Leadership Comparison Essay

Running head: LEADERSHIP COMPARISON ESSAY
Leadership Comparison Essay
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

1LEADERSHIP COMPARISON ESSAY
Large enterprises and their CEO are considered as role models when it comes to
leadership and management styles (Al-Asfour & Lettau, 2014). In the last decade Facebook
has evolved to become the most popular social media all over the world and Microsoft has
been the most used Operating System since its inception. In this essay, the leadership styles
of the owners of Facebook and Microsoft Corporation will be compared and contrasted.
Facebook owner Mark Zuckerberg and Microsoft owner Bill Gates are both
successful in their own methods. They have different leadership styles and approach that sets
them apart from each other.
Mark Zuckerberg is known for his aggressive leadership style. He is known to be very
demanding when it comes to innovation. He expects all his employees will invent methods or
products that would enable him to take his company forward. He likes challenges and
engages in debates with his employees regarding innovative ideas. His leadership style forces
people to be more productive and innovative. Bill Gates, on the other hand, is an autocratic
leader. He is described as a complete authoritarian who would channelize all the workforce to
achieve his purpose. His style produced result and production of Microsoft remains at a
standard till date (Menzel, 2015).
No leader can become successful with only one leadership approach. Thus, Mark
Zuckerberg also shows a democratic leadership approach when needed. This style is adopted
by him when the organization is thinking in terms of any long term plan or large investment.
It is then that employees and the other managers are all included in the decision making
process. In most cases he encourages suggestions on weaknesses and improvements that is
necessary to make. Bill gates, contrarily is result oriented and believes in focus. He is a
charismatic leader who has the capacity to inspire people to achieve better (Shah, & Mulla,