Steve Jobs
Leadership in an organization is a joint effort that should involve both the employer and the employee. Leaders have led to the growth of their companies in different ways. Steve Jobs is one of the most celebrated leaders in the technology sector. The management strategies and the methods of the employer have a greater impact on the performance of the company. The rise or demise of the company depends on the leadership skills of the manager. High world managers such as Steve Jobs have faced different challenges in dealing with bigger companies. Steve Jobs can be a superb example to show the transition that leaders pass-through before one day becoming significant. This paper aims at looking the leadership skills that Jobs had. Apart from the skills of Jobs, the paper is also aimed at providing the SWOT analysis of this great manager. To do this effectively, the paper will trace the leadership phases that Steve Jobs went through before his sudden demise in 2011. The paper will look into the challenges he faced in his leadership endeavor and how tackled such challenges.
Steve Jobs was an American entrepreneur who invested heavily in the computer market. Right from the age of 12, Steve was already developing a very high interest in computer. According to Steve, most of the people had never seen a computer during that time. Irrespective of that, Steve was determined to know much about computer. Interestingly, he started to work right at the age of 12 at the Hewlett and Packard Company. Steve never had a lot of education in computer as one will think but it was his passion towards computer that made him to entirely change the way people communicate, work and do the day to day work using the computer. Steve was the co-founder of the Apple Inc. Moreover, became the C.E.O of the company before he was kicked out by John Sculley. After the Apple incident, Steve move on and came up with the NeXT and Macintosh Company. It will be very difficult to understand why Steve was kicked out of the company that he was a co-founder. The reason for this incidence was due to the poor leadership skills that Steve had. After the incidence, it is said that Steve learnt from his mistakes and grew to become one of the best managers the planet Earth have ever produced. To learn about how Steve became one of the greatest leaders on the planet, the paper is going to conduct an SWOT analysis of the leadership of Steve Jobs.
SWOT analysis
Strengths
Steve Jobs had a greater passion towards his job. He could use what he had in knowledge to create something that would late change his life. His strength was his love towards assembling electronics more so the television. Steve’s love of electronics made him learn more about what the computer was all about. Unlike the people who lived during his time, Steve had a unique character towards education. He saw no reason to go to school if what was taught in school made no meaning to him. This is why Steve dropped out of school and later continued to take the courses that he felt were making some sense to him. It is said that Steve never wasted his time listening to what did not make any sense to him. He said that he would rather do something constructive out of school than doing unconstructive things in the classroom.
The charismatic nature of Steve was his strength. Most of the Apple employees enjoyed sharing their feeling towards Steve as most of them said that Steve was someone who appreciated his workers. Most of the employees of Apple agree that Steve was one person who appreciated his workers and will make them feel like they were the real genius. This characteristic is what made most of the employees to get motivated and work towards a better Apple company.
Steve was also a person who was able to spot a business opportunity and work at it. Steve together with his friend was able to spot the market void that was left in the computer company. He felt that people wanted personal computers. It is this void left that Steve made a better use of to become one of the richest Americans from a destitute background.
The Blue Box was the father of Apple. What this means is that Steve was a very innovative leader. The innovative nature of Steve is what distinguishes him from most of the leaders during his time. Blue Box was a small gadget that was used to fool the telephone line so that one could make a free phone call. On realizing that ‘Blue Box ‘ was illegal in the land of America, Steve was motivated to come up with another system that was legal. It was this time that he thought of Apple.
The character of Steve to make new friends easily was one of the most outstanding strength that Steve possessed. In the entire leadership of Steve, he was an easy person to make friends. It was the friends that he made that assisted him in most of the work he did. His friends were the direct source of income to start his business. It can be said that Steve never borrowed any loan to start his Apple Company. His friends whom he made under his leadership were the ones who gave him the financial support.
Weakness
Steve was one of the most temperamental managers ever witnessed. Most of the people who worked with Steve claimed that he was one person who will shout to his workers to the slightest mistake. This character made Steve not to be the kind of the manager that most of the workers wished.
He is also accused of adopting other people’s idea without appreciating or just show that it was not his original idea. His friends would agree that Steve was not one person whom you will share your idea. It is true that once you share your idea with Steve, he will work on it and tell his friends about his new invention. He will take the idea as if it was is and will not appreciate the founder efforts.
Close friends and working mates of Steve says that Steve was one man who never cared about another person’s feelings. The idea behind this was not to have a competitor in the market. Steve was one person who wanted everything to be accredited towards him. Steve will work with you like a dog and abandon you.
Opportunities
Steve had a greater opportunity to develop his Apple Company. Steve made good the use of the void that was left in the computer market. During the time of Steve also, there were not many competitors in the field of computer as there is now. Lack of competition made Apple grow very fast and leading to higher market reach. It can, however, be said that Steve never became a leader just because he had good leadership character; he was the founder. Steve became the head at the Apple because he was the founder of the company. Even after being kicked out of the Apple Company, he was still able to move on and come up with other firms. This means that Steve was a hawk-eyed leader who never let anything to go under the bridge. Steve was also having one of the opportunities for leadership that most of the leaders have not had in their leadership lives. Steve had a chance to prove Apple board of directors wrong. After leaving Apple, Steve was very careful not to repeat the incidence at his new home, neXT. With this, Steve worked extremely harder to develop in his leadership skills. His hard work saw him return to his position of the C.E.O of Apple. Even after moving back to Apple, Steve had another opportunity, to show his former employees that he is always a good leader. It is this incidence that made Steve becomes a leader who learnt his workers. He came to know the challenges that workers face and became less temperamental in his second tenure.
Threats
Steve faced many threats as a leader. One amongst the many was the board of directors at the Apple Inc. Even if Steve was the founder of the company; the board never hesitated to sack him. John Sculley kicked out Steve from the management of the company few days after the business launched the Macintosh. When Steve learnt that the brand was not selling well, he wanted to reduce the price. A reduction in the price of the product led to revolt from the board of directors resulting to Steve ousting. Funnily, Sculley, who was hired by Steve, was the one who was the ring leader of the strength to do away with Steve.
The other threat was from the Microsoft Company. Bill Gate’s Microsoft was the greatest competitor to Apple. It is this war that is said to be beside the rivalry that was witnessed between Steve and Bill. The products from Apple were getting faced off with the market, thanks to the cheap and affordable Microsoft products.
The pricing of outputs was the greatest threat that Steve ever faced. It is said that Steve always went for the highest price for his products. It is the higher pricing of the products of the company that led to the products be faced off by the products of Microsoft. A product like Macintosh was set to a very high price at the beginning. When the company realized that people were not buying the products, they lowered the prices.
Theories of management
There are different managerial theories that have different impacts on different managers. Unlike most of the managers, Steve viewed most of the theories entirely different from the real world. The manner a leader view these theories will have very little effect on the company since different companies have different working styles. What is positive for leader A might not be positive for head C.
Trait Theory
According to the Trait Theory, there are specific traits that determine one's leadership ability. The theory says that intelligence and energy distinguishes leaders from non-leaders. The character traits that Steve had are said to be the factors that significantly influenced his leadership. Unlike most of the leaders, Steve never hesitated to adopt even the negative characters. Steve used obsessiveness, narcissism, perfectionism and made these negative characters hallmark his leadership.
Contingency model
Steve is one of the leaders who appreciated the contingency approach to leadership. Unlike other leaders who feel that the workers should be given the freedom to do what they feel, Steve was not of the idea. He believed that workers should be paid a formula to follow and be judged on how they spent their time. Most of the scholars were not with this idea but in the real sense it worked positively. Steve used this formula and worked pretty well for him. Most of the workers who are lazy found themselves to be hard working something that the company appreciated.
Tuckman’s Group Development model
According to this model, a group can be formed on five models: forming, storming, norming, performing, and adjourning. These are the most critical components towards a well-established team. The model argues that the company will only build on these models and any company which does not follow it will fail. When Steve never adopted the model and the company never failed meant that there was an exemption. This development model never made any meaning to Steve, who never believed in teamwork.
What Steve Jobs did wrong?
More legitimate than referent
Steve had more legitimate power than referent power. According to Steve, he was not appointed by anyone and in that case he was running his entity. This made Steve not to appreciate the work of other people. He is said to be one person who had very less teamwork. Steve is accused of being that person who will not invite the idea of someone as he depended more on his thinking. To be a good leader, one has to appreciate group work and understand what is meant by teamwork. It can be concluded that Steve never had any knowledge of leadership. Dropping out of school said that he never learnt about management. Could he have learnt anything about management then he could not have missed learning that cooperation is, and teamwork is one of the major managerial skills that a person needed to come up with the best company.
Steve and leadership appointed
The fact that Steve rose to power without getting to be appointed or rise through ranks is one thing that made his leadership is very unsuccessful. Research has it that those who rise through the power ranks can make good leaders than those who are appointed or choose themselves. Steve saw that the fact that he owned the idea was putting him in the right position to own the company. This ill-thought made most of the Apple Company’s strategies not to be very effective. Could Steve have acted just as one of the workers of the company and navigate through the ranks, there could have come out one of the managers who could have taken the company to another level higher than where Steve left it.
What could have been done to create a more positive outcome?
Appreciating what a worker do is one of the strategies towards having the best of the workers. Steve needed to become a person who learned the needs of his workers. Being a person who was never moved by the mistakes made by his workers, Steve was supposed to change from this. People who worked close to Steve reveal that Steve never helped his weak workers to improve. He never spotted the weak parts of his workers making most of them to go on making their mistakes. He should have been a person who worked close to the workers towards achieving the same goals.
The higher prices that the company charged to the customers were not good for the market. Steve was one of the leaders who was profit-minded than social minded. He was one person who never cared for his customers. Higher profits have no meaning if the major fraternity is affected negatively. For him to have made the products of the company more familiar in the market, he should have lowered the prices lower to an affordable level. It was the issues of the pricing of the business products that saw Steve bid his Company a goodbye.
Teamwork is never an option when it comes to leadership. So as to learn from other people and other stakeholders, a leader should be that people who appreciate teamwork. Steve should have been that people who appreciated teamwork. Through teamwork, he could have realized that the board of directors was not becoming happy with him. He could have known that the company was not his personal entity, but a business that involved a greater number of people. Making personal decisions to affect the company should have been avoided.
References
Steve Jobs, 2012. The lost interview. Accessed on November 30, 2014. Available on: <<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcZRyp_UlW4>>
Steve Jobs, September 2, 2012. One last thing with subtitles. Accessed on: November 30, 2014. Available on: <<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNL3bDLgkh8>>
