Take a Bite of the Apple

Take a Bite of the Apple

I just yesterday finished reading the biography of Steve Jobs written by Walter Isaacson. What an incredible man he was. Steve Jobs was a visionary, a customer advocate, a dreamer, a doer and an inspiration to many. I truly enjoyed learning about him and the history of Apple and I highly recommend this for you to read. His life wasn’t all fun and games, but he sure lived it with purpose.

One thing that many can agree on is that Jobs had a unique leadership style at Apple, Next Computer and Pixar. He was candid and very direct, to put it nicely. Jobs apparently was a one or a zero – he either loved your idea and would call it his own or he hated your idea and would boldly tell you as such. In most companies that sort of attitude and leadership style would lead to dissention and a lack of trust, likely leading to high turnover rates and lawsuits. But not at Apple.

The Apple employees working for Jobs loved working for him. They were inspired by his involvement and his interest in their work. Yes, some days he would tell them they weren’t worth crap. But they respected him for that approach. It also didn’t hurt that most times Jobs was right!

Here is a short excerpt from the last chapter of the book wherein Jobs is reflecting on his career and leadership style. At this point he is very ill and is sharing what he believes in his leadership legacy:

“I don’t think I run roughshod over people, but if something sucks, I tell people to their face. It’s my job to be honest. I know what I’m talking about, and I usually turn out to be right. That’s the culture I tried to create. We are brutally honest with each other, and anyone can tell me they think I am full of s*** and I can tell them the same. And we’ve had some rip-roaring arguments, where we are yelling at each other, and it’s some of the best times I’ve ever had. I feel totally comfortable saying “Ron, that store looks like s***” in front of everyone else. Or I might say “God, we really screwed up the engineering on this” in front of the person that’s responsible. That’s the ante for being in the room: You’ve got to be able to be super honest. Maybe there’s a better way, a gentlemen’s club where we all wear ties and speak in this Brahmin language and velvet code-words, but I don’t know that way, because I am middle class from California.

I was hard on people sometimes, probably harder than I needed to be. I remember the time when Reed was six years old, coming home, and I had just fired somebody that day, and I imagined what it was like for that person to tell his family and his young son that he had lost his job. It was hard. But somebody’s got to do it. I figured that it was always my job to make sure that the team was excellent, and if I didn’t do it, nobody was going to do it. You always have to keep pushing to innovate.”

See, here's the thing. Jobs’ leadership style was uniquely effective because of who he was, not totally because of what he was. I don’t completely subscribe to the arcane nature with which he presented himself at times, but there is a lesson to be learned here. And the takeaway is this: as a leader, you are successful because of the attitudes and drive that you inspire in those around you. Success is the result of truly connecting with your team, your family and your friends.

Inspiring people to achieve excellence comes in many forms. Do you know and are you practicing what it is that will make your team successful? And do they know that you know? Steve Jobs was a unique dude – I can relate to that and I like it!!