Leadership Capacities of Mark Zuckerberg

Moral Purpose
Moral purpose, as described by Michael Fullan (2001) in Leading in a Culture of Change, involves consciously being aware of our actions and how they can positively affect society as a whole. “Leaders in all organizations contribute for better or worse to moral purpose in their own organizations.” (Fullan, 2001)

Mark Zuckerberg has revolutionized the world by allowing millions of individuals and organizations from around the globe to effortlessly, yet instantaneously, communicate and build relationships with friends and peers through cyberspace. Zuckerberg’s social community allows individuals to network while allowing them to celebrating individualism.

The Change Process
Fullan (2001) refers to Goleman’s leadership styles when describing the roles and strategies of the change process. One of Zuckerberg’s qualities is that he not only welcomes change but he embraces it.

He first embraced change when deciding to drop out of Harvard to become an entrepreneur, making his vision a reality. He is driving change in relationship to the way ecommerce is performed as Facebook delves into the use of an online currency for transactions. He is certainly also no stranger to the world of uncertainty and self-learning.

 Relationships
According to Fullan, “Effective leaders constantly foster purposeful interaction and problem solving.” (2001) Successful leaders also have the capabilities of intertwining “intellectual brilliance with emotional intelligence.” (Fullan, 2001)

Zuckerberg has developed the ability and the wisdom to utilize his software development skills to construct an interactive tool to fill a global void within the world of communications and social interaction.

Knowledge Building
Fullan (2001) described knowledge building as the need for leaders to assure the constant generation of increased knowledge in an organization, both internally as well as externally. (Fullan, 2001)
Zuckerberg not only formulated the direction of Facebook’s product strategy, but also currently “leads the design of Facebook's service and development of its core technology and infrastructure.” (Facebook, 2011) Zuckerberg constantly strives to find ways of perfecting new and existing engagement tools, such as Facebook Groups.

Coherence Making
In these chaotic times, as described by Fullan (2001), “Effective leaders must guide people through differences and enable differences to surface while creating coherence.” (Fullan, 2001)

Zuckerberg may still have a great deal to learn, being thrust into the world of entrepreneurship at such a young age. He seems to be developing a strong ability to envision and maintain strategies driving his organization toward a successful future.

References:
Author Unknown. (2011). Executive bios. Retrieved from http://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?execbios

Fullan, Michael (2001). Learning to Lead Change: Building System Capacity. Retrieved from http://www.michaelfullan.ca/resource_assets/ms_annotations/fullan1.htm

Leadership Qualities of Mark Zuckerberg

Mark Zuckerberg’s primary leadership quality is that of an “analyzer,” considering one of his known characteristics is that of persistence in the creation and launch of a social network from his dorm room and strong interest in science and data through computer programming. His personal qualities also include being non-threatening and goal-oriented. His secondary leadership quality is classified as being a “promoter,” due to his imaginative, insightful, and highly creative nature. In deciding to drop out of Harvard, he was willing to settle for less that the highly desirable Harvard degree, but was quickly able to move forward in transforming his creative vision into a successful reality.

Zuckerberg, not known for conforming to social norms, was faced with his share of public failures. His first failure being one that of an infraction resulting in disciplinary action while he was a student at Harvard. Accused of posting images of female classmates from across the campus on a site called Facemash, Zuckerberg invited male peers to select which were the hottest.

One of his most pivotal turning points was during the period he was living in California with friends, deciding to drop out of Harvard to become an entrepreneur. During this time, he was already dealing with offers to purchase Facebook from large companies. He soon propelled into the corporate world, becoming one of the top "most influential people of the Information Age." ("The vanity fair 100," 2010)

Mark continues to learn from past mistakes made initially due to his immaturity and a lack of career experiences and has overcome many obstacles, as a result. Through perseverance and maintaining a steady focus, he becomes a bit more business savvy each day, while learning to adapt to his new fame and constantly changing environment.

The vanity fair 100. (2010, October). Retrieved from http://www.vanityfair.com/business/features/2010/10/the-vf-100-201010

Overview of Mark Zuckerberg

Image Source: http://pursuitist.com

Overview of Mark Zuckerberg

I’d like to introduce you to the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Facebook, Inc., Mark Zuckerberg. In his early 20’s, while still an Undergraduate at Harvard University, "Zuck" founded “The Facebook,” an online community, exclusively for the use of Harvard students. Once the community opened to the public, it soon had over one million registered users.

The facebook.com domain was purchased once the community began to secure advertising revenue. The community continued to grow, and the home to any individual with a confirmed .edu email address. More recently, Facebook enabled access to high school students.


Leadership Qualities

Mark Zuckerberg has been ranked number 40 in Forbes listing of “The World’s Most Powerful People” (Perlroth, & Noer, 2010), number 35 of “The Forbes 400 Richest People in America” (Forbes Staff, 2010) and number 212 on the 2010 Forbes list of the World's Billionaires (Kroll, & Miller, 2010).

You might be asking why was Zuck selected to be featured in my leadership blog. To start, I have a strong interest in technology and Zuck just happens to be a great inspirational innovator, within the world of technology. Additionally, he had a creative vision, and had the will to act on that vision, using his talents to make his dreams a reality. Above all, Zuck reminds me that we have the capability within ourselves to control our own destinies and reach our full potential. Regardless of our current situations, we can decide to achieve greatness or do nothing at all.

References:

Author Unknown. (2008). Mark zuckerberg bio, founder of facebook. Retrieved from     http://founderbios.com/mark-zuckerberg.php

Forbes Staff. (2010, September 16). The forbes 400: the richest people in america. Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/wealth/forbes-400

Kroll, L., & Miller, M. (2010, March 10). The world's billionaires. Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/2010/03/10/worlds-richest-people-slim-gates-buffett-billionaires-2010_land.html

Perlroth, N., & Noer, M. (2010, November 3). The world’s most powerful people. Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/wealth/powerful-people