An Anomaly in Business Leadership free essay sample

Jobs also co-founded and served as chief executive of Pixar Animation Studios; he became a member of the board of directors of The Walt Disney Company in 2006, when Disney acquired Pixar. Steve Job’s Career and Route to Success In 1972, Steve Jobs dropped out of Reed College in Portland, Oregon at the age of 17. He spent several years traveling in India (dabbling in spiritual attainment and Zen) and working at Atari before founding Apple Computer with Steve Wozniak in 1976. In 1980, Apple Computer became a publicly traded corporation and in 1983, Jobs persuaded John Sculley from Pepsi-Cola to join and run Apple as the CEO. The first commercially successful computer with a graphical user interface from Apple was called the Macintosh, and was launched in 1984. Unfortunately for Jobs, The computer industry hit a sales slump in 1984, and Apple was forced to conduct significant layoffs. The stress of the situation strained Job’s relationship with other Apple executives and in May 1985, after an internal power struggle, he was stripped of his duties by John Sculley (Apple CEO, 1983 1993) and ousted from Apple. Jobs went on to found NeXT Computer later in 1985, which was also in the business of developing and commercializing computers. The company struggled to thrive when their expensive computers failed to fit mainstream wallets and needs. NeXT eventually transitioned into a software-only company. In 1986, Jobs co-founded (with Edwin Catmull) Pixar, which became very famous and successful nearly a decade later with the breakthrough feature movie Toy Story. In 1996, Apple bought NeXT for $402 million, bringing Jobs back to the company he founded. He became Apple’s Interim CEO in 1997, upon the departure of Gil Amelio (Apple CEO, 1996 1997). The â€Å"Interim† was dropped from his title in 2000 and he officially became the CEO of Apple Inc. The company subsequently branched out, with the iPod portable music player, iTunes digital music software, and the iTunes Store, bringing revolutionary changes to the consumer electronics and music distribution industry, including the iPhone in 2007. In 2003, Jobs was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. According to Jobs biographer, Walter Isaacson, he initially treated with unproven alternative methods like vegan diet, acupuncture, herbal remedies, juice fasts and bowel cleansings. The alternative treatments did not work, and he was forced to announce a six-month leave of absence in 2009 to undergo a liver transplant. Job’s health continued to deteriorate, and in 2011, Jobs resigned as CEO of Apple but remained with the company as chairman of the companys board. He continued to work for Apple until the day before his death six weeks later. Steve Jobs died at his California home around 3pm on October 5, 2011. Personality Profile â€Å"Steve Jobs is a good example of a person suffering from egocentric narcissistic personality disorder† (Nadler, Relly, 2012). The positive side of productive narcissists is their charismatic and visionary leadership, and ability to give a fresh stimulus to cultural development. The negative side is their intense competitiveness, lack of respect and a strong tendency to damage the established state of affairs. Steve Job’s personality is notable for explosive and vicious temper, obsession with aesthetics over practicality, manipulative wiles, and his famous compulsive perfectionism. Despite these outstanding flaws, the good side of Jobs is as remarkable as the bad. He is extremely charismatic, brilliant, and engaging when not threatened, and a remarkable leader with seemingly limitless energy, leading with strong vision. Many people admire him, if sometimes grudgingly. At the same time the people whom he crosses invariable become mortal enemies. According to the Myers-Briggs type indicator, Steve Jobs is an INTJ (introversion, intuition, thinking, judgment) type personality. According to the Keirsey Temperament Sorter, â€Å"INTJ personalities are one of the rarest of the sixteen personality types, and account for about 1–4% of the population† (Keirsey, David, 1998). According to David Keirsey, INTJs live in the world of ideas and strategic planning. They value intelligence, knowledge, and competence, and typically have high standards in these regards, which they continuously strive to fulfill. To a somewhat lesser extent, they have similar expectations of others. They spend a lot of time inside their own minds, and may have little interest in the other peoples thoughts or feelings. They focus their energy on observing the world, and generating ideas and possibilities. Their mind constantly gathers information and makes associations about it. They are tremendously insightful and usually are very quick to understand new ideas. However, their primary interest is not understanding a concept, but rather applying that concept in a useful way. Other people may have a difficult time understanding an INTJ. They may see them as aloof and reserved. Indeed, the INTJ is not overly demonstrative of their affections, and is likely to not give as much praise or positive support as others may need or desire. That doesnt mean that he or she doesnt truly have affection or regard for others, they simply do not typically feel the need to express it. The above mentioned personality traits can be seen to fit extremely well into many of Steve Job’s actions in his professional life and the myriad stories of how he interacts with the people around him. ? Analysis of His Management Style Steve Job’s management style was harsh and mercurial. His style tends toward throwing temper tantrums and humiliating employees in public. And he has a habit of making decisions, then suddenly changing his mind. Senior management had to endure his temper tantrums often and he created resentment among employees by turning some into stars and insulting others, often reducing them to tears. He is known to winnow out those not smart and psychologically strong enough with harsh methods. For example, he demanded repeatedly that the product design team produce a music player where you can access any piece of music within three clicks, something seemingly impossible at the time. When they came up with a solution, they were told that their solution was shit. A few days later, Jobs took their solution and suggested it back to them. Despite the demanding corporate culture highlighted above, turnover was low. Jobs was a passionate advocate for his vision and incredibly effective at communicating this to shareholders, customers and staff. According to a headhunter who has worked extensively with Apple to hire engineers, It is a happy place in that it has true believers and People join and stay because they believe in the mission of the company, even if they arent personally happy (Lashinsky, Adam, 2011). This is because, at the core of all the turmoil that his leadership style causes, Steve Jobs is a Transformational Leader. According to Bernard M. Bass, transformational leadership can be defined based on the impact that it has on followers. Transformational leaders, Bass suggested, garner trust, respect and admiration from their followers. Bass also suggested that there were four different components of transformational leadership: 1. Intellectual Stimulation – Transformational leaders not only challenge the status quo; they also encourage creativity among followers. The leader encourages followers to explore new ways of doing things and new opportunities to learn. We can see from Steve Job’s behavior that he does indeed have this effect on his followers, although it can be argued that he often forces rather than encourages creativity. 2. Individualized Consideration – Transformational leadership also involves offering support and encouragement to individual followers. In order to foster supportive relationships, transformational leaders keep lines of communication open so that followers feel free to share ideas and so that leaders can offer direct recognition of each followers unique contributions. This is a trait many would say Steve Jobs clearly lacks. However, there is evidence (from interviews with Michael Dhuey, Lead Designer of the Mackintosh II iPod, Venturebeat Magazine, 25 Aug 2011) that Jobs does cultivate closed groups of highly capable individuals with whom he has stable, friendly and amicable relationships. These groups often form the core design teams of his visionary products. 3. Inspirational Motivation – Transformational leaders have a clear vision that they are able to articulate to followers. These leaders are also able to help followers experience the same passion and motivation to fulfill these goals. This is a hallmark of Steve Job’s leadership and is abundantly evident across all his achievements. 4. Idealized Influence – The transformational leader serves as a role model for followers. Because followers trust and respect the leader, they emulate this individual and internalize his or her ideals. It is said that Jobs is more than a brand he is a personality cult. He was certainly a role model for many people in his organization (else they would have been fired before long). This was mentioned earlier in the statements by the headhunter (Happy place true believers). There is another school of thought that the difference in vision and creativity between Steve Jobs and other business leaders was his spirituality – an aspect that has never been discussed extensively. It is never mentioned in conventional management, MBA courses or anything of the sort, but some believe that Steve Jobs had a strong spiritual side to his personality makeup. According to Amanda Andrews (Steve Jobs, Apple’s iGod: Profile, The Daily Telegraph 2009), he travelled to India in mid-1974 to visit Neem Karoli Baba at his Kainchi Ashram in search of spiritual enlightenment. He stayed in India for 7 months, and returned to the US with his head shaved and wearing traditional Indian clothing. He also became a serious practitioner of Zen Buddhism, engaged in lengthy meditation retreats at the Tassajara Zen Mountain Center, the oldest Soto Zen monastery in the US. He considered taking up monastic residence at Eihei-Ji in Japan, and maintained a lifelong appreciation for Zen. Jobs would later say that people around him who did not share his countercultural roots could not fully relate to his thinking. Steve Jobs has always been considered an anomaly in management; his leadership style was something to admire or to criticize, but definitely not to replicate. He did not fit into the frameworks of business textbooks: there was orthodox management, and then there was Steve Jobs† (Verganti, Roberto, 2011). Conclusion Steve Job’s business and technology accomplishments should serve as a great inspiration. As Bill Gates wrote, â€Å"The world rarely sees someone who has had the profound impact Steve has had, the effects of which will be felt for many generations to come. However, don’t allow Steve Job’s success to lure you into adopting (or accepting) his unique management style. Practiced anywhere else, his style would be an instant recipe for alienating coworkers and stoking workplace discontent. He was Steve Jobs, and you are not. Nor am I, unfortunately. Despite Job’s obvious success at Apple, the company’s growth is not due to Jobs alone. The media typically creates an impression that Jobs is the only one who does anything at Apple, but one man doesn’t run the whole company. It can be argued that the company recognized and leveraged his amazing strengths while tolerating his undesirable attributes. But when all is said, it was his sheer genius combined with his ability to articulate his vision and bring staff, investors and customers along on the journey plus the lessons learned in a major career setback that made it work. The results: indisputable.