Facebook is one of the most widely used social media platforms in the world, and the creator Mark Zuckerberg is one of the most recognised names globally.

However, Mark Zuckerberg wasn’t always the leader that the public knows him as today. In the early days of Facebook, he was actually not a very good CEO.

It was after an employee approached him and told him to “take CEO lessons, or this isn’t going to work out for you” that Zuckerberg undertook a journey to leadership.

Here some of the key factors of Mark Zuckerberg’s journey to leadership.

Speed

A key advantage of a smaller company, compared to a big company, is that it can move quickly. It is common for a growing company to become more cautious during its growth, however Zuckerberg believes it is important to keep moving fast. By moving fast and making mistakes, you can learn quickly.

Don’t get stuck in politics

It is common to see CEOs and employees getting stuck in office politics, being more concerned about their egos, agendas and career paths. If they are not focused about business, it can be hard for a company to make any real progress.

Use data to your advantage

It is important to use data and trends to your advantage. Many CEOs will not look at data, and believe their business is doing well based on what they can see in front of them. Data can tell you the truth about your business, and that can influence whether or not changes need to be made in order for your business to succeed.

Mark Zuckerberg’s journey to leadership has numerous key factors that led up to how we see him now, as the strong leader of Facebook. He was not always a great CEO, but we all know now that he can lead Facebook now to success, and has proved this to the world.

Google is one of the most widely used technologies in the world. By being a tool to search through the internet’s vast number of links and pages, Google filled a need in the technology age. The growth of Google was phenomenal, with many dubbing it as ‘the fastest growing company in the world’. But with such fast growth, its employees needed leaders in order to show them the direction the company should be going. Google has been largely successful at creating top leaders that could pursue Google’s vision and allow it to largely dominate the market. After Google, these leaders would go on to successfully lead other firms, as well as launch companies successfully.

Here are some things that Google leaders are taught.

Think really big

Those who were leaders at Google were taught that overdelivering wasn’t enough. Leaders have to be very ambitious, and aim for long term goals, called moonshots in Google lingo. They are taught to look at the long term vision, and aim for that, even if it seemed impossible at the time.

They used their words

Google is well-known for having its own acronyms and lingo. These include phrases such as “10Xer” and “moonshot”. The power of language is encouraged to create motivation catchphrases that would inspire, and turn big ideas and goals into simple sentences. Words can be motivational, and inspire those around you.

Google veterans have gone on from the company to lead and launch others into success. The fundamental things taught to these Google leaders is aiming for the impossible and using their words to inspire and motivate. The leaders that come out of Google have undeniable leadership traits and skills, and succeed wherever they go, thanks to Google’s unconventional but effective methods.

Jeff Bezos turned his book selling company Amazon into an ‘everything store’. Amazon dominates the world’s market, and Jeff Bezos is currently the richest man in the world. Bezos’ success story is one of determination and a unique leadership style which took Amazon to the next level.

These are some of the things that sets apart Bezos’ leadership style from others.

He expects more from his employees

Jeff Bezos is known to have high expectations for his employees. In 1999, Amazon had around 500 employees for answering emails, and each employee was expected to answer 12 emails per minute. Having very high expectations for his employees means that Amazon runs very efficiently and effectively in its operation. This is obvious to most, with Amazon famously being able to make same day deliveries in over 12 different US cities.

Treat the customer as king

This might seem obvious to a service that caters towards customers, but Bezos’ takes it to another level. Bezos focuses on customer satisfaction metrics, putting a great deal of focus on keeping the customer happy. Amazon is so focused on this, they specifically have employees working solely on customer satisfaction research, finding out that a 0.1 second delay on a loading page lowers customer activity. By focusing so much on customer satisfaction, Amazon has been able to develop a company that ranks high on the University of Michigan’s retail customer satisfaction survey every year. This focus on customer satisfaction ultimately shaped their success.

Jeff Bezos’ leadership style is unique, and helped to create what Amazon is today. It focuses on customer satisfaction, as well as high expectations from his employees. This combination of traits is what shaped Amazon to what it is today, and turned Jeff Bezos into the richest man in the world.