and persuasion skills when he did a presentation in Mandarin while in China. His persuasiveness was highly acknowledged in a country that banned his company’s products.

Agreeableness is to conform and compromise in certain situations to create a rapport or understanding with other persons. An agreeable person is gentle, forgiving, and easy to understand the hurdles of their surroundings. However, on the flip side, such persons can be short-tempered, antagonistic, and uncooperative. For Marks' case, he first struggled to assume his role as he was not an easy-going person. He started as a manager and not a leader, but he later conformed into a great leader despite the struggle. Conscientiousness, on the other hand, refers to the organization, thoroughness, and planning. Scholars further refined the term to goals that one wants to achieve (Mayer, 2007). It is also stated that people with these traits are often thorough and disciplined, and this is emulated through Mark's success stories. He led an idea to fruition and became one of the historical inventions of the internet age. Mark would work for more than eight hours till late nights to improve Face mash. When he launched Facebook and stepping up as the CEO, he easily led his team of developers to make the application better systematically. His high level of openness and willingness to listen to his subordinates has changed his perspectives and sharpened his beliefs and attitudes in response to information. Notably, his journey to elite leadership started from scratch, and as the lead programmer, he had his ideas and vision for the application. However, his openness helped him get new insights and modify the application to its current success.

Greatest Achievement

The greatest achievement for Mark was his ability to shape the world to what he perceived. He never waited for anyone to make the world a better place, but instead, he influenced the paradigm shift. From a socialization and communication perspective, Mark is an emphatic leader who was driven by the simple idea of enabling people to share their photos with friends and family. He had a unique perception regarding photo-sharing as he thought the process helped to strengthen relationships. He stood by this ambition even a year later when he was approached by several companies expressing interest to buy Facebook. On the other hand, Mark cared for his dream and a better world much more than the fortunes his product would bring. As a result, the reason for Facebook's existence remains the central reason why consumers like the product and Facebook is growing tremendously to rank among the most valuable ventures of the century.

Handling a Challenge

The Facebook-Cambridge Analytica scandal is perhaps one of the biggest challenges that Mark has ever dealt with as a CEO. Facebook admitted participating in personal harvesting data from Facebook users for Cambridge Analytica in early 2018 using an app called Aleksandr Kogan. Millions of Facebook users' personal information was accessed without consent and used predominantly for advertising during the USA's political period. Cambridge Analytica admits that the data was used to shape political opinions for Ted Cruz and Donald Trump. Mark came forward to the public press and apologized for the mistake and breach of trust. He promised consumers changes and reforms in Facebook policies to curb similar breaches in the future. It further implemented EU general data protection regulation in the various areas of its operation across the world.

Power Base

The power base Mark used is referent power, which is derived from the respect people have on leaders (Braynion, 2004). Mark is an inspiration to many, and his contribution to socialization has been appreciated globally. He has modeled Facebook to mirror his behavior and become a point of reference. People follow Marks' ideas to accelerate their success. The vision to change communication from the predominantly traditional methods such as emails, telephones, and telegrams to fast communication helped Mark develop a new network that has constantly been improved by his team. He always said and lived to his vision of making the world connected and not focusing on making money from the business (Bateh, 2019). He has shown his employees that he cares about the future of the company more than the profits. As a result of his selflessness, it was easy for Mark to conform to data protection guidelines and tightened data privacy policies on Facebook and again trust from his consumers.

Leadership Comparison

There is a contrast between Jeff Bezos of Amazon and Mark on leadership styles. Bezos is categorical when it comes to awareness creation and sharing information on potential issues. He prefers personalizing communication through emails so that employees take matters addressed seriously. On the other hand, Mark implements a "take it or leave it" mechanic and advises his employees to take a more hands-on experience. Recently, he allowed technical leads on Instagram to use their best judgment to improve the product. Mark enforces transparency and believes in connectivity (Mayer, 2007). He is a charismatic leader who shows resilience, optimism, and confidence. Bezos, on the other hand, is a think tank, a task-oriented transactional leader who micromanages his employees.

Attributes

While I admit that Mark is a great leader, I do not admire his people skills. He has a great team that continuously uses the time to improve the platform, but there is no evidence of rewarding them once they churn out new features. Also, his intention to hire Sheryl Sandberg indicates that he had weak people skills. According to CNBC, the performance evaluation system at Facebook forces people to act as though everything is great.

Also, Mark is a goal-oriented person who can push his team to work for many hours to deliver a project. He can be bold and brash when employees do not deliver, and he gets frustrated (Larsen & Buss, 2005). The implication of his actions is fear and tension among employees. To the public, Facebook appears to be perfect, but internally, its communication approach, especially at the executive level and specifically on goal delivery, is still facing glitches.

Conclusion

Mark is a forward-thinking leader who strives to win each day. He is a great leader with the best management skills, which he executes to tackle some of the most complex situations in the volatile and complicated environment Facebook operates. However, his success is because of his discipline, empathy, purpose, and great communication skills.

Mark embodies most of these traits in the sense that he showed surgency when he claimed the first time the Facebook idea was born in a college room. He showed strong surgency, and his ambition to lead was unmatched. In addition, in 2007, when other companies approached him, he was particularly stubborn and did not accept the opportunities because he never wanted to be a subordinate. Notably, when the Winklevoss brothers wanted to procure Mark to design and program a dating platform for dating, he denied the chance. His assertiveness and energy are demonstrated through the numerous court battles he has won. He faced criticism from his friends and co-founders, and at a point, he had to defend himself before the court. Mark showed a highly impressive presentation and persuasion skills when he did a presentation in Mandarin while in China. His persuasiveness was highly acknowledged in a country that banned his company’s products.

Agreeableness is to conform and compromise in certain situations to create a rapport or understanding with other persons. An agreeable person is gentle, forgiving, and easy to understand the hurdles of their surroundings. However, on the flip side, such persons can be short-tempered, antagonistic, and uncooperative. For Marks' case, he first struggled to assume his role as he was not an easy-going person. He started as a manager and not a leader, but he later conformed into a great leader despite the struggle. Conscientiousness, on the other hand, refers to the organization, thoroughness, and planning. Scholars further refined the term to goals that one wants to achieve (Mayer, 2007). It is also stated that people with these traits are often thorough and disciplined, and this is emulated through Mark's success stories. He led an idea to fruition and became one of the historical inventions of the internet age. Mark would work for more than eight hours till late nights to improve Face mash. When he launched Facebook and stepping up as the CEO, he easily led his team of developers to make the application better systematically. His high level of openness and willingness to listen to his subordinates has changed his perspectives and sharpened his beliefs and attitudes in response to information. Notably, his journey to elite leadership started from scratch, and as the lead programmer, he had his ideas and vision for the application. However, his openness helped him get new insights and modify the application to its current success.

Greatest Achievement

The greatest achievement for Mark was his ability to shape the world to what he perceived. He never waited for anyone to make the world a better place, but instead, he influenced the paradigm shift. From a socialization and communication perspective, Mark is an emphatic leader who was driven by the simple idea of enabling people to share their photos with friends and family. He had a unique perception regarding photo-sharing as he thought the process helped to strengthen relationships. He stood by this ambition even a year later when he was approached by several companies expressing interest to buy Facebook. On the other hand, Mark cared for his dream and a better world much more than the fortunes his product would bring. As a result, the reason for Facebook's existence remains the central reason why consumers like the product and Facebook is growing tremendously to rank among the most valuable ventures of the century.

Handling a Challenge

The Facebook-Cambridge Analytica scandal is perhaps one of the biggest challenges that Mark has ever dealt with as a CEO. Facebook admitted participating in personal harvesting data from Facebook users for Cambridge Analytica in early 2018 using an app called Aleksandr Kogan. Read More