Theory and Practice of Leadership - Steve Jobs - Essay Example

Steve Jobs’ Leadership Name Course Lecture Date Introduction Steve Jobs is a legendary American businessman whose visionary leadership revolutionized the computer industry. Steve Jobs charismatic Leadership is linked to the personal computer revolution and the current Smartphone revolution. Jobs revolutionary ideas in electronics transformed the consumer electronics and computers. Job is also the co-founder of prolific technology companies like Pixar and Apple. Steve was once a member of the board of directors at Walt Disney Company. Steve jobs oversaw the development of many great products including the Macintosh, the iPod, iphone, and the iPad. These products are pioneering technologies which still lead sales in their industry. Life of Steve Jobs Steve Jobs was born in 1955 in San Francisco, California. In his young life, the young Steve Jobs experimented with different career options (Young and Simon 2006). Early schooling life was frustrating as he hated school. However, his tests results were so good that school administrators wanted him to skip ahead to high school. After high school, Steve Jobs met Steve Wozniak then a student at the University of California, Berkeley. Wozniak would later partner Steve Job to start the world most prolific technological company. In 1976, Steve Jobs and his partner finally set up Apple computers which started operating in his parent’s garage (Young and Simon 2006). Job sold his Volkswagen bus while Wozniak sold his scientific computer to raise capital to start the iconic Apple computer company. Jobs leadership at Apple led a revolution that made computing devices cheaper, smaller and more intuitive to use (Young and Simon 2006). Leadership Milestones Steve Jobs leadership qualities are apparent in the success he has enjoyed in his time at Apple. The first milestone of Steve Jobs life was the development of Apple I a Personal computer that earned the newly formed Apple computers $774,000 in 1977 (Young and Simon 2006). The first Apple computer was a result of risky initiative by Wozniak and Jobs to create a new computer funded by selling Job’s Volkswagen bus and Wozniak’s scientific calculator. They made the decision to develop the computer without any guarantee that they would make sales. Banking on the success of Apple I, the duo soon introduced Apple II into the market. The Second Apple hailed as the first true Personal Computer made sales of over $ $139 million (Young and Simon 2006). In 1980, Apple became a publically traded company. Five years later, Steve Jobs was fired from Apple after significant design flaws in products. After his exit from Apple, Jobs founded NeXT; a hardware and Software enterprise. In the same period, he purchased Pixar Animation studios from George Lucas (Young and Simon 2006). Believing in Pixar’s potential; Jobs invested over $50 million in the company. Jobs vision for Pixar was to see the company become a pioneer in animated entertainment. Pixar was later to release popular animated movie including Toy Story, The Incredibles and Finding Nemo. Jobs success at Pixar was further evidence of the success of Job’s visionary leadership. According to Young and Simon (2006), Jobs spent his time at Apple and Pixar insisting on addition of enhancing features on product. Jobs would insist that his companies had to make products that customers adored. By 2006 when Jobs sold Pixar to Walt Disney the animation company had made $4 billion in revenue (Young and Simon 2006). While his ventures at Pixar became successful, Apple started to struggle in his absence. In 1997, Apple reported a quarterly loss of $708 million (Young and Simon 2006). Apple moved to buy NeXT; the unsuccessful hardware and technology company Jobs had created and appointed Jobs Apple’s CEO. Jobs immediately made changes to Apple products including installing the G3 microprocessor of the company’s computers (Young and Simon 2006) In effect, Apple computer became faster than competing PCs. In 1998, Steve jobs guided Apple to develop the iMac; a sophisticated and cheap home desktop. By 1998, Apple’s sales had increased to $5.9 billion and the company was once again profitable (Young and Simon 2006). Job’s Leadership Qualities Jobs success at innovating new products is linked to insistence that Apple should offer product that customers like. His 1998 success with the iMac was followed by iconic product like, the ipod in 2001, the Apple iTunes in 2003, the iphone in 2001, and the iconic tablet named the ipad in 2010. Apple reports that it had sold over 10 million iphones and 300 million ipods. According to Young and Simon (2006), the success of these devices was based on Jobs insistence on continuous innovation and improvement of Apple products. Young and Simon (2006) say that jobs pressured his employees to find ways of improving products, enhancing their product features or making them easier to use to customers. Steve Jobs suggestions during the design of the iPod are linked to the success of the device in the market. Jobs is said to have suggested the removal of some buttons and wanted uses to reach everything on the device in just three clicks (Young and Simon, 2006). His ideas on the ipod design led to the removal of clatter on the devices. Job also pointed out that the on/off button was unnecessary, the designers had not considered this aspect of design. The results of Jobs insistence on improvement to the ipod interface led to the creation of one of the most intuitive music device. I think the ability of Steve Jobs to articulate a clear vision for the company and obtain the support of his employee contributed greatly to his success as a leader (Bass and Bass 2009). Steve Jobs initial vision was to make a Personal computer that would be light and easy to use. His visionary attribute saw Jobs transform Pixar then a small animation company to become one of the most influential producers in the animation industry. However, Steve Jobs approach to gaining support for his ideas is not advisable in current business environments. Steve Jobs ignored consensus building and was rather coercive in getting employee to do his bidding (Young and Simon 2006). Steve is known to have demanded excellence from his team and criticized those who were less than excellent critically. Steve’s approach is very similar to theory X leadership that assumes employees are not keen on taking initiative on their own (Bass and Bass 2009). Steve was not afraid to use threats and coercion to motivate his staff to perform to his standards (Isaacson 2012). I feel Jobs realized the need for authoritarian leadership as he felt employee would not reach his high targets if he did not coerce them. Jobs’ leadership style contrast with McGregor who advocates a theory Y approach to leadership (Kopelman, Prottas and Davis 2008). Under theory Y, leaders assume that employee are naturally motivated and enjoy working. It hold that employee need little coercion or threats to engage in passionate pursuit of organizational goals. Leader who apply theory-X assumptions to their leadership are also considered autocratic leaders. Autocratic leaders impose their decisions on employees and employees rarely participate in decision making (Bass and Bass 2009). Autocratic leadership is most successful among employee who need close supervisions. According to Young and Simon (2006) creative employees abhor autocratic leadership. It surprises me to see Apple phenomena successes under Steve Jobs autocratic leadership. Steve Jobs’ leadership also shows the critical role leader’s charisma takes in getting employee to support his ideas. Jobs’ passion for his ideas got him the support of shareholders, customers and employees (Isaacson 2012). Job’s communicated effectively and employed various persuasion styles to convince other that his approach was the best for the situation at hand. Job’s success as an entrepreneur also enhanced his charisma and his credibility as a leader (Quinn 2012). Despite the enormous pressure for perfection at Apple turnover at the firm remained low. I think the low turnover at Apple is associated with Jobs’ charisma, passion and credibility as a leader. Job’s influence on my ideas of Leadership An analysis of Steve Jobs leadership reinforces and challenges my ideas on what constitutes effective leadership. Jobs leadership style clearly shows that autocratic leadership can fit theory-Y employee as long as the leader is inspirational. Job managed some of the most creative and innovative research and development teams. However, his autocratic leadership style goes against conventional wisdom in the area of organizational leadership (Gill 2011). His style shows that it is not necessary for employees to participate in decision making in order to support the management ideas and plans. Instead some leaders can rely on their personal charisma and great vision to get their employee to support their organizational objectives. Building credibility should also be an important consideration for a leader who is intent on gaining the support of his employees. Steve Jobs success as an entrepreneur enabled him gain the support of his staff in implementing his visionary ideas (Gill 2011). Steve jobs had illustrated on numerous occasions that he could successfully lead initiatives to develop products and make them commercial success. I think most of Steve Jobs employee wanted to work with him because they believed in his leadership ability. Most of them would not leave Apple despite their unhappiness at Steve abrasive leadership style as they wanted to be part of next big thing in consumer electronics. References Bass, BM, & Bass, R 2009, The Bass handbook of leadership: Theory, research, and managerial applications, Simon and Schuster, New York. Gill, R 2011, Theory and practice of leadership, Sage, New York. Isaacson, W 2012, The real leadership lessons of Steve Jobs, Harvard business review, 90(4), 92-102. Kopelman, RE, Prottas, DJ, & Davis, AL 2008, Douglas McGregor's Theory X and Y: toward a construct-valid measure, Journal of Managerial Issues, 255-271. Quinn, J 2012, Steve Jobs: Genius by Design Campfire Biography-Heroes Line, Campus, New York. Young, JS, & Simon, WL 2006, iCon Steve Jobs, John Wiley & Sons, New Jersey Read More