Strengths and weakness of Steve Jobs leadership approach

The leadership style of Steve Jobs can hardly be alighted with the theories found in the management books. From the first sight his approach might not seem very effective, however, the fact that Apple is one the most successful companies in the world suggests that there are exceptions from the rules, and phenomena that cannot be studied. First of all, it is worth mentioning that I believe one can try its best to learn how to become a good leader and not succeed in the result, while there will be another one who would lead the crowds or manage a company and will be completely unable to explain the leadership principles or theories. Therefore, according to my opinion, for the most part leadership skills are inborn and then just improved during the development age. Going back to Steven Jobs, he started his career very early. Apple Company was founded in 1976, when Jobs was only years 21 old (Isaacson, 2011, 120). It is, also, worth mentioning, that prior to that he dropped out from the Reed University, but still would occasionally attend some of the courses. However, leadership or managerial classes were not of his interest. Due to this fact or, maybe, just aside of it, his leadership style was very different from the traditional approach. Steve was extremely emotional and saw things in black and white, he, also, was a perfectionist, and this fact has certainly influenced the way he managed his company. Steve demanded that everything should be done perfectly. He believed that the product will be successful only in case if customer sees it fully complete. Due to this fact Steve would delay the releases of some products. Just as he says Apple would postpone the release date and work on the improvements, while other companies would compromise and let it be. That is one of the things would set Apple apart from most of the companies (Isaacson, 2011, 238). First Apple computer Mac became extremely popular, even considering the fact that it was released 16 months after the set date (Isaacson, 2011, 238). This is a perfect example that shows how Steve Jobs hated to

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compromise. He explained to everybody: The computer is not ready, until it appears on a shelf in the store (Isaacson, 2011, 239). Later on this rule was applied to all Apple products. Another thing worth saying about Steve is that he was controlling all the aspects of the business, starting from the top and going to the very tactic choices, as for example choosing music for the TV ad and the food served in Apples cafeteria (McInerney, 2011). Another strong aspect of his way of leadership is ability to choose the direction and leave aside all the minor details. Steve has an ability to choose what is really important, set the priorities for the team. When he came back to Apple in 1997, the company was working on many different projects, among the first things he did he stopped a few project and narrowed down the focus to three products he saw as prospective ones (Isaacson, 2011, 501). There is one aspect about Steve Jobs style that is hard to call either weakness or strength as from the first sight it calls for the negative associations, however, on the other side, it has proved very effective. This aspect is authoritarian leadership approach (Chaudhuri, 2012). Steve controlled every aspect of the production, and especially design. The product had to be exactly the way he saw it, and if the engeeniers would say it is impossible to build, Steve would turn on his charisma and make them try to do it. At the end result the Apple products would completely match Steves vision. Another thing about Apple is that it was basically Steves company, and he ran it the way he wanted, meaning there were not many companies out there that would serve as an example, he would make everything his own way. One of the examples is when the Iphone 4 was in the development process Steve and the engenieers got into the clash about the metal ribbon that was supposed to go around the phone. Steve was really into the glass and metal combination, and it served him as the example of simplicity and excelence. Therefore, the desing of the phone was really in to his likening, and especially the metal riboon that runs around the phones body. However, once Steve showed the way the phone should look to the engineers they totally refused doing it, just because it is again physics. The metal ribbon would block the antenna signal, and this

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is a simple physics law that can not be abandond (Isaacson, 2011, 553). However, such explanation did not please Steve Jobs, so he gave then one month to work on the problem. Just after thirty days they came up with the revolutionary solution, the metal ribbon will actually be an antenna of the phone. This is only of the example when Steve would demand excellence and total devotion. Another double-sided aspect of his leadership was the fact that he saw things only in black and white. He commented on the performance or somebodys idea as either really good or thats stupid. However, sometimes he would switch his opinion, but there would never be steps in between. This kind of approach would at the same time destroy somebody or motivate. People who have ever worked with Jobs have their own opinions about him, ones thought of him as a great leader who can motivate and make you realize your full potential, while other would just close down from Steves pouring emotions. Steve Jobs was not the one who would care about the emotions of other, he knew what he wanted from his workers, and made them do it without considering their feeling. He would yell at people and tell them what he thinks instead of looking to the nice words to make the pill sweeter. For the most part he was using methods that were completely opposite from ethical, however, if they say that the methods justify the result, there is nothing that Steve Jobs can be blamed for.

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Works Cited CHAUDHURI, A. (2012, April 26). Authoritarian leadership, the secret behind Steve Jobs success! - Arindam Chaudhuri, Editor-in-chief, The Sunday Indian - The Sunday Indian. Today English Newspaper Update Headlines India - The Sunday Indian Online Magazine. Retrieved September 21, 2012, from http://www.thesundayindian.com/en/story/authoritarian-leadership-the-secret-behind-stevejobs-success/33963/ (CHAUDHURI, 2012) McInerney, Sarah . "Steve jobs management and leadership style."Sydney Morning Herald Business & World News Australia | smh.com.au. N.p., 7 Oct. 2011. Web. 21 Sept. 2012. <http://www.smh.com.au/executive-style/management/steve-jobs-an-unconventional-leader20111007-1lcmo.html>. (McInerney, 2011) Isaacson, Walter. Steve Jobs. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2011. Print. (Isaacson, 2011)