Leadership Qualities – Styles, Skills, and Traits of Mark Zuckerberg

Mark Zuckerberg, the creator of the blue and white platform called Facebook, which has given us the privilege to be with our friends and families 24/7 and share each moment with them. He was a student at Harvard but got dropped out from there. But the base of Facebook was established by him through the years on Harvard, and after getting out of there, he devoted all of himself to his dream project, and now we all know the result. Today the annual revenue of Facebook is nearly $17.9 billion, with almost 1.7 billion users worldwide. Whatever Facebook is now, Mark Zuckerberg is the one who made everything possible. And today, we’re going to know about his leadership style, qualities, and skills behind Facebook’s success. 

Leadership Qualities – Styles, Skills, and Traits of Mark Zuckerberg

He is one of the most influential tech entrepreneur in the recently history of the world. In this study we will look closely what we can learn from his leadership quality and style. 

Leadership Qualities of Mark Zuckerberg

Seeing things differently: There’s no doubt that Mark Zuckerberg has built Facebook with his amazing programming knowledge, but many people have that knowledge, but not everyone has come up with something like Facebook. Because Mark has a visionary power in himself, he likes to see things differently. Before Facebook, there’re other platforms for communication but mostly with ordinary features. But Mark wanted to do something unique. And even now, he’s continually trying to make Facebook more unique with his numerous ideas and vision.

Developing the right company culture: Facebook isn’t like an ordinary workplace. It doesn’t maintain any strict flat hierarchy or workplace rules. Here employees with creativity, innovation, and out-of-the-box get valued and rewarded. Any employee can just relax anywhere in the office and do his work. The whole Facebook office’s design is the most unique one than any other big company in the world. And all these ideas mainly came from Zuckerberg, who wanted to build a workplace environment and culture where people won’t feel pressured and enjoy working.

He surrounds himself with the right people: The visionary power of Zuckerberg always helped him to get in touch with the right people. The idea of creating Facebook was criticized initially, but he made the team with some friends and roommate who believed in him and helped him to launch Facebook. Still now, in every situation, Mark manages to get the right people with him. Sheryl Sandberg, the COO of Facebook, who has contributed a lot to the company, didn’t get much acceptance in the beginning by others in the company. But Mark believed in him and showed others how much right he was by hiring Sheryl. 

Willing to face criticism: Mark Zuckerberg has been criticized a lot for his decisions. A few years ago, when he was accused of some severe charges of privacy violation of users and had to go to court, he lots a huge amount of popularity among people. But still, he never gave up and took all the blames positively. He believes criticisms are a part of life, and it teaches some lessons as well. That’s why it’s better to face and accept those.

Leadership Style of Mark Zuckerberg: Mark Zuckerberg has never followed any structured leadership. He was both aggressive and encouraging. He did his best to provide a friendly and relaxed workplace. But his employees reported him as a bad listener. It can be said that he uses autocratic, democratic, and laissez-fair leadership styles all at once. But throughout the year’s Mark has tried to improve himself and now he has become more communicative. And that’s what makes him a Transformational Leader. He has learned from his mistake and now focused on changing his actions for the betterment of the company and the employees. 

Leadership Characteristics and Traits of Mark Zuckerberg

Here’re some traits of Mark Zuckerberg that describe his personal characteristics that get reflected in his leadership style.

  • Hard worker

Mark Zuckerberg knows what he wants, and when he gets engaged in something, he never loses his focus. He can continuously work for the betterment of his company or on a new idea. Surely he has some outstanding programming skills and compelling vision, but it is hard work, which made him to all these things he has done till today.

  • Ruthless

Mark Zuckerberg is ruthless whenever he needs to be. The steaming clash with the Winklevoss twins and co-founder Estavez caused much hype in the media due to Mark’s ruthlessness. He’s always determined to remove the competitive threats in the market. We all know how he became desperate to bring down the popularity of Snapchat and divert more people towards Facebook, Instagram, and Whatsapp. 

  • Explorer

Like most of the leaders, Mark doesn’t believe in taking risks without proper analysis. Yes, he has made many bold decisions, and he believes that not taking risks is the most significant risk, but only after a thorough calculation and exploration. He first measures the possibilities and only then moves forward to the next step.

Other traits and characteristics of Mark Zuckerberg are:

  • Relationship-oriented
  • Charitable
  • Assertiveness
  • Mindfulness 
  • Multi-tasking
  • Accepting challenges
  • Innovative
  • Competitive
  • Strong values
  • Visionary

Leadership Skills of Mark Zuckerberg

Each leader has some skills that help him/her to perform his/her duties more perfectly. Here’re some leadership skills of Mark Zuckerberg.

Critical thinker: Mark always tends to thinks deeply. He likes to have a clear idea, no matter how small a fact is. He believes his more profound thought and understanding helps him to know what’s right or wrong. He better accepts the second or third best idea after a clear understanding instead of grabbing the best idea without any thoughts.

Problem Solving: Marks Zuckerberg is a problem-solver. He continually asks himself if he is doing right or why a specific idea isn’t working. He never leaves a problem without considering it the second time. Once he said that until he gets what’s actually wrong and how it can be fixed, he can’t just sit and relax. He feels an urge to solve the puzzle. 

Equanimity: As a leader, Mark is someone who doesn’t lose his cool easily, no matter how stressful the situation becomes. He can take a lot of pressure and talks normally. There were many times when his company’s inside situation was a mess, and everyone was panicked. But he controlled everything maturely with a gentle and calm approach.

Bottom Line

Mark Zuckerberg isn’t a perfect leader. He was criticized many times for his leadership techniques and qualities. Even there were rumors that he might leave Facebook. But he never had the sense of giving up. He changed his flaws and constantly working to improve himself. And we hope there’s more to see from himself.


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References

  • https://maisfl.com/leadership-attributes-of-mark-zuckerberg-essay/
  • https://www.europeanbusinessreview.com/why-mark-zuckerbergs-leadership-failure-was-a-predictable-surprise/
  • https://www.businessinsider.com/this-one-trait-makes-you-a-better-boss-according-to-mark-zuckerberg-2018-1
  • https://ceomarkzuckerberg.weebly.com/leadership.html
  • https://www.livechat.com/success/zuckerberg-effect-qualities-of-a-good-boss/