Mark Zuckerberg says his management style involves no 1-on-1s, few direct reports, and a ‘core army’ of 30 running Meta

• Mark Zuckerberg lifted the lid on his management style at Stripe’s Sessions conference.

• Zuckerberg said a “core army” of up to 30 people is tasked with running about 15 product groups.

• He doesn’t like delegating or managing people and doesn’t have regular one-on-ones with his direct reports.

Forget the typical CEO playbook — Mark Zuckerberg runs Meta on his own terms.

The Meta chief, speaking during a Tuesday fireside chat with the Stripe cofounder John Collison, said he doesn’t enjoy managing people or delegating.

While he doesn’t have 60 direct reports like Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, the two tech titans do have one thing in common: They don’t have recurring one-on-one meetings with their top leaders.

During the Stripe Sessions fireside chat, Zuckerberg opened up about his hands-on, no-frills approach, a key part of which is having a “core army” of handpicked lieutenants and just a few direct reports.

Zuckerberg favors a nonhierarchical structure at Meta, which he organizes thematically.

“Our management team is not really just my direct reports, it’s sort of this broader group of like 25 to 30 people who I try to include in everything,” Zuckerberg said. He added that this “core army” is empowered to get anything done across the company, and that he makes sure this inner circle is up to speed on what’s going on inside Meta.

“Those people are all brilliant and I work with them super closely, but I also go directly to the people who are running whatever the thing is that I care about, so we’re very nonhierarchical in that way,” he explained.

Zuckerberg said Meta is divided into around 15 product groups, covering everything from Facebook and Instagram to its ad system and virtual reality.

He outlined how each group is led by its own executive. The leaders of Meta’s app-based products report to Chris Cox, the chief product officer. Heads of cross-functional services, such as ads, infrastructure, and integrity systems, report to Meta’s chief operating officer, Javier Olivan. And leaders working on future technology platforms report to Andrew Bosworth, the company’s chief technology officer.

Zuckerberg views the people in charge of the 15 product groups as “the people who are running the real things” and shared that he doesn’t want to have 15 direct reports, which is why they report to other members of the management team.

“I don’t have 60 direct reports, I don’t even like managing people,” Zuckerberg told Collison.