Is Mark Zuckerberg Destroying Facebook? Harvard Expert Thinks So

The best bosses in the world can achieve the unimaginable with their authenticity and character, while the worst ones can cripple the organization to feed their ego. According to Bill George, a senior Harvard Business School fellow, Mark Zuckerberg might fall under the latter category.

According to CNBC, George recently took the wraps off his book on “authentic” leadership, where he noted five kinds of bad boss behavior that can hamper an organization’s growth. What’s interesting, George thinks Mark Zuckerberg falls under three out of those five categories.

"I think Facebook is not going to do well as long as he's there," George told CNBC Make It. "He's likely one of the reasons so many people are turning away from the company. He's really lost his way."

Zuckerberg Ticks Three Of Five Boxes

One of the categories is the “rationalizer,” someone who blames others for their wrongdoings. For instance, Zuckerberg blamed rival firms Facebook’s record value losses instead of the company’s failure at staying relevant.

Another category is the “loner,” who doesn’t give enough weightage to anyone’s advice. To exemplify, Mark Zuckerberg refused to take Roger McNamee’s advice to stop meddling with democracy.

Lastly, George also called Meta’s top man a “glory seeker,” someone who puts money ahead of everything. Revenue always took the front seat at Facebook over the ethical implications of maximizing user engagement, despite rival firms going for a more principled approach.

Only Thing In Zuckerberg’s Favor

Well, good for Zuckerberg, he only made it to three out of five categories. It seems the book didn’t qualify the Meta-CEO as an imposter who lacks self-awareness as it did with WeWork’s Adam Neumann or a star who came down crashing like Travis Kalanick, the founder of Uber.

Well, people change -- but not very often if they get paid billions for their bad behavior. If Mark Zuckerberg wants to change, Bill George has some advice for him:

“You need to pull back, take a sabbatical to ground yourself in your purpose and your values,” he says. “Then bring your team and board together on a retreat to recreate Facebook around its new mission and values,” he added.