LEADERSHIP LESSONS FROM MARK ZUCKERBERG—PART THREE
James Meadows • March 29, 2017
In late 2016 Fortune announced the conferring of “Businessperson of the Year” title upon Founder and CEO of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg. Related to that, Adam Lashinsky wrote a fascinating article on what we can learn from Zuckerberg’s leadership and management style. A few key ideas jumped out to me. Here is one of them from the article (“How to Lead Like Zuck” Fortune . December 1, 2016, pp. 66–72):
“ One of Facebook’s key business innovations is a ‘growth team’—today made up of hundreds of people—that designs tactics for various parts of the company, relying on a rigorous set of metrics to gauge success. The unit has broad latitude to weigh in on any aspect of Facebook’s business. . . . [Venture capitalist and former Facebook top product executive Mike] Vernal affirms ‘The team owns no single product. Instead, it owns any issue that is preventing people from signing up for or using Facebook.’ ” (p. 71)
The fact that Zuckerberg has chosen to put this growth team into place demonstrates several aspects of being a quality leader:
- Fresh Perspective. Quality leadership recognizes that good ideas can originate from anyone anywhere. It is not addicted to the NIHS (Not-Invented-Here Syndrome). Quality leadership craves that fresh perspective that intrinsically arises from elsewhere. By virtue of having a growth team in place, a constant invitation exists for critique and input. I don’t know of any leadership situation that could not benefit from this.
- Stop The Bleeding. Sometimes an entrenched department or team can become so engrossed in its own world that it cannot see the real problem. That outside growth team has the ability to come in and metaphorically speaking apply pressure to the wound to stop the bleeding. It is this lifesaving intervention that then enables the group to regroup forces and move forward with a renewed focus and energy.
- Diversity Of Idea Generation. Diversity of idea generation leads to superior solutions. Chances are that the growth team is diverse and adds an element of diversity to the immediate problem solving situation. That diversity ensures a better solution than what would have been arrived at without that diverse perspective.
- Refocus On The Mission. The growth team owns any issue that prevents people from signing up for or using Facebook. Sometimes a leader must rearticulate the bottom line mission of the organization. Why are we here? What are we trying to accomplish? What are the barriers to our progress? How can we overcome them? A quality leader will constantly reinforce the organization’s mission, the raison d’etre, the ultimate vision, and thus inspire the team to move on to success.
Do you want to be a quality leader? Infuse your leadership approach with these four points and watch them work.
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Although anyone can and will criticize higher education, millennials are evidently smart enough to know its value. In spite of the horror stories about student loan debt, academic disasters, and wrong career turns, millennials have boasted one of the highest graduation rates of any generation to date. Generation Z may soon surpass them too as Laura A. Scione, managing editor of eCampus News reports : “ Despite growing questions around the value of college and return on investment in tuition, just 25 percent of Generation Z students say they believe they can have a rewarding career without going to college, compared to 40 percent of millennials. Eighty percent of Generation Z respondents and 74 percent of millennials agree that college either has a fair amount of value, is a good value, or is an excellent value. Only 20 percent of Generation Z students and 26 percent of millennials said college has ‘little value’ or ‘no value at all.’ ” Good for them! The statistics remain on their side—and the side of anyone who pursues higher education. Anthony P. Carnevale is the director of the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce. Based on his research, that trend will only continue (Gillian B. White “Those Savvy Millennials” The Atlantic , May 2015, p. 38): " In 1973, 32% of jobs did not even require a high school diploma, 9% required a bachelor’s degree, and 7% required a master’s degree or higher. It is projected that by 2020, 12% of jobs will not require a high school diploma, 24% will require a bachelor’s degree, and 11% will require a master’s degree or higher. " Derek Newton wrote an article entitled “Please Stop Asking Whether College Is Worth It” in which his opening declaration gets right to the point: “ Colleges and universities are still the best, most direct path to a good career that pays well. ” In addition to those insights, the unemployment figures consistently reveal the enduring value of higher education. The seasonally adjusted July 2019 unemployment rate for persons not having a high school diploma is 5.1% ( Bureau of Labor Statistics ). Having a high school diploma drops that rate to 3.6% and some college or a two-year degree drops it further to 3.2%. Pretty good trending, would you agree? Finally, if we look at people having a four-year degree, a graduate degree, or a doctoral degree, the unemployment rate is a low 2.2%. Higher education’s edge is especially clear when you consider the range of these numbers over the education level. Look at the two ends of the spectrum: less-than-high school (5.1%) versus a four-year degree or higher (2.2%). Consistently, regardless of the measured time, the unemployment rate for a less-than-high-school-educated worker is two to four times larger than for the college-degreed worker. This is why, when people seek my counsel about career planning, higher education remains one of my most significant emphases. Education pays. Degrees still rock. Regardless of how good or bad the economy is, regardless of how many individual academic and career disasters can be cited, and regardless of how loudly the antidegree crowd howls, you are still in a better position having a degree than not having a degree. The good news for the millennials and Generation Z is that they have arrived at the same conclusion and now they will enjoy the benefits.