The Making of a Manager: What to Do When Everyone Looks to You

by Julie Zhuo

One of the things Mark Zuckerberg has continued to do for more than ten years is hold an internal Q&A on Friday afternoons, where anybody at the company can ask him any question and get an honest answer. These questions can be about Facebook’s future direction, recent decisions Mark made, company policies, or even Mark’s personal opinions on the latest news. Some of these questions can be extremely direct—for example, “X seems like a bad idea—why are we doing it?” At an organization as big as Facebook, there are thousands of demands on the CEO’s time. And yet Mark continues to stand in front of the company every week talking about whatever people choose to bring up. Why? Because one of Facebook’s greatest values is openness. If he doesn’t set an example, why should anyone else believe it’s important?