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I have chosen ‘Steve Jobs’ as my leader for the “Leadership Analysis” that I would be doing throughout this course. Steve Jobs was born on February 24th, 1955 in San Francisco, California. His biological parents gave him up for adoption and he was adopted by Paul and Clara jobs. Steve Jobs grew up in a neighborhood (Santa Clara County) that was full of engineers and budding entrepreneurs in the field of technology. Even though poor, his father’s love for machines and electronics and the neighborhood influenced Jobs in a big way to take up his career in the fast-paced and ever-changing field of technology.
Talking about his leadership roles, Jobs is known for his roles as Founder, Co-founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the companies that he either founded or led. In 1976, at the age of just 21, Steve jobs Co-founded “Apple” in his family garage with his close friend and partner Steve Wozniak. It was just the start of many big things to come in the years. Together he and Wozniak designed the Apple I and Apple II which became very popular among computer enthusiasts and generated enough revenue for them to work on the improvements of design and features of the existing Apple models. They later came up with Apple III and Lisa which were not that big of a hit. In 1984, Jobs was instrumental in designing the new Macintosh which had a first-of-its-kind Graphical User Interface (GUI) and a mouse that contributed to a smooth user experience. But it failed to attract customers due to its expensive price tag and a faulty marketing strategy which subsequently led to his exit from his own company, Apple.
After leaving Apple In 1985, he founded a hardware and software enterprise called NeXT Computer Co, which aimed at revolutionizing research and higher education. A year later he bought the animation company from George Lucas, which went on to become popularly known as “Pixar Animation Studios”. In 1997, Jobs sold NeXT to Apple and rejoined as its interim CEO. For over a decade or so Jobs was instrumental in revolutionizing the technology industry by sphere-heading the design and introduction of a number of consumer electronics products such as iMac, iPod, iTunes, Macbook, iPhone and finally iPad in 2010.
In 2003, Jobs was diagnosed of Pancreatic Cancer but refused to undergo surgery. He finally underwent surgery in 2004 after postponing it for 9 months. Unfortunately, his health problems resurfaced in 2009 and Jobs finally passed away on October 5th, 2011, after fighting cancer for almost a decade. Even though Jobs is largely considered as successful man, his success did not come without failures, numerous hurdles, and a lot of hard work. Steve experienced many ups and downs in his career but his “never give up” attitude always pushed him to succeed in life. As a result, he is today considered as one of the most successful leaders and businessmen of this century.
Since my childhood days, I have always been fascinated by technology and gadgets. Whenever I see an electronic gadget, I am curious to learn about its intricacies. I spend most of my free time researching and browsing the internet to learn more about present-day technology and the technological advancements which has happened over a period of time and its future. And, as a Business Systems Analyst, my work is also in the field of information technology. We build technological products for large enterprises. Hence, I am naturally inclined and interested in knowing more about the people who have largely contributed to the advancement of science and technology. And, Steve Jobs is one such person who was not responsible for the revolution of one industry but many in his own way.
Many Scholars, Educationists, Researchers, and CEOs have been fascinated by the leadership of Steve Jobs. They have tried to decode his secret of success in many ways and talk about him and his achievements even after years after his death. On a personal front, Jobs did not receive any care from his biological parents and was adopted by a poor family. This turned out to be a blessing in disguise for him as his association with his adopted father was a major influence in his life.
His success story is a great example of “living an American dream”. His rise and fall through ups and downs in his career symbolizes the entrepreneurial spirit. Right from starting his venture in a garage to becoming a celebrated CEO of one of America’s most valuable companies, his story is remarkable. His career involved being fired due to a power struggle and rehired by the same company that he founded tells us lot about his persistence and perseverance, a necessary traits of a true leader. Even after being thrown out of his company he did not stop but instead emerged as an innovator and leader by starting new ventures and becoming a successful entrepreneur. His out-of-the-box thinking attitude with a vision to seamlessly integrate technologies from several industries proved a master stroke.
I would not be exaggerating when I say that he simplified our lives. He realized his dream of seeing a computer in the hands of every common man. His passion to succeed and lead from the front is a lesson for every want to be a leader. Hence I have chosen Steve Jobs to learn more about his leadership. It gives me an opportunity to know more about him, his strengths and weaknesses and his leadership style. I am confident enough that this would turn out as a great learning exercise for me.
What preliminary comprehensive sources have you found to support your weekly research? In other words, do you have sufficient materials and references to continue to assess and analyze this person and his/her leadership style, traits and behaviors throughout this course?
Since Steve Jobs is hailed as one of the most successful leaders and innovators of the 20th century, many have written and talked about him over the years and continue do so. Research scholars have also conducted studies and have done a comprehensive analysis of his leadership traits and styles. A lot of information is available about Steve Jobs’s personal and professional life in the form of books, biographies, newspaper articles, journals and blogs. People have also made movies on his life. Hence, I do believe that I have sufficient materials and references to study and do a thorough analysis of his leadership style, traits, etc. throughout the course.
Steve Jobs exhibited a number of leadership traits and behavior which are discussed and talked about every day. He was one of the finest leaders of his time. “Leadership is the influencing process of leaders and followers to achieve organizational objectives through change” (Leadership: Theory, Application and Skill Development, 2009, P. 6). Steve Jobs was a true leader. He was always seen as a person who would influence his colleagues, subordinates and even his rivals with his innovative ideas. He once said, “People with passion can change the world” and he is the best example for it. He exhibited the following leadership traits – passionate, perfectionist, charismatic, persuasive, inspiring, open-minded, free-spirited, intuitive, and change agent, etc.
In 1997, Jobs became the interim CEO of Apple at a time when the company was incurring huge losses due to a lack of innovation and vision. He understood the need for change and decided to restructure the management. Due to his ability to analyze a situation, he brought about numerous changes in the company; replaced the board, managed the suppliers and simplified the product line from 50 to 10. This shows one of his most defining characteristics/trait of taking charge and being a change agent in the organization. When assessed by the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), Steve Jobs mostly belongs to the ENTJ type (extraversion, intuition, thinking, judgment), one who possesses qualities such as vision, planning, taking charge, speaking heartily, and having qualities of a natural leader (Daft, 2011, p 124)
Steve Jobs always came across as an effective and strategic thinker. His ability to think through a problem and come up with an effective solution could be seen throughout his career. By using his strategic thinking skills he was able to turn around the fortune of Apple. In 2007, he realized that Apple had to come up with something unique to take on his rivals. He decided to diversify and expand the product line and came up with idea of the iPhone. It was a revolutionary product that addressed a number of problems of consumers. Till then people used different products to browse the internet, listen to music, and make phone calls and exchange messages or emails. His idea to integrate all these features in one product called iPhone proved to be brilliant. Apple sold millions of iPhones and became a Cash Cow.
It was possible due to his ability to think strategically. In this case, he exhibited his ability of system thinking. He saw iPhone as a whole product that comprises of a variety of elements to delight the customer. The individual elements were integrated to provide a beautiful experience. Similarly, he understood other aspects of strategic thinking such as creative thinking, critical thinking, thinking in time and ethical thinking and used them effectively. As a result, he not only saved the organization from the brink of bankruptcy but made sure that it is the most valuable tech company in the world.
In terms of emotional intelligence, Steve Jobs exhibited both highs and lows of EI. On a positive note he was highly motivated and motivating others too by getting them excited about the end goal. He was an optimist and looked at success and failure the same way. He was self-aware and believed in his ability to bounce back after failures. The decisions made by him were well-planned and thought out. But on the other hand, he was not empathetic toward his employees. Even though he encouraged them to be creative and allowed them take risks, he was too aggressive and mocked them when they did something he didn’t believe in. He was so obsessed with perfection and innovation that he did not hesitate to fire people when something was wrong. Similarly, his ability to control his emotions was also low. He was very frustrated and upset after getting fired and was unable to recognize his triggers or reaction patterns on many occasions. There was definitely lot of room for improvement when it came to emotional intelligence.
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