Leadership Lessons Learned from Steve Jobs
What are the good and bad lessons that he teaches us?
Steve Jobs, was cofounder of Apple, and CEO throughout most of the company’s history. He has been lauded for his entrepreneurial accomplishments of building a small, startup organization into one of the world’s largest and most innovative companies.
The lessons we learn from Steve Jobs’ leadership are both positive and negative. He was highly successful, both as an entrepreneurial founder and after leading Apple to corporate greatness after the company had become stagnant for more than a decade under different leadership. He worked hard, chose bright, capable people to work with him, and was supremely confident. His visionary leadership and charisma were evident in his on-stage presentations of Apple’s newest products and strategic direction.
But Steve Jobs could also be a tyrant. He was obsessively controlling, and given to fits of rage, throwing tantrums and yelling at employees and board members. He could tear down someone’s ideas, or the person, in a public display. Some have said he took credit for others’ ideas, and his extreme confidence led to a sort of over-the-top arrogance.
In sum, while Steve Jobs was a successful leader, entrepreneur, and visionary, he fell considerably short of the qualities possessed by the very best leaders. This is a case where Jobs’ success, and his charisma, overshadow all of his bad qualities and behaviors for some people.
Jobs sends the wrong messages to aspiring and developing leaders. He seemed to have forgotten about the critical role of a leader to develop followers, boost their sense of self-efficacy, and treating them with respect.
It makes us wonder what Steve Jobs would have been like if he had all of the qualities and behaviors that research shows are possessed by the very best leaders, as we have seen. He might have truly been someone who deserves everyone’s admiration.
For Development: Do not fall into the trap of equating leader (or team) success with being a good leader. There is more to leadership than just accomplishing goals. It is important, when hearing stories of famous leaders, to critically and fully analyze their behavior, looking not only at success, but the whole picture of the individual’s leadership. The same goes for you. What do you do exceptionally well from a leadership perspective, and where do you sometimes fall short? What can you do about it?
