Believe it or not Steve Jobs wasn’t a computer genius. He was just someone who knew how to be a success in the business world. Steve Jobs the CEO of Apple was a man of great knowledge. He knew what people wanted without even interacting with them. Jobs had a great mind when it came to hiring employees that he could trust to run and operate his company even when he was gone. This allowed Steve Jobs to start Pixar and NeXt, which were both very successful. Pixar was acquired by Disney and NeXt by his own Apple Computers Inc. Under Steve Jobs Apple Inc. became a force in the technological business world.
The two main lessons of leadership that Steve Jobs lives by are Persistence and Innovation. Jobs say you must never give up in whatever you do in life. If you want it bad enough it will happen and you will succeed. There will be obstacles that you face but you must overcome those to be a success. Steve Jobs gives me the confidence if I work hard and keep at it I will eventually accomplish my goals no matter how big or small they are. You also must think critically and be innovative to move up in this world. You must apply ideas to the mission you seek in life.
Do you believe you have what it takes to be the next Steve Jobs? Why or why not?
How did Steve Jobs know what people wanted? Through these four secrets of innovation: Put a Dent in the Universe, Sell Dreams Not Products, Say No to 1,000 Things, and Create Insanely Great Experiences. It wasn’t through interaction with the customer. You might think that this is strange but true. The best focus group one can have according to Jobs is your employees in your company. “We figure out what we want.” No customer really knows what they want. The customer just knows they want something better. Steve Jobs relies a lot on the people he hires. They must be creative and be able to think critically. There are a billion of things to do with technology. You must stay focused on certain things you must not say yes to everything. This is what allows Apple to be very good at the technological advances they provide. Most people want to know what they can do with the product there going to buy therefore apple shows them.
Steve Jobs has his own way of being a leader and it worked for him. There are numerous ways in which one can be a successful leader. If there is only one thing that I could take from Steve Jobs it would be that he believes in his own way of doing things and knows how to say no to people. In a position of authority you must have the ability and strength to say no to people. This may be a hard thing to do but if you learn this skill it will be helpful to you as a leader. You should listen to other people’s thoughts and feelings but don’t feel obligated to put their ideas into action if it doesn’t suit your overall mission.
Do you have a leader in your life? If so what kind of leader would you consider them?
If you work in a job currently would you consider your boss a leader? Why or why not?
Posted by: Mitchell Terry
I completely agree with you, Mitch, about the key fact to pull away from this blog, pertaining to Steve Jobs' leadership qualities, is that he believes in his own way of doing business and knows how to say no to people. This evidently means that Steve Jobs is willing to actively listen to all ideas presented to him, but only narrows his decision making to those ideas which will benefit Apple's long term strategic plan. I believe Jobs must practice participative leadership by actively listening to all ideas in the booming sector of technology Apple finds itself in because ideas are the basis for innovation. Through innovation Apple can separate itself from competition and truly satisfy Jobs' four secrets of putting a dent in the universe, sell dreams not products, say no to 1,000 things, and create insanely great experiences. In addition, I think that following this leadership style Jobs’ has provoked inspirational motivation and intellectual stimulation in his employee’s minds.
ReplyDeleteA leader which I find inspirational is actually the former CEO, and creator of Apple's main competitor in the technology sector being Microsoft's Bill Gates. I do not want to go into too much detail about Bill Gates, because my next blog post is going to be about him, but he has the natural leadership charisma that Jobs’ has portrayed. However, I believe Gates has gone one step further than Jobs’ as he literally quit his job as CEO of Microsoft to focus his full effort to his foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Not too often do you hear of CEO’s making it to the top and just quitting their position to dedicate their efforts to help those in need. This practice of philanthropy is almost unheard of in the current business environment we find ourselves in, as this is just one of many reasons Gates has earned my respect as one of the most influential leaders of our time.
-Zach Seibel, Team 1
I agree with your blog post about what it takes to be a leader. Steve Jobs, in my mind, is a true leader and someone people should aspire to be like if they would like to be a leader. The biggest thing I took from this article was how Steve Jobs prides himself on being able to say no. This is not something that is easy to do and I believe being able to do that is a big step in becoming a leader.
ReplyDeleteA leader that I look at to be somewhat of a role model would be Donald Trump. He is someone who has been able to take the retailer market and completely re innovate it to something that has made him lots of money. he has slowly worked his way up and is someone who has a big need for power and achievement.
He has also been a big motivational tool and given tips to aspiring leaders on how to become an effective leader and what motivational tools will help them succeed. I would consider Trump to be somewhat of an unconventional type of leader because he does a lot of his own business techniques and doesn't necessarily run a big group of people. He makes a lot of decisions on his own. he has to be able and think and motivate himself and be able to come up with ideas with a lot less help then what other companies have.
-Brian Cullum Team 7