How to be a confident leader
Continuing on from the 5 ways to go big and go global the smart way, here’s the my take and a reminder on what great leadership is and what a relaxed confident leader looks like.
Mark is a very cool example of a young entrepreneur, CEO, leader type person who’s just been able to do it his own way the whole way along the road, and with 44 million users and a $12 billion business it’s hard to say that at least in some way, he has succeeded.
The results of succeeding early
As a result its evident from listening to Mark, that he hasn’t had to culture himself or accept the ‘reality of the business world’, that most people often tell you about when you’re a young entrepreneur. He’s followed a model that he thought should work, and proven that it does work. This is what real leadership is about, not ‘just’ inheriting the lessons of past leaders, but also being confident enough to explore and execute a new way to lead. If you haven’t succeeded early, then make yourself feel like this is again your first time.
Good Leaders and Great Leaders
The difference between a great leader and a good leader is, a great leader takes the risk and follows what they see as the best way to do something, a potential leader will wait until someone else does this first then does it themself. Follow your gut and your vision, if you follow through, you will end up defining something new, and that will position you differently than anyone else out there, this drives confidence, confidence lets you take bigger risks.
My Final take - make the future as you see it, don’t just build on the past.
Great site - congratulations.
Did you really buy into the sandals/drop out/laid back image? He’s a smart guy, but got off lightly considering the difference between the image he portrays of the Facebook user friendly “community” and the lack of respect through their terms and conditions and general written policies. For a CEO that does not have nor sees the need for a “grown-up” CEO much like all the other key players in the market place, he is exceedingly well versed and represented. I couldn’t help but wonder who in the first rows was nodding at him to answer or not the questions.
He got off lightly in a very quaint conversation. We should be careful in moulding our styles on this perceived, almost naïve, form of leadership. Richard Branson is another, albeit older, example, but we must not forget that those that have done business with the very Cuddly Sir Richard Branson, have “knighted” him with the not so cuddly nickname of the poisoned dwarf.
All is not what it seems, and that is worrying when the very basis of the character is apparently WYSIWYG.
Thanks Nuno, and I hear you
Some good contrast here, part of me is looking to see the people who achieve financial or business success but still stay straight up, don’t sell out, and this was right in the side of optimism, he may well not be the real deal that I know exists. I know its important to not just assume someone is not always pulling the strings, but don’t get me wrong, this post was really saying leadership should look like this, the example may not be right.
It’s tough to judge real character, especially from the distance of a room where I was sitting, I guess the situation and some responses resonated with me. People are often looking to frame what you’re doing in their own light or one that the majority understand, but this sometimes doesn’t get the reality to out and completely distorts the situation.
I think some of the questions he was asked were attempting to do that, assuming he’d be focused on a public listing because of where he’s got, assuming he now had a high power sales team, and he seemed to respond somewhat naturally to these for what they were.
As for wearing the sandals, it could just be a statement, but I know the truth for me is that, if I didn’t have to balance fitting in, had complete financial freedom and a business that people were already entirely sold on, I’d just roll up in my shorts and a tee, tell people straight from the heart, then jump in my solar powered car and cruise up the coast for a meal and a surf with my friends or something.
I would like to see a continuation of the topic