Can you tell the difference between a tyrant and a hero? How do we determine who was a dictator and who was a victor? Can you imagine a despot being known as a powerful leader and a wise king being known as an atrocious ruler? Curiosity always changes the world, the history. How about Steve Jobs? Did he represent the qualities of an effectual and powerful boss or the qualities of a greedy and tyrannical leader? In my opinion, he was a great boss because he was creative in his field, could see the future, and had incredible leadership.
It won’t be an exaggeration if we say that Steve Jobs could see the future. He was “confident enough to take risky leaps.” In The Steve Jobs Way it states, “ … Jobs intuitively understood the power of cultural influence in sustaining the strategic capabilities implicit in his perpetual vision of creating.” The text, Steve Jobs: The Man Who Thought Different, also states, “Jobs realized that more and more functions were going to end up on cell phones … he figured that someday it would … exist all in a single package.” He was clever and led his companies few generations ahead. If Steve Jobs was raised in his original environment, we would still use a huge computer which needs numerous amounts of electricity and windows to cool it down.
Not only going ahead the generation, the leader has to provide parts of his or her company’s project. Though Jobs was being stubborn, he was a good example of a boss with his creativity. A brochure of Apple contained a slogan, “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistications,” which means Jobs enjoyed challenging himself. He dreamed “a computer that was graceful and elegant as it was useful, an intersection of technology and art that resulted in something truly special,” s...
... middle of paper ...
...e wouldn’t get mature and would never think deeply. A real tyrant does whatever he wants and doesn’t care the goods of his group. For instance, during the Japanese colonial era, the leader denied torture was a sin and continued to distress the victims. Jobs, on the other hand, thought what he could do for his company and stood for human races and their development of all fields.
In ’90s, people preferred a servant leader who worked like everyone else and was treated equally except for his or her rank. As far as I am concerned, a servant leader is not a leader. A leader should have charisma and lead like a general. Steve Jobs had that leadership and was talented. He could think ahead generations. He believed he was right and here we are, using the technology that was promoted through Apple. Never be discouraged by others, there is no reason to not follow your heart.
...ties and differences of the leadership of Steve Jobs and Fr. Jose Arizmendiarrieta that the leadership required for organisations to succeed is unique to the goals and definition of success portrayed by the leader. Their leadership styles were reflected in the organisations development and it can be seen why leadership in organisations is of such importance. What is also clear is that there is no right or wrong way to lead – Fr Jose achieved a sustainable profitable cooperative, Jobs archived a highly profitable company. The leadership practice used needs to fit the organisations vision, the needs of the stakeholders, and be ingrained into followers. The followers need to buy in to the leader’s vision and goals and play their part in implementing the steps required for success. The leader is ultimately responsible for guiding the followers along the path to success.
All leaders start somewhere in life, whether if it’s in a garage or in the basement working with dad. There is the, one-and-only leader who took innovation through his own ideas. This leader took steps beyond his wildest dreams. This immense leader was demoted from his own company. Many say his ego got in the way of true life and visions, but this leader is the seed to the blueprints of ideas that he had created visions of a leading company. This leader created a legacy; he is the action of a revolutionary breakthrough.
Steve Jobs charisma mostly depends on his knowledge and understanding of the technology he is absorbed. To technology field, Jobs may not compete to his engineers, nevertheless, he, together with Wozniak, has been the founder of Apple, and they also produced the very first hardware together (Isaacson, 2012). From this point of view, his understanding in technological field combined with visionary gift help him develop his vision and deliver it properly to his employees.
There have been countless books, lectures, and and trainings, and retreats constructed around the idea of cultivating leadership in an individual. However, cultivating individuals’ ability to follow great leadership has received far less attention. Who are these people leading if each person within an organization is being trained to be a leader? The word follower has negative connotations, evoking the images of a weak, uncreative, milquetoast personality. However, Jimmy Collins, in his book, “Creative Followership: In the Shadow of Greatness”, suggests that the ability to be led brings as much creativity, consciousness, and indeed leadership to an organization or team as the leader himself. Great followership is a reflection of great leadership. In this, the follower is just as important as the leader in the relationship. Many great leaders have asserted that a leader with even a modicum of understanding of what drives their subordinates can take their organization to previously undreamt-of heights in creativity and productivity. Collins does not disabuse us of this notion, he does however add that the follower is indispensable agent in this interplay between leader and follower.
Servant Leadership, found in Chapter Ten of the text Leadership: Theory and Practice, is a paradoxical approach to leadership. It begins with the innate desire to serve first, and then lead through servant hood. Servant Leadership, originating in the early 1970s, is similar to the skills and styles approach, focusing on leadership from the leader’s viewpoint and his behavior under the leadership. Under this style of leadership, the leaders are considerate of the followers needs, empathizing with and having compassion for the followers. A servant leader feels a social responsibility to the less privileged and is concerned with inequality among the followers. Through servant leadership, a servant leader will attempt to correct these social injustices and by enabling and empowering the followers while helping the followers in developing valuable personal skills. Servant leaders are ethical, projecting strong moral behavior towards the followers, taking leadership paths that serve the greater good of an organization, the community and even society as a whole.
The TED talk video with Simon Sinek really captured my attention and made me more aware of what a real leader should be for an organization. (YouTube). Sinek gave us valid evidence that a leader can create either a successful team or completely shut down their functionality. My organization is a manufacturing company for making wheel loaders, dozers, trucks, and excavators and chapter nine of our book resonated with me since it spoke about Six Sigma, Lean Manufacturing, Checklists, and ISO standards. All of these items have been implemented by a vision from our CEO and I understand more today, than I did seven weeks ago that his ability to formulate the vision is the start of the equation which was shown in the video by Professor Gill, for our Leadership class. Professor Gill was able to explain all of the criteria needed for a successful organization and it all starts with the leadership. You can be strong in statesmanship and weak in innovation as a leader, but it is important to identify your weakness to surround yourself with other leaders who have the strength you are lacking.
It’s sad to think that Jobs passed at the young age of 56. Yet his legacy lives on in the lessons he's instilled in others, like me. My hope is to use these lessons and begin to incorporate them into my life. With Steve Jobs’ passing in 2011, I became fascinated with his ethics and skills. I can only dream about being as successful as he once was with my career but will strive to achieve the best as he once did. I will conclude with one of my favourite anecdotes from Jobs’ long and successful career. It was known that the original Macintosh team had just 100 members. Whenever it reached 101 members they would have to reshuffle and remove someone from the team. Jobs belief was that he could only remember 100 names. [Source: Leaner Kahney, The 10 Commandments of Steve,”Newsweek, page 35, September, 2011]
Steve Jobs wasn’t always a computer whiz; he developed it over the course of his childhood. Born on February 24, 1955, Jobs was put up for adoption by University of Wisconsin students. He was then adopted by Paul and Clara Jobs where he grew up in Mountain View, California. His father was a machinist for Spectra Physics, and his mother was an accountant (American Decades 1). Initially bored with school, Jobs developed his first real interest in technology when he visited the Hewlett-Packard plant in Palo Alto on a school field trip in high school where he had his first encounter with a desk-top computer. After getting assistance from the cofounder of Hewlett-Packard, William Hewlett, on a school project, Jobs got a summer job at the plant. There he met future cofounder of Apple Inc., Steve Wozniak. They started working on pr...
The selection of contemporary leader book was challenging at first, however after considering the attributes and qualities of different leadership styles Steve Jobs: Ten lessons in leadership written by Michael Essany was the best choice. This book discussed what can be learned as a leader and the lessons are relevant to my own leadership style. There is a direct relationship of the lessons and Steve Jobs’ leadership style identified including wait for nothing, fail big or don’t bother failing, limit your confidence to your field, there’s no substitute for passion, consider your legacy before you have one, and there’s always ‘one more thing’ (Essany, 2012). The lessons illustrated that Steve Jobs was progressive in his thinking and relentless to develop technological advancements that consumers could not live without. Therefore, Steve Jobs leadership style was influential and other entrepreneurs need to utilize these lessons in pursuit of similar success.
Bill Gates: “As we look ahead into the next century, leaders will be those who empower others.”
Overall, Steve Jobs was a great inventor. He changed the world with his many technological advances and the opening of his now world-famous company, Apple. He showed great determination, skill, and knowledge throughout all of his undertakings. Steve Jobs will never be forgotten and his inventions still live on today.
In the world, there are two types of people; the ones who lead, and the ones who follow. Whether or not a person is a sheep or a wolf is determined by characteristics inherited from the outside world. The wolf personality takes control of the pack and leads it. While the sheep sits and waits for the wolf to create the path for them. These two qualities are defined by a series of characteristics. Great leaders are those who display unbreakable confidence, indestructible focus, and exemplary empowerment.
As Isaacson recalls in his biography on Jobs’ life, the first thing that Jobs did at Apple was cut out the convoluted product lines, instead shifting the focus on “four great products” (3). Already, Jobs’ tendency towards conscientiousness showed in his leadership style. Rather than leading an Apple that produced countless variations of the computer, Jobs saw the importance of efficiency. Just as a conscientious person desires to accomplish a task as well as possible, Jobs’ leadership style forced Apple to commit to making only four computers the best possible products. The next test of Jobs’ leadership style would be the creation of the iPod in 2001, the product that would redefine the music consumption market. Interestingly, Gladwell’s exposé of Steve Job’s leadership process likens Jobs to a “tweaker” rather than an inventor, citing the iPod as one such example (5). Rather than creating a brand new product, Jobs was committed to creating the perfect product for music playback. During Jobs’ time at Apple, he would often refine existing ideas until it fit his vision rather than creating something new. One famous quote attributed to Steve Jobs is “I’ll know it when I see it” (Gladwell 6). By constantly pushing his engineers and designers until they created a product that fit his vision, much to the chagrin of those working for him, Steve Jobs was able to release products that would revolutionize their markets, just as the iPod did. This penchant for perfection stems from Jobs’ tendency towards neuroticism. Although neuroticism is often regarded by many as a negative factor to successful leadership, I argue that neuroticism was key to Jobs’ leadership style. In Jobs’ case, the appearance of neuroticism through a drive for perfection created a leadership style that allowed Jobs to lead his company in creating
Leaders are those who have a great influence on the lives of many people. This is especially relevant in today’s organizations, which face extreme time changes and an increasingly growing complexity (Yukl, 1998).
Let’s use Bill Gates, one of the great worldwide leaders, for this instance. As we all acknowledge, Bill Gates is always considered, without doubt, a successful man and one of the top ranking leaders. We as well know that Bill Gates, of course, was not a leader by birth, nor did any creator intentionally or accidentally bestow him the knowledge he possesses today, but rather by his acquirement of experience throughout his lifetime.