Leadership...

Who is Marissa Mayer?     

Marissa Mayer is the current President and CEO of Yahoo!. She placed 8th in the most recent 2013 list of 50 Most Powerful Women in Fortune Magazine. Meyer was given the position of CEO of Yahoo! in July of 2012. A few months later she placed 14^th in Fortune’s list of most powerful women. 

Marissa Meyer originally was the vice president of location and local services at Google. Mayer joined Google in the year 1999 and happened to be their 20^th employee. To top it all off, she was the company’s first female engineer. 13 years later, Marissa Meyer became the CEO of Yahoo! and has used her experience from Google to help Yahoo! grow into a better company. 

Her Leadership Style

Marissa Mayer uses an Autocratic Leadership Style in her line of work. Although, it is said that she has changed since the years she’s worked at Google. Back in her Google-y days, Mayer used to be very tough on her subordinates and was stern with the way things were done. But, as time went on she became mature in her leadership style, although she still is an autocratic leader. Marissa Mayer is not afraid to say what she believes is right. 

REFERENCES: http://wolfcrazygirlmarissameyer.blogspot.com/2013/12/references.html

Organizational Structure

Organizational Structure of Yahoo

               

   

Organizational Chart of Yahoo. Taken from the official board.com

From the organizational structure that Yahoo! follows, as shown above, I can deduct that Mayer’s Autocratic Leadership style always leads her to always have her subordinates report to her. While I agree that by using this style of leadership, Mayer can keep a keen eye on what’s going on in her company. However, I believe that Mayer is putting too much pressure on herself because not only does she have to run the company she has to make sure she looks into the tiny, little details of everything. Marissa Mayer may be a strong woman, but even she cannot take on so many responsibilities. Besides that, by using this style of organization structure, Mayer has allowed her executives to grow and control their own department but yet they report to her to make sure everything is as according to schedule and plan. With this, i say that Mayer should loosen the reins on her subordinates but continue to monitor them.

REFERENCES: http://wolfcrazygirlmarissameyer.blogspot.com/2013/12/references.html

Recruitment

Recruitment in Yahoo

According to indeed.com, many former employees from Yahoo! are extremely happy with their jobs at the company. Many have stated that “Yahoo is a great company to work for”. The salary at Yahoo! is reasonable and something to look forward to when working there. Some employees also mentioned that it has a lovely working environment and co-workers that are diligent and interactive. From my perspective, my reading all these reviews puts Yahoo! in a good light when in comes to Mayer being an employer because it caters to everyone’s needs. According to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, this is how Yahoo! and Mayer has provided the needs of their employees and it is definitely an aspect that they use to attract new employees.

Another fact that helps in the recruitment process is Yahoo!’s ever growing company. Ever since Mayer took over, Yahoo! has bought over companies such as Tumblr, Rondee, Bignoggins, Qwiki, Xobni, Ztelic, Admovate,Lexity and Stamped. Yahoo! has become a company with different areas and departments where employees can grow and learn new aspects of their companies. An ever growing and ever changing company, Yahoo! provides the needs and experience every employee wants, and its safe to say that the salary provided isn’t not a deal breaker at all. 

REFERENCES: http://wolfcrazygirlmarissameyer.blogspot.com/2013/12/references.html

Training

Fresh Graduates and Yahoo!: Really good training.

Yahoo! like any other company takes training as a chance to improve their employees. It is common to have a coaching and mentoring program to train and develop employees. However, at Yahoo! fresh graduates benefit from Yahoo! because Mayer only hires employees with a long working experience, experts at their field and graduates with degrees from well – known universities as executives and heads of departments. Due to that, fresh employees will gain a great amount of knowledge that they need to come up well in their career. Another thing is, Marissa Mayer insists on reviewing and interviewing each recruit and sometimes even helping them train. Being train by a senior employee is one thing, being trained by the CEO and President of the company is something else. In my perspective, Marissa Mayer is, yet again, putting too much pressure on herself and is handling multiple jobs. Being the CEO of the company and also helping to recruit as well as train in little ways new staff is a big job for anyone to do. But, as stated in Fortune Magazine, “Not many CEOs are Marissa Mayer.

REFERENCES: http://wolfcrazygirlmarissameyer.blogspot.com/2013/12/references.html

Motivation

Mayer and Motivation

Marissa Mayer is a strong believer in non – financial incentive. She believes to motivate her employees to come and work every day, she should not just provide them with big, fat, pay check but also with non – financial incentives. In an interview, Mayer stated that “(employees) want their work to have meaning”. Mayer believes that by having input from employees, she will be killing two birds with one stone. The first bird being her employees being motivated because they feel appreciated and the second bird is having new ideas for the company. That is why she schedules short meeting with her employees to have a little chat with them.

Mayer's photo shoot with Vogue Magazine

 Not only that, but when Mayer took over as CEO she implemented 5 new perks of being a Yahoo employee. They are:

Longer New Child leave: Moms and dads can now take up to eight weeks of paid New Child Leave, with benefits, whenever they welcome a new child to the family. This includes birth, adoption, foster child placement, and surrogacy. New moms can take an additional eight weeks paid leave after pregnancy.

Daily habits reimbursement: Yahoo will pick up the bill up to a total of $500 for daily habits like laundry, house cleaning, groceries, take-out food, and child care when employees bring home their new child.

Child of a Yahoo gift package: Yahoo-branded baby gifts for new babies.

Perks for your pets: Yahoo-branded gifts for new cats and dogs.

Leave for 5-year employees: Up to eight weeks of unpaid leave every time an employee passes a 5-year milestone.

Taken from www.mercurynews.com

REFERENCES: http://wolfcrazygirlmarissameyer.blogspot.com/2013/12/references.html

Culture

Marissa Mayer and Yahoo!'s culture

The culture that Marissa Mayer has shaped in Yahoo! has been shock to everyone. When Mayer first joined the company, she discovered that many employees were working from home and the company employees rarely had meetings. In return, Marissa Mayer came up with a few changes she took in order to shape Yahoo!’s culture. The first is to get her employees to re-commit. She believes that the best ways to get her employees to improve was to impose a movement that will change. Mayer decided that the movement was to change Yahoo!’s future for the better and those who were too negative to join their new way of doing things may leave. It is best for the company if there were no negative influences.

 The second change is ask for participation. Mayer would constantly tell her employees that they were doing important work and that they shouldn’t stop, thus, making them participate. She also decided that by celebrating progress, her employees will work harder. Not only that, but in any interview with media, Mayer focuses only on the company’s recent success and how hard her employees are working at the important jobs. She has shaped Yahoo! into becoming a positive working place.

REFERENCES: http://wolfcrazygirlmarissameyer.blogspot.com/2013/12/references.html

REFERENCES

REFERENCES/BIBLIOGRAHY:

Carlson, Nicholas. "Marissa Mayer Biography." Business Insider. N.p., 24 Aug. 2013. Web. 26 Nov. 2013. <http://www.businessinsider.com/marissa-mayer-biography-2013-8>.

Carlson, Nicholas. "The Truth About Marissa Mayer: She Has Two Contrasting Reputations."Business Insider. N.p., 17 July 2012. Web. 25 Sept. 2013. <http://www.businessinsider.com/the-truth-about-marissa-mayer-she-has-two-contrasting-reputations-2012-7>.

"Dear Marissa Mayer Critics: It's Time To Rally Around Great Leaders Everywhere | Business + Innovation." Fast Company. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Nov. 2013. <http://www.fastcompany.com/3016482/leadership-now/dear-marissa-mayer-haters-its-time-to-rally-around-great-leaders-everywhere>.

Gallo, Carmin. "Google's Marissa Mayer: 3 Leadership Traits She'll Bring to Yahoo." Forbes. N.p., 17 July 2012. Web. 1 Dec. 2013. <http://www.forbes.com/sites/carminegallo/2012/07/17/googles-marissa-mayer-3-leadership-traits-shell-bring-to-yahoo/>.

Indvik, Lauren. "The 20 Startups Marissa Mayer Has Acquired at Yahoo." Mashable. N.p., 1 Aug. 2013. Web. 27 Nov. 2013. <http://mashable.com/2013/07/31/yahoo-marissa-mayer-20-startups/>.

Innam, Henna. "Inner authority is a key ingredient for authentic leadership | Transformational Leadership." Executive Coaching Atlanta | Executive Coaching For Women | Leadership Development Atlanta | Career Coaching | Transformational Leadership. N.p., 2010. Web. 26 Nov. 2013. <http://www.transformleaders.tv/inner-authority-lessons-on-authentic-leadership-from-marissa-mayer/>.

Kotter, John. "5 Ways Mayer's Trying To Kick-Start The Yahoo! Culture." Forbes. N.p., 18 July 2013. Web. 30 Nov. 2013. <http://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkotter/2013/07/18/the-marissa-mayer-method-5-steps-to-kick-starting-the-yahoo-culture/>.

McLeod, Saul. "Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs." Simply Psychology. N.p., 2013. Web. 28 Nov. 2013. <http://www.simplypsychology.org/maslow.html>.

"Org Chart Yahoo! - TheOfficialBoard." The organizational charts of the 40,000 largest corporations - TheOfficialBoard. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Nov. 2013. <http://www.theofficialboard.com/org-chart/yahoo->.

Reuters. "Yahoo's Rigorous Hiring Practices, Imposed By Marissa Mayer, Get Flak Within Company." The Huffington Post. N.p., 3 Nov. 2013. Web. 28 Nov. 2013. <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/12/yahoo-hiring_n_2859068.html>.

San Jose Mercury News. "Yahoo's 5 new and improved benefits for employees - San Jose Mercury News." MercuryNews.com. N.p., 30 Apr. 2013. Web. 30 Nov. 2013. <http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_23140316/yahoos-5-new-and-improved-benefits-employees>.

Snyder, Craig. "What Do Bing And Yahoo Have That Google Doesn't?" MakeUseOf. N.p., 20 Sept. 2013. Web. 27 Nov. 2013. <http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/what-do-bing-and-yahoo-have-that-google-doesnt/>.

Stern, Joanna. "Marissa Mayer: Yahoo's New CEO." ABC News. N.p., 17 July 2012. Web. 25 Nov. 2013. <http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/marissa-mayer-yahoos-ceo/story?id=16794252>.

"Yahoo Employee Reviews | Indeed.com." Job Search | one search. all jobs. Indeed.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Nov. 2013. <http://www.indeed.com/cmp/Yahoo/reviews>.

Zellinger, Julie. "Marissa Mayer Avoids Discussing Women's Leadership In Tech." The Huffington Post. N.p., 16 Aug. 2013. Web. 25 Nov. 2013. <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/16/marissa-mayer-avoids-discussing-womens-leadership-in-tech_n_3769642.html>.