I just got done reading this very long, very detailed article about Marissa Mayer.
Marissa Mayer Biography – Business Insider.
I think that it’s worth taking the time to read and digest. It talks about her style of leadership- analytical, and very data driven. She wants to know the ins and outs of every decision being made, which is frequently very important to being a successful leader. After all, it can be super difficult to lead, and make complex decisions if you don’t understand the implications. I think that it also is somewhat a cautionary tale about living the possibility of ending up in a glass house, and simply becoming a figurehead, rather than mining the data, and verifying that the information being presented is accurate.
The things that I don’t think she does particularly well are delegate, and people skills are, by all accounts, fairly weak. That’s probably because she thinks of business in terms of business first, people second. She is, however, creating a particular culture at Yahoo, and for both good and bad, she is improving morale, and people are working much harder, willingly, so it isn’t all bad.
What do you think of Marissa Mayer’s leadership style? Do you think that she’s particular effective or ineffective? What things do you think she does well, and which things does she do not so well?