Effective Leadership:Steve Jobs

Effective Leadership:Steve Jobs

Effective leadership is essential in ensuring the successful management of every business regardless of its size and resources. Most of the world’s biggest companies started from grassroots levels but managed to climb the ladder to the top due to effective leaders. There are unique leadership skills and styles that apply to every business situation. However, the choice of a leadership style used should depend on the prevailing situation within a business company. A leadership style successfully used in one company may not succeed in another company due to various factors such as the difference in business goals, varying business cultures, and prevailing cultural practices within the business community. An excellent example of an international company that has climbed the ladder of success to emerge to the top of the world’s economy is Apple company, known for its production of high-quality electronic appliances such as iPhone, Apple laptops, iPod, and iPad. The company was started by Steve Jobs, a celebrated entrepreneur who demonstrated unique leadership skills in his management of the company (Isaacson, 2012). The exceptional leadership skills he portrayed are the leading causes of the company’s success, and maybe, the company would have failed if he used different leadership skills. Arguably, understanding the success of Apple Company requires a thorough analysis of nature and the effectiveness of leadership qualities exhibited by Steve Jobs since founding the business.

Steve Jobs was known as one of the most arrogant leaders in history, and he was never a transformational leader since he never involved individuals in life-changing programs. However, his nature has a unique contribution to the success of Apple Company. Arguably, the success of a company is dependent on the uniqueness of a leader whose skills and nature may only be applicable and useful to the specific company. His arrogant nature enabled him to execute duties with a lot of strictness that ensured the employees remained focused on their responsibilities (Isaacson, 2012). As much as several people may view Jobs’s nature as being detrimental, it contributed to the development of the business positively. One vital thing that resulted from his arrogant nature was a reduction in mistakes among workers due to fear they had developed about Jobs’ arrogance. As a result, every employee delivered their best to avoid any small errors that would otherwise cause unnecessary drama with Jobs. This implied increased productivity within the company since every employee was motivated towards the production of the best products. In a business set-up, employees can be motivated to work through rewards and punishments. In Jobs’ case, he seemed to have adopted discipline among employees who failed to meet his expectations, and this helped the company in maintaining competence among the workers. Apart from his nature, Job’s leadership traits were significant factors in realizing the company’s objectives.

First, Mr. Jobs was a visionary leader who clearly defined the main aim of the business and trained the employees to embrace it. Being a visionary leader is an essential quality in any leadership journey. Steve Jobs portrayed this quality since he had future speculation of the company’s impact and believed that it would succeed. With his excellent knowledge in design, jobs ensured every employee developed the grand vision of the company, which was based on the quality of products offered (Isaacson, 2012). His visionary character also enabled him to outsource for a highly qualified team to ensure the production of useful products that would attract more consumers around the world.

Furthermore, his visionary character helped him plan for the future of Apple, which he achieved by mobilizing the staff to work towards developing an idea he found would increase the productivity of the company (Dickson, Castaño, Magomaeva, & Den Hartog, 2012). The employees also believed in his future because he presented his ideas clearly and convincingly that would automatically convince the workers towards achieving the intended purpose of the proposed approach. Steve Jobs’s visions for the company were also promoted by his great ability in design and marketing that made the company penetrate the international markets.

Technology is a complicated sector that is also changing a faster rate; hence, it needs continuous research to maintain quality and effectiveness. Steve Jobs had to keep a high-performance streak by ensuring the production of high-quality technology we see today. To achieve this, Jobs had to display a high sense of confidence that inspired the workers in their effort to achieve the organizational goals. He believed in the quality of the Apple products and this contributed to the success of the company (Isaacson, 2012). Additionally, Jobs was adaptable to the company’s changes, a skill that was also determined by his passion for the success of Apple. When he was removed from the company due to his lack of leadership skills, Jobs decided to spend the entire twelve years he was out of Apple, in developing his leadership abilities to meet the company’s requirements. This shows his adaptability that later helped the company in penetrating both national and international markets. Hence, this leadership skill was a significant factor that contributed to the success of the Apple Company under the leadership of Jobs.

Ultimately, Jobs’s effectiveness in his leadership may have resulted from various factors such as passion, great sense of the company’s vision, skills in design and marketing, adaptability, and the ability to control without any sense of charisma. The combination of the mentioned leadership skills, unique nature, and knowledge portrayed by the leader contributed to the success of Apple Company, which is known to be the leading company producing high quality and technology-oriented products.

References

Dickson, M. W., Castaño, N., Magomaeva, A., & Den Hartog, D. N. (2012). Conceptualizing leadership across cultures. Journal of world business, 47(4), 483-492.

Isaacson, W. (2012). The real leadership lessons of Steve Jobs. Harvard business review, 90(4), 92-102.