Leadership Style:
How things work at Apple can be determined by looking at the co-founder and the longest time CEO. Everything that Steve Jobs had, his personality, strengths ,and weaknesses all poured into the company. Steve Jobs defined Apple. By looking at Steve Jobs’ as a leader we can tell how the company works.
Steve was a task oriented leader. He was more focused on task and organization performance rather than on people’s feelings. He did not regard the feelings of employees; he only listened to their ideas. As an unconventional leader, he was proud of what he was. He was confident of his management style, believed in what he was doing. Steve was a demanding perfectionist with an aggressive and demanding personality. He demanded excellence from his staff delivered blunt criticisms. Part of the reason for why he was fired in 1985 was for his demanding management style. “We have an environment where excellence is really expected” proves his demanding style. Whenever tasks had to be done Steve Jobs ensured no mistakes would be made. An ex-employee recalled being responsible for an email that would be sent to apple customers with the launch of a new version of a product. Steve Jobs would engage this employee in a back and forth messaging over email to review the punctuation of the message. He was considered one of Silicon Valley’s leading egomaniacs. He was able to get people to follow him disregarding whether he was liked or not. His major advantage to Apple was that he was an unconventional leader. He did not conform to what was considered to be the right thing to do in the field of business.
Drucker’s “Old-Fashioned Leadership” seems to be what Steve Jobs believed in. He believed that there is more to leadership than the emphasis on personal qualities and charisma. He believed that leadership is work. Although the description of this leadership fits Steve Jobs best, he was not able to keep up to the essentials of Drucker’s theory. He always defined and established a sense of mission. He knew what to say no to and what to focus on. For example, Steve Jobs allows his companies to come up with a list of 10 things to work on, and he crosses out the top 7 to maintain focus. Steve Jobs did not accept leadership as a responsibility rather than a rank and did not keep the trust of others. This is proven by Apple’s secrecy and trust issues which I will later talk about and the way Steve Jobs is an aggressive boss that is strict with him employees.
Steve was a task oriented leader. He was more focused on task and organization performance rather than on people’s feelings. He did not regard the feelings of employees; he only listened to their ideas. As an unconventional leader, he was proud of what he was. He was confident of his management style, believed in what he was doing. Steve was a demanding perfectionist with an aggressive and demanding personality. He demanded excellence from his staff delivered blunt criticisms. Part of the reason for why he was fired in 1985 was for his demanding management style. “We have an environment where excellence is really expected” proves his demanding style. Whenever tasks had to be done Steve Jobs ensured no mistakes would be made. An ex-employee recalled being responsible for an email that would be sent to apple customers with the launch of a new version of a product. Steve Jobs would engage this employee in a back and forth messaging over email to review the punctuation of the message. He was considered one of Silicon Valley’s leading egomaniacs. He was able to get people to follow him disregarding whether he was liked or not. His major advantage to Apple was that he was an unconventional leader. He did not conform to what was considered to be the right thing to do in the field of business.
Drucker’s “Old-Fashioned Leadership” seems to be what Steve Jobs believed in. He believed that there is more to leadership than the emphasis on personal qualities and charisma. He believed that leadership is work. Although the description of this leadership fits Steve Jobs best, he was not able to keep up to the essentials of Drucker’s theory. He always defined and established a sense of mission. He knew what to say no to and what to focus on. For example, Steve Jobs allows his companies to come up with a list of 10 things to work on, and he crosses out the top 7 to maintain focus. Steve Jobs did not accept leadership as a responsibility rather than a rank and did not keep the trust of others. This is proven by Apple’s secrecy and trust issues which I will later talk about and the way Steve Jobs is an aggressive boss that is strict with him employees.
Criticisms:
Many people judged Steve Jobs based on his personality, they thought he was a thoughtless employer who was cruel to those under him and was often unapproachable and isolated. His personality was an important factor to the success of Apple. He acted as if normal rules didn’t apply to him, the passion, intensity, and emotionalism that he brought to work all poured out into the products he made. All of his imperfections and perfections collaborated to make Apple what it is. Steve jobs answered about his tendency to be rough on people:” Look at the results, These are all smart people I work with, and any of them could get a top job at another place if they were truly feeling brutalized. But they don’t. And we got some amazing things done.”Real lessons from Steve Jobs should be taken from what he has actually accomplished, he created Apple.
Motivation:
Steve Jobs was successful at motivating his employees. Despite the accusations of his personality flaws, he was still able to motivate his employee’s to create something great. Steve Jobs fit in the transactional leadership description. He directed efforts of others through tasks and structures. Steve influenced his employees for strong desire of work, shared his passion with the staff, and provided vision. Steve Jobs was driven by his desire to create great products that he would enjoy using himself rather than products that would just bring profit to Apple. Steve jobs employees knew that he was not in it for the money but for the desire to build something great. Steve jobs hired employees that he knew would be able to endure his rants and be further motivated by them. He made his employees believe they can do something great.