After reading the article ''The real Leadership lessons of Steve Jobs'' by Walter Issacson I have made a conclusion that Steve Jobs was using transformational leadership . Transformational leaders exhibit strong set of internal values-effective at motivating followers to act in a way that support the greater good rather than their own self-interests. (Kuhnert, 1994) The strong evidene that he was using this theory because oof his ''manipulative'' behaviour he is considered by some of his employees as autocratic.His behaviour in meetings for instance is described as being rude,authoritative and obnoxious and his rules were: Focus, simplify, take responsibility end to end,when behind leapfrog,put products before profits, dont be a slave to focus groups,bend reality,impute,push for perfection,Tolerate only ''A'' players,engage face to face,know both big picture and the details, combine the humanities with the sciences,stay hungry stay foolish.
(Isaacson,2012) Meaning a leader has a capacity to do something through talent and skill. Talent is natural ability and skill proficiency gained through training and experience.I know people whose natural leadership ability was close to zero but through training,experience and most of all,persistence,they became great leaders. Leadership empowers,meaning a leader adjusts the state of the surrounding and people. A leader carefully observes those states and discerns significance looking for how to adapt the setting most effectively.
Leadership empower,meaning a leader inspires confidence and slef-esteem. And that inspiration comes in many flavors. Some leaders inspire by bold talk, others by soft talk,and others by their example.There are many ways to empower rather than a single way. Leadership fosters creativity,meaning imaginative use of limited resources. A leader that enables people to use their imagination is a step closer to solving problems faster,better and cheaper.
Leadership is often attributed to a single individual. Its easier to communicate succes stories that way. People like simple stories that contain cause and effect even when they are wrong. The more complex story reinforces that everyone on a team can be a leader. The most succesful teams create chain reactions of leadership.An adaption triggers long chains of further adaptions that ultimately solve seemingly impossible problems.
(Smith,2010) To be a leader also means to be a perfectionist, which means to do every detail of your work perfect,and if we start the work we do it the best or we dont do it at all. According to transformational theory factors which are idealised influence,inspirational motivation,intellectual stimulation and individualised consideration which Steve Jobs used to become such a famous leader,and probably this is why company Apple is so succeful.For any product that Steve Jobs was creating,he wanted it himself. He was also simplifying all the products so the products are to use and have a good quality. All the products are very innovative,because Steve Jobs was a perfectionist and during the development of almost every product he ever created,at certain point ''hit the pause button'' and went back to the drawing board because he felt it wasn't perfect ,which he was correcting.
This is why his second name was Jobs the perfectionist. According to the article Steve Jobs was also using behavioural theory.Behavioural theory is the belief that a leaders rate of success is based on the way in which we behave. Leaders can be made,rather than are born. Succesful leadership is based in definable,learnable behaviour.
Behavioural theories of leadership do not seek inborn traits or capabilities, rather they look at what leaders actually do. If success can be defined in terms of describable actions,then it should be relatively easy for other people to act in the same way. This is easier to teach and learn then to adopt the more ephemeral 'traits' or 'capabilities'.Steve jobs was dictating what needs to be done and expecting cooperation from his team,but in the same time all the responsibility was on him ,and he never gave hope on anyone else, he could make decisions without consulting his team. This style of leadership is considered appropriate when decisions need to be made quickly,when there's no need for input,and when team agreement isn't necessary for a succesful outcome.
(Lewin,1930) Leaders allow the team to provide input before making a decision,altough the degree of input can vary from leader to leader.This style is important when team agreement matters,but it can be difficult to manage when there are lots of different perspectives and ideas. The best leaders are those who can use many different behavioural styles,and choose the right style for each situation. According to executive leadership and ethical culture,it is about reputation-perceptions from a distance of two dimensions that result in four types of reputation possible. Executive must stand out from a thically neutral background in order to be perceived by employees as ''ethical leaders''.
Steve Jobs was using this theory by taking great care to create products and sustain an ethical culture that send a consistent message that is at least as powerful as the ''bottom line'' drumbeat. However Job's had a famous ability to push people to do the impossible things,and work hardest they can,he had a talent to motivate not only him,but everyone around,this is why Apple is one of the most succesful company today. Steve Jobs had a great charisma. He is famed for his ability to give speeches and captivate the audience attention. He is able to captivate his employees and audience with the ability of an evangelist.In this respect we can observe that he posses the charismatic abilities that Dubrin demands by communicating his ideas using metaphors and analogies.
His charisma enables him to whip up the enthusiasm of his employees to achieve more by doing seeminagly impossible tasks,and also convince customers to buy Apple products. In conclusion Jobs personality traits wold not be characterized as the traits of an effective leader. In a way he is far from a classical ''text- book''. Nevertheless his charisma,self-confidence and passion for work overshadow all his negative charateristcs thus making him one of most succesful CEO's of the decade.
