- Zuckerberg said he gets his leadership style from Sheryl Sandberg, who raised him “like a parent.”
- The Meta chief said that in the early days of Facebook, “We were basically just like kids.”
- He said that Meta’s team has grown together and that dynamic is what really matters.
Mark Zuckerberg has gone from being Time’s Person of the Year to facing multiple lawsuits, hacking scandals, and scrutiny for spreading fake news.
Now, with his company’s recent success, he’s on the rebound.
In a wide-ranging interview on the Morning Brew Daily talk show, the Meta chief critiqued Apple, talked AI, and gave leadership advice. Zuckerberg also said that Meta’s former COO Sheryl Sandberg is one of the key people who helped him along the way.
“We joke that she like raised me as a manager and as like a parent almost,” Zuckerberg said. “And I think that’s true in a lot of ways.”
It isn’t the first time Zuckerberg has praised Sandberg — or used the expression that she raised him.
In an episode of the Ferris Show podcast in 2022, Zuckerberg praised her for her strong combination of IQ and EQ. He also reportedly told staff she had ‘good skin’ and that they should have ‘a crush’ on her, according to a book published by a former Facebook employee.
Zuckerberg started Facebook with his Harvard roommates at age 22. As he puts it: “We were just a bunch of kids running around, building stuff we thought was cool.”
Zuckerberg said that a lot of his leadership philosophy and management style came from working with Sandberg and others who had more experience.
“I think we kind of learned to run a company together and we’re all like pretty close friends,” Zuckerberg said. “It’s interesting because you can’t hire that.”
Zuckerberg has relied on a number of key people who have been with him since the beginning. Chris Cox, the chief product officer at Meta, has been there since 2005. Andrew Bosworth, who runs Reality Labs, has worked with the team for about 19 years, Zuckerberg said.
Zuckerberg has lost a few key people along the way as well. In 2018, Instagram cofounders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger announced they were leaving Facebook amid “growing tensions” with the CEO.
But the ups and downs the company has dealt with over the years have brought the current team closer together, and there’s nothing that could replace that, Zuckerberg said. The “secret to all this stuff” is this team dynamic, he said on Morning Brew Daily.
Zuckerberg, who has long emphasized his need for partnership, said that a founder like himself needs people to rely on because there’s too much to do. While Sandberg left Meta in 2022 after 14 years at the company, she remains on the board as an advisor.
