“Eye of Sauron”
Facebook employees compare Zuckerberg to the absolute baddest – he takes it as a compliment
Unlike the other founders of the tech giants, Mark Zuckerberg is still at the helm
© Mark Lennihan/AP/DPA
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is the last founder of the big Internet companies who still manages his company himself. In an interview, he revealed how his employees see him.
Running a business is not easy. Especially not when you have expanded it from a university project to one of the most valuable corporations in the world. In an interview, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has now explained how he manages his company on a day-to-day basis. And how that is received by his employees.
Most intriguing is the answer to the question of how he manages to stay focused while being bombarded with news and information throughout the day. “Maybe I’m just not strong-willed or relaxed enough to see it as a form of meditation,” he muses aloud. “I have to put myself in a situation where it’s hard not to just focus on that one thing,” he says. Then, with a strange comparison of his leadership style, he pricked his ears.
Zuckerberg as the Eye of Sauron
“They call my attention the ‘Eye of Sauron’,” Zuckerberg smirked. Then quickly adding, “I think they mean that affectionately.” Fans of “Lord of the Rings” are more likely to doubt that. The name stands for the ability of Sauron, the epitome of absolute evil in the series, to perceive everything that is going on in the world at all times. Terrible things usually threaten those who are caught by the eye of Sauron.
Even Zuckerberg’s execution of the picture does nothing to change this impression. “You have this irrepressible energy to work on something. And when you direct it at a team, you burn it up,” he explains in an irritatingly pleased tone. He therefore sees his task in distributing his energy in such a way that he does not burn his teams.
That’s not easy for him. “It’s just more comfortable to get feedback on ideas as soon as you have them than to have to wait three weeks for a meeting,” admits Zuckerberg. “Finding that balance is really hard for me.”
The last founder at the helm
Zuckerberg is the last founder of the big tech companies to have run his company continuously since its inception. Everyone else, like Jeff Bezos at Amazon, Bill Gates at Microsoft or Sergej Brin and Larry Page at Google, have now given up the lead. Zuckerberg is considered a very self-confident group boss, his role model is the Roman Emperor Augustus.
Source:interview