Download - Steve jobs the unconventional leader
Delhi UniversityMCA-1 Batch(2014)
NEVER GRADUATED from college
DROPPED OUT of Reed College after the first 6
months, stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months
Had no idea what he wanted to do with his life but
TRUSTED HIMSELF
SLEPT ON THE FLOOR in friends' rooms
Returned coke bottles to buy food
Walked 7 miles across town every Sunday night to
get one good meal at the Hare Krishna temple
Started dropping in the classes that he found interesting
Decided to LEARN CALLIGRAPHY at Reed college
INCORPORATED CALLIGRAPHY IN MACINTOSH
that became the first computer with beautiful typography
Since Windows copied Mac, probably NO COMPUTER
WOULD HAVE HAD TYPOGRAPHY if Steve would not
have
dropped out to follow his interests
Jobs was a TRANSACTIONAL leader
• Influenced employees for strong desire of work and provided them vision.
TASK ORIENTED leader
• More focused on task and organization performance than on people
•Was able to get people to follow him disregarding whether he was liked or not.
ADAPTIVE leader
• Started from leading himself to leading huge company
Considered one of Silicon Valley’s leading EGOMANIACS
• Did not regard the feelings of employees; only listened to their ideas.
• Demanded excellence from his staff and delivered blunt criticisms.
Ensured NO MISTAKES would be made
Believed that LEADERSHIP IS WORK. Knew what
to say no to and what to focus on.
MOTIVATED EMPLOYEES to accomplish more
than they dreamed possible.
Was CONFIDENT OF HIS MANAGEMENT
STYLE and did not conform to traditional business rules
Was a DEMANDING PERFECTIONIST with an
aggressive and demanding personality.
DOING IT
THE JOBS’ WAY
Leadership lessons
Lesson 1: Focus
Jobs was famous for his LASER-LIKE FOCUS
FOCUSED ONLY ON THE PRODUCTS knowing that the
profits would follow.
Larry Page, Google’s co-founder, visited Jobs to ask for
advice.
• Jobs told him to focus on any five products and “get rid of
the rest, because they’re dragging you down”.
• Larry followed his advice
Lesson 2: Conviction
Known for DEMANDING THE IMPOSSIBLE
Made his partner PRODUCE A NEW GAME IN 4 days,
after saying it would take months to do the same
Made an engineer deliver a 28-second time savings who
said it was impossible to shave 10 seconds off the boot
time
Jobs would stare at you blankly and say with unwavering
conviction while demanding the impossible “Get your
mind around it. You can do it”.
Lesson 3: Follow Your Passion
Jobs’ believed
• PASSION was a critical component of success
• the only way to do great work is to LOVE WHAT YOU DO.
• The only way to be truly satisfied was to DO GREAT WORK
Urged everyone to do what they love.
Lesson 4: Vision
Jobs did not tolerate an employee who didn’t share his vision.
DENIED 3 of the 6 ORIGINAL Apple EMPLOYEES stock
As he believed they were no longer critical assets to the
prospering COMPANY’S SUCCESS.
Lesson 5: Hire Creativity
The Apple slogan, “THINK DIFFERENT” was Jobs’
mentality behind hiring people.
Apart from engineers, he hired “ MUSICIANS, POETS,
ARTISANS, ZOOLOGISTS and HISTORIANS who also
happened to be computer scientists.”
“ While some see them as the crazy ones, we see genius.
Because the people who think they are crazy enough to
change the world, are the ones that do.”
Lesson 6: Risk Failure
Jobs didn’t hesitate when it came to
TAKING RISKS.
His RISK-EVERYTHING MENTALITY
that took a small start up in his parent’s
garage and turned it into a multi-
billion dollar company.
Lesson 7: Serve A Purpose
“ Make it great ” , “Is this as great as it could be? ”
were some of Jobs’ many SIGNATURE CATCH
PHRASES
Consumer-focused vision.
He wouldn’t just make it he would MAKE IT GREAT.
Lesson 8: Tenacity
Jobs went back to the drawing board even in the
advanced stages of product development.
NEVER COMPROMISED on consistency of beauty and
quality.
Asked his development teams and engineers to work
nights and weekends to GET THINGS JUST RIGHT.
The iPhone was revamped even after the design was
first approved
Lesson 9: Collaboration
Believed in FACE-TO-FACE collaboration.
The Apple headquarters was designed to ENCOURAGE
CHANCE MEETINGS and maximize person-to-person
encounters.
Wanted people to ENGAGE, INTERACT and
BRAINSTORM informally
THE MESSAGE TO EVERY
LEADER IS THIS:
Identify the distinctive strengths you possess. Find ways to magnifythem and lead with them. They will make you into a truly extraordinary
leader.