Summary Of Do As I Say, Not As I Do By Marissa Mayer

The first thought that comes to mind after reading these articles is “Do as I say, not as I do”. As the textbook states “Mangers who project a “do as I say, not as I so” attitude will not be effective leaders.” (Goetsch & Davis, 2015) Marissa Mayer is an autocratic leader. She seems to be oblivious to the people who work for her and Yahoo. “I’ve always said that a toxic culture is code for failed leadership. What Mayer has failed to grasp is that you cannot transform a culture you do not understand” (Myatt, 2015)

It seems that Mayer has forgotten or has not learned of the basics in leadership: Aligning personnel with the vision, providing a sense of direction, communicating effectively and often, empowering and training and mentoring.

Aligning

There was the effort to restructure and reorganize that Mayer embarked upon without laying out a vision for it.

With her micromanaging and one-on-one meeting, floating one plan by one executive and a different by another she created an atmosphere of uncertainty.

Providing a sense of direction: Again, the articles are lacking in information for this topic.

However, the amount of turnover at the higher levels, whether it was at their own doing or being fired, does not build trust among the employees and shareholders.

Communicating effectively and often: She may be communicating too much with the amount of micromanaging she does. One example of ineffective communication would be when she

introduced a new ad product at the Consumer Electronics Show against the recommendations of the team responsible. It was not ready and failed in the market.

Empowering, training and mentoring: Mayer has not empowered her team or employees.

“Mayer also insisted on personally reviewing even minor deviations from a compensation policy she had instituted.” (Helft, 2015)Instead of letting a team work on a new logo, she stayed with that team all weekend.By not allowing those who should be running those meeting or