Compare and Contrast Between Two Leaders

This paper compares and contrasts the leadership styles of Mark Zuckerberg and Steve Jobs, two successful leaders in the technology industry. It discusses their contributions, vision, and unique attributes that have made them influential figures in the business world.

Running head : COMPARE AND CONTRAST BETWEEN TWO LEADERS
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Introduction:
Leadership, a seemingly desirable competency, has not been clearly elucidated in the
literature. Leadership, in its essence is a capability to produce a roadmap and motivate others to
follow the roadmap in order to achieve desired goals (Hoffmann, Proferes and Zimmer, 2018).
Therefore, leadership practices is a fundamental component of the successful businessman’s to
sustain their business in the competitive market. Accumulated literature showed a range of
leadership practices that assist the world’s great leaders to bring revolution in the business field.
Two such successful leaders such as Mark Zuckerberg and Steve Jobs, use different leadership
practices to flourish their business in the market. This paper will compare and contrast between
Mark Zuckerberg and Steve jobs in the following paragraphs.
Discussion:
In the field of technology, Mark Zuckerberg and Steve jobs, two great CEOs and well-
known leaders have a revolutionary contribution to altering the direction of technology. They
both innovate, entrepreneurs and interventions who have revolutionized the communication
pathway of the people around the globe with the integration of technology, merging technology
and technology together. Mark Zuckerberg is an American technology entrepreneur and
philanthropist who is a co-founder of Facebook (Zuckerberg 2016). He began to use computer
middle school and since his father was dentist he built as software called "zuckernet". Later in
college, he built a site for fun which further named as Facebook and his leadership trait evolved
from that phase. On the other hand, Steve Jobs was an American business magnate and co-
founder of apple. At the age of 20, he and his Wozniak set up shop at parents’ garbage and began
to work on the prototype of Apple which further helped him to build him as an epitome of power

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and the great leader. Although both the leaders contributed to the different segment of
technology and both leaders differ in terms of the contribution, they both possess few potential
attributes which is required to flourish the business in the global market. As a Facebook founder,
Mark Zuckerberg has excellent vision for the flourishing business in the market which is similar
to the Apple founder Steve jobs who had excellent vision for the company (Niebuhr et al.
2016). They both lead the company with a passion for innovative ideas of the company for
growth. Mark Zuckerberg was passionate about his effort to make the communication oversees
which reflected in the innovation of Facebook (Moran, 2018). Similarly, Steve jobs had passion
of changing the world through the revolution in the technology assisted him to overcome the
obstacles of the bankruptcy and become a chief executive officer, and co-founder of Apple along
with major shareholder of the Pixar. Considering the leadership approaches, Mark Zuckerberg
follows transformational leadership and servant leadership which means he accepts challenges
and debate and allows other group members to provide the idea (Rider and Murakami Wood
2018). Hoch et al. (2018), highlighted that in the transformational leaders works with teams to
identify where require changes and creating a vision to guide through the inspirations. One of
the crucial parts of this leadership is charisma. Charismatic leaders have the conflict resolving
power and encourage the employees to get involved in the business to work towards a common
goal (Hawkins 2017). For example, he is available in “Zuck Reviews” through which he
communicates with others as well as employees to empower them and welcome new innovative
idea regarding new innovations. He has the ability to influence his employees and the new
generation through his charisma (Lanaj, Johnson and Lee 2016). He provides free lunches to his
employees and a relaxed work environment which helped him to gain the changes in the business
of technology. He also follows servant leadership where leaders involved in the process by being

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one of them. Through his casual attire and behavioral skills, cognitive intelligence, he has the
ability to influence others to voluntarily make decisions which enhances the long term viability
of the organizations (Robinson et al. 2017). He applies Lewis’s change management to bring
the changes and believes in gender equality in technology as well as encourages female
employees equally to bring changes in the field of technology. He proposed the changes through
inventing Facebook, and gained the feedback from the followers as well as employees and then
implements it globally. The leadership style of Mark also reflects his skills in learning and
development. After many years of immense success, Zuckerberg bought what’s app, one of the
most popular communication apps around the globe which not only reflects his ability bring
changes but also highlighted his influence in the field of technology. On the other hand, Steve
Jobs followed transactional leadership in the practice to be one of the most effective leaders in
the technological business (Heracleous and Klaering 2017). Robbin et al. (2018), highlighted
transactional leadership is a style where leaders promote compliance by followers through both
rewards and punishment. Through this, they are able to motivate employees. One of the unique
features of transactional leadership is power (Robinson et al. 2017). . There were three
dimensions of power such as formal decision making, silencing minority and taken for granted
valued and norms. He believed in old fashioned leadership where he was more focused into the
tasks that people’s feeling, unlike Mark Zuckerberg. He pushed his employees to the end to gain
the best innovative ideas and performance out of them. For example, he would engage this
employee in a back and forth messaging over email to review the punctuation of the message
which reflected his power over his business and his authoritative, perfectionist attributes required
for business field (Bell 2017). The advantage of Apple was that he was an unconventional leader
who adhered to his values and ethics. His companies to come up with a list of 10 things to work

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on, and he crosses out the top 7 to maintain focus which reflected his authority and the power
along with dedication towards vision and goal. Hoffmann, Proferes and Zimmer, 2018). Unlike
Mark, he does not believe in Lewis’s change management. He believed in own decision making,
unlike Mark who involved people and employees in the business (Hawkins 2017). However,
although he was egoistic leader unlike mark, because of his punishment and reward capabilities
he was considered as a perfectionist in the business field. While Mark is open to every culture,
Steve jobs were more culture oriented which reflected in his inventions. Moreover, unlike Mark,
his leadership actions reflect masculinity, dominance, and gender inequality (Rider and
Murakami Wood 2018). However, because of his power influences, dominance and old school
beliefs stringency made him one of the unique leaders of history. Therefore, despite having
different leadership styles they both connected through passion, vision, and unique goals to
contribute something revolutionary in the technological field which intensifying their importance
as a leader in global history.
Conclusion:
Thus, it can be concluded that leadership practices are a fundamental component of the
successful businessmen to sustain their business in the competitive market. Over the histories,
different types of leader ruled in the business world who was remembered for their unique
attributes and success they gained in the business filed. Two such leaders are Mark Zuckerberg
and Steve jobs, two well-known CEOs who altered the history of technology. Mark follows
transformational leadership but Steve jobs follow the transactional leadership. However, despite
their different leadership strategies, they both are linked to each other because of their passion
towards their business, concrete vision to achieve desired goal and achievement of immense
success through providing horizon breaching experiences to every individual around the globe.

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