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Steve Jobs’ Life And Leadership Qualities
“Steven Paul Jobs was born in San Francisco, California, 24th February 1955, and put up for adoption.” (https://howlingpixel.com/i-en/NeXT) “As an infant, Jobs was adopted by Clara and Paul Jobs and named Steven Paul Jobs. Clara worked as an accountant, and Paul was a Coast Guard veteran and machinist.” (https://www.biography.com/business-figure/steve-jobs) “Jobs is an American business industrialist, entrepreneur, industrial designer, investor, and media proprietor. He attended Reed College in 1972 before dropping out that same year and traveled to India in 1974, seeking enlightenment and studying Zen Buddhism.” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Jobs)
“While Jobs was always an intelligent and innovative thinker, his youth was riddled with frustrations over formal schooling. Jobs was a prankster in elementary school due to boredom, and his fourth-grade teacher needed to bribe him to study. Jobs tested so well, however, that overseers wanted to skip him ahead to high school, a suggestion that his parents declined. After high school, Jobs enrolled at Reed College in Portland, Oregon. Lacking direction, he dropped out of college after six months and spent the next 18 months dropping in on creative classes at the school. Jobs later narrated how one course in scribble developed his love of typography. In 1974, Jobs took a position as a video game designer with Atari. Several months later, he left the company to find spiritual insight in India, traveling further and trialing with psychedelic drugs.” (Biography.com – Steve Jobs Playlist, 2019).
Based upon your research and what you have read about the trait approach, what personality characteristics does this leader display that made him/her a successful leader? Provide at least TWO behavioral examples to support your position. In other words, provide two examples of your leader behaving (doing not saying) in a way consistent with the point you are making. Your examples of what your leader did are critical to your analysis. (20 points)
There are certain traits that Steve Jobs had that guided him to the ways of success. One of these traits he possessed is being passionate in whatever work he involved himself with. “He believed that his passion drove his perseverance and his ability to keep working no matter what challenges were in his way.” (achieveiconic.com). And through this passion, he was able to come front with an astonishing invention that leads the market. In the field of business, Jobs also showed enthusiasm to work his project and pushed for innovations across all areas of the business field (Himmel, 2013).
These business traits can be seen when Steve jobs first started his works in his father’s garage. Helping his father in fixing electronics gave him the passion for engaging in innovation to find ways of making technology more understandable to man. Jobs had to drop out of his college studies to pursue what he wanted in life (Himmel, 2013). He was more of a self-boss oriented individual and looked for ways that he could develop his company into something bigger. Despite his challenges in life, this didn’t prevent him from focusing on his dreams but gave him the passion for striving into making a name for himself. Throughout his time in business, he was enthusiastic about coming up with products that could sharpen the future and assist in making life simpler (Himmel, 2013). His invention sees this of the graphical UI system that did away with using commands in establishing operations in computers. This approach was accepted and made more sales than the expected amount.
Being business-oriented, Steve Jobs was more focused on making quality products for his customers to get the maximum sales in the company. He leads the company to focus on the demands of the customers and looking for better ways in which the company could come up with products that were never expected in the business market (Himmel, 2013). For a start, he developed a blue box that made it easy for his customers to communicate internationally. This equipment was able to make sales due to its convenience to the usage of customers at that ancient time when telephones were not easy to access. He further came up with the Mackintosh computer that was able to support Graphical UI, which made computers user-friendly and hence increase the sales of computers at that time, making more profits than other computer manufacturing companies like IBM.
Based upon your research and what you have read about the behavioral approach, does this leader focus more on task performance or more on group maintenance? Provide at least TWO behavioral examples to support your position. In other words, provide two examples of your leader behaving (doing not saying) in a way consistent with the point you are making. Your examples of what your leader did are critical to your analysis. (20 points)
Jobs focused on task performance. His focus in business was seen when his share was bought off Apple. Steve never gave up in the computer business. He went and founded another tech company that made the next-generation computer. Just like the name, NeXT these computers were designed in making computers user-friendly and efficient for customer usage. Since his primary focus was on both business and computers. He perfected in his work that made the business competition stiff in the laptop manufacturing market that Apple had no other choice but to buy back Jobs into the company for an increase in sales and innovation (Michael, 2019). This return to Apple was after Steve had made more business moves like acquiring Pixar, an animation production company that was currently on demand at that moment. All these factors considered lead to one noticing Steve as an opportunist that did not let any business opportunity slip off his ways.
Another behavior that was evident from Steve’s work is consistency in which no matter the company he worked in, Steve was always consistent in capturing the attention of his customers and hence was able to succeed in the business field. This consistency is seen in Jobs companies leading in almost all areas. Pixar, a company that he acquired while it was still at its tender age, grew to become one of the largest animation company in the USA with Steve Jobs spearheading the program. NeXT was a new company in the market and through the leadership of Steve became the biggest competitor to other big companies in the computer technology market. Through consistency, the company that Steve had laid down is now the largest tech company making sales of up to two billion a year in the current tech market that is now filled with many competitors as compared to when the company started (Michael, 2019).
Based upon your research and what you have read about the path-goal theory, what type of leadership style or combination of styles does this leader practice — directive, supportive, participative, or achievement-oriented? Provide at least TWO examples to support your position. In other words, provide two examples of your leader behaving (doing not saying) in a way consistent with the point you are making. Your examples of what your leader did are critical to your analysis. (20 points)
Based on the path-goal theory, Steve jobs had a participative leadership style, and this leadership style can be evident with his involvement in coming up with these technologies that set trades in the business market. In the first months of the company founding, Steve was seen in the team that was in charge of coming up with the new technologies, and he contributed highly with the ideas to which the company could develop to get the customer demands well sorted (Michael, 2019). The participation was also seen when Steve stood by the company even in its downfalls and also helped in securing the reputation of the company by coming up with technological inventions that revived the Apple name. This instance was seen when Apple, with the aid of Steve jobs, develop an iPod that was able to make maximum sales upon the release of the product. (Michael, 2019).
Another leadership strategy that Steve had was achievement-orientation. The first achievement was the invention of the Apple computers. This achievement is well known in the business market since it reflects his sacrifices and endurance and that is what led him into the path to success (Michael, 2019). As the founder of NeXT computers, Jobs was known for creating stiff competition for the company he had developed. His achievements did not stop there. He was then known to be the founder of smartphones where through his leadership, Apple was able to come up with the first touch screen mobile phones that were so revolutionary in the mobile phone market (Michael, 2019).
Why do you feel this individual was/is an effective leader? Provide at least TWO behavioral examples to support your positions. In other words, provide two examples of your leader behaving (doing not saying) in a way consistent with the point you are making. Your examples of what your leader did are critical to your analysis. (10 points)
Steve’s leadership seemed to be useful since it is through his leadership that the company was able to make names for itself and come up with inventions that have moved the business of computers and technology to another level. One of the effective leadership strategies that can be seen is the ability to control a large team towards the way of success. Jobs was able to control and correctly manage Apple and its individuals into leadership ways and maintaining the quality of services in the company.
His effectiveness is seen in how he was a tactical thinker in the line of business, making quick and advance moves in the company’s operations. In cases which another company had posed a competitive business environment, he would look for a smart solution. An example was when Nokia had made advance moves into the mobile phone market. Apple was able to produce a phone that was a significant deal-breaker and game-changer in the mobile phone market and increased the sales of the company at large. These tactical strategies were effective in most of the organization operations, and the company still uses some of these tactical strategies, even in his absence.
In what ways do you feel the individual’s leadership could be improved. (5 points)
Gifted with many business and leadership skills, it can be challenging to understand what Steve jobs lacked for the success of the company. But the most acceptable leadership skill that Jobs could adopt is family support. As a leader, Jobs was so focused on his work that he started neglecting his family and focusing on his work only. As a leader, he should have learned to balance his work and family.
References
- Biography.com – Steve Jobs Playlist. (2019). Retrieved 25 November 2019, from https://www.biography.com/video/steve-jobs-playlist-5327672838001
- Himmel, R. (2013, April 8). What Personality Traits Made Steve Jobs Successful? Retrieved from https://www.entrepreneur.com/answer/226410
- Michael, M. (2019, April 24). Steve Jobs’ Leadership Style: 10 Leadership Traits and Lessons (2019). Retrieved from http://www.leadershipgeeks.com/steve-jobs-leadership-style/
- Steve Jobs – Wikipedia. (n.d.). Retrieved November 25, 2019, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Jobs
- https://achieveiconic.com/success/four-defining-steve-jobs-personality-traits
- https://howlingpixel.com/i-en/NeXT
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