Facebook Headquarters
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg took walks with Steve Jobs near Jobs’ Palo Alto home, absorbing everything the great Apple visionary had to say. Some of it stuck. A recent New York Times article pointed out that Zuckerberg started taking walks himself with potential employees—a recruiting process that Jobs found valuable. In a previous column, I made the observation that Zuckerberg’s presentations are becoming more Jobs-like and, in the process, much more effective.
Zuckerberg is a technology genius who has learned to be a leader. That’s the assessment from several people who know him or who have followed his career closely. Zuckerberg seeks guidance from great leaders and when he does “he is a sponge in terms of learning,” according to one friend.
Few of us will ever start a website that will change the world and make us billionaires. But that doesn’t mean that there isn’t plenty we can take away from Zuckerberg and the lessons he has learned about leadership in the eight years since he started Facebook (then known as Thefacebook).
For insight into Zuckerberg’s leadership skill, I contacted one of Silicon Valley’s leading technology analysts, Creative Strategies president, Tim Bajarin. Since 1981 Barajin has had a front-row seat to the computer revolution and has enjoyed unprecedented access to the greatest visionaries and leaders of our time. Barajin and I sat down this week to discuss Zuckerberg, the power of vision, the importance of surrounding yourself with great people who can execute your vision, why it’s critical to embrace failure, and, yes, ‘hoodie-gate’.