He has been called “The Last Pitchman” by Businessweek, named “CEO of the Decade” by Fortune Magazine, labeled by Rick Newman as “a true visionary of the digital era and one of the greatest business leaders in the U.S. history” and considered by Rich Karlgaard as “the Henry Ford and Walt Disney of the present generation”. He is the co-founder and ex-CEO of Apple, Inc., Steve Jobs, an epitome of what leadership is and should be. Aside from being an exceptional leader, he was also dubbed as “one of the greatest business strategists of all times” by Brent Coker of the University of Melbourne.
The leadership style of Jobs is what others think as a complex style. He was a charismatic and a transformational leader. His style is one which is “fascinating and perplexing”. Jobs was a “willful and driven leader” which paved the way for Apple to become number one in its class.
Another outstanding quality of Jobs as a leader is his being a visionary. He shared his vision with the various stakeholders of the company; thus, making Apple an undisputed leader in the field of technology.
Job fulfilled his leadership function through 14 imperatives which Isaacson enumerates in his article “The Real Leadership Lessons of Steve Jobs”. Foremost among these is focus. Jobs does not believe that the company should offer multiple products, instead he wanted Apple to focus on a few great products. The second key to Job’s leadership success is simplicity. Jobs wanted simple designs without need for complicated and unnecessary components. Clutter is a no-no for Jobs. The third leadership lesson from Jobs is “take responsibility end to end”. As a leader, Jobs would always see a product thru from its conceptualization to the act of purchasing it. This is one reason why he is known to be a control freak; he took responsibility for every stage of the manufacturing process. “Leapfrog when behind” is the fourth leadership rule of Jobs. He exhibited this slogan when he introduced the iPod, after being left behind by PCs that could download music.
Jobs was a marketing genius too, who put products first before profits. While some leaders would be overly concerned with the bottom line, he believes that if the product is great, the profits will follow. Another leadership characteristic of Jobs is that he was not a firm believer of focus groups . According to Jobs, “customers don’t know what they want until we’ve shown them”.
Bending reality is a quality of Jobs which has made it possible for several of his employees and business associates to do things which they never imagined they can accomplish. His style is to push a person or even a company to its limits. Nothing is impossible for him.
Job’s leadership function is directed towards perfection. Jobs want even the smallest part of Apple’s product to be perfect, no matter if the parts are hidden inside the machine. Furthermore, he insists that only A players can be tolerated; thus, he was quite abusive and brusque in dealing with his workers. This is why his leadership style was disapproved of by some. But this is the same leadership style which has inspired his employees to do their best on the job.
Other key characteristics of Job’s leadership style are his preference for face-to-face interaction, his passion for knowing both the big and small details, his profound idea that humanities should connect with science, creativity to technology and arts to engineering and his constant yearning for innovation.
Job’s leadership style has been described, analyzed, dissected, criticized and envied. His style is all his own and it is the reason why Apple has reached its zenith. His charisma, vision and dedication to his job have inspired not only his co-workers but also some of the CEOs of top corporations. He may have critics who do not totally agree with his human relations management, but what is clear is that no one can argue that Jobs was an effective leader, worthy of emulation.
References
Businessweek.com. (2010, June 10). Commentary: The last pitchman. Retrieved from businessweek.com: http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/10_25/b4183004440240.htm#p2
DeGrosky, M. (2012). Drawing lessons from the life of Steve Jobs. Wildfire, 21(5), 10-11.
Isaacson, W. (2012). The real leadership lessons of Steve Jobs. Harvard Business Review, 92-102.
Karlgaard, R. (2011). Remembering Steve Jobs. Retrieved from forbes.com.
Katzenbach, J. (2012, May 29). The Steve Jobs way. Retrieved from strategy-business.com: http://www.strategy-business.com/article/00109?gko=d331b
Mclnerny, S. (2011, October 7). Steve Jobs: an unconventional leader. Retrieved from smh.com.au: http://www.smh.com.au/executive-style/management/steve-jobs-an-unconventional-leader-20111007-1lcmo.html
Newman, R. (2011). Where Steve Jobs ranks among the greats. U.S. News Digital Weekly, 21-21.
Oliver, S. (2009, November 5). Apple co-founder Steve Jobs named Fortune 'CEO of the Decade'. Retrieved from appleinsider.com: http://appleinsider.com/articles/09/11/05/apple_co_founder_steve_jobs_named_fortune_ceo_of_the_decade
