Julie Zhuo

Julie Zhuo never set out to be the perfect manager. When she wrote her bestselling book The Making of a Manager, she admits she was still learning how to live up to its ideas.

Over 14 years at Facebook, Zhuo rose from intern to Vice President of Product Design, building products used by billions. But the real test came after she left to co-found Sundial. The first year was exhilarating: new ideas, fresh energy, and a chance to try everything she’d learned in a different arena. But in the second year, doubts crept in, tensions flared and she felt herself becoming someone she didn’t like — at times disassociated, at times controlling.

The turning point in her leadership came when she started asking “dumb questions.” Zhuo decided to listen more closely to her team, customers, and co-founder. She realised leadership wasn’t about having the right answers but about creating a culture where repair was possible. Where mistakes could be acknowledged, relationships mended, and trust rebuilt. Feedback became her compass.

Today, Julie Zhuo speaks with candor about the gray spaces of leadership: the ambiguity, trade-offs, moments of fear and doubt that rarely make it into glossy success stories. Zhuo says leadership is less about certainty than curiosity, less about control than connection, and always about becoming, not just a better manager, but a better human.

Julie Zhuo’s The Making of a Manager, has been translated into more than a dozen languages and is adopted by companies worldwide as a leadership handbook. Her Substack newsletter The Looking Glass is followed by more than 10,000 readers, and her commentary has appeared in The New York Times, Fast Company, and The Atlantic.