Steve Jobs Leadership Type

What type of Leader was Steve Jobs?

Defining someone in a particular leadership style is difficult to do as we all have different personalitles. Steve Jobs however, has had multiple people as followers. He is a fairly common, some would say, household name. His innate ability to understand human behavior helped him to predict what people desired even before they knew it themselves. His business savvy, negotiation skills, and propensity to take risks enabled him to transform technology into companies that flourished. (Finkle T.A., & Mallin M.L ,2010). Because of this I see Steve Jobs as a Transactional Leader. A Transactional Leader is described as someone who receives certain tasks to perform and provides rewards or punishments to team members based on performance results. Managers and team members set predetermined goals together, and employees agree to follow the direction and leadership of the manager to accomplish those goals. The manager possesses power to review results and train or correct employees when team members fail to meet goals. Employees receive rewards, such as bonuses, when they accomplish goals (Johnson 2015). Clearly since Jobs was said to have known what people wanted before they did, he would know how to drive his employees. In my opinion Jobs was a very driven and focused individual. This is shown by the multiple accomplishments he has had over the years. With the help of a friend he created Apple and helped to create “a viable game that took a high level of technical skill and did it under relatively intense time pressure” (Finkle T.A., & Mallin M.L ,2010). His vision and values definitely reflect in his leadership style. His values were to stay driven and be successful in everything he did. This is clearly shown when Finkle T.A., & Mallin M.L (2010) states that “Jobs did not leave without a plan” and his “ attention to detail, confidence, and controlling personality were his strongest assets”. Jobs clearly shows appreciation for his employess by saying “the reason why his companies have become so successful is because they hire the very best people in the world to work for them” (Morrow, 1995)

Initial Challenges- Strategies and Implementation

Creating a building a company from the ground up with or without a friend is going to be a difficult task to complete. However, Jobs set out to do just this. He faced multiple challenges including his rival with Microsoft. He also seemed to face struggles with others in his company who thought him to be overbearing. He was thought to be a “control freak, egomaniac, and fearsome tyrant, (Deutschman, 2000).  Jobs’ strategy to make the company work was to be involved in all facets of the company and control what was being output with his companies name on it. The implementation seemed to momentarily fail when those under him felt micromanaged and there was a clash of egos and a dispute about the power structure of the company. This was with then CEO John Sculley. (Finkle T.A., & Mallin M.L ,2010). To be a successful leader according to Bolden (2014) you must have technical skills, interpersonal skills, and decision making skills. All of these Jobs seemed to possess which eventually made him out to be the successful man he is.

Drivers for Change

Another reason Jobs was so successful was due to the multiple drivers of change in the industry. Change was driven by the need to increase shareholders wealth as well as competitions success. Finkle T.A., & Mallin M.L.(2010) state that Japan's cellular phone market already is inundated with high performance smart phones that rival the iPhone. This is just one of Apple’s products that need to continuously be changed and bettered in order to stay a leader in the industry. The company itself since taking Jobs back on as CEO after just one year was able to announce and profit of $106 million. This was such a large improvement from the $1.6 Billion it suffered in losses in the previous 17 months. (Finkle T.A., & Mallin M.L ,2010). The last driver of change, some may argue is the most important, was the continue to keep employess in the positions. Without continuous growth in a company, increasing the wealth of the shareholders, the company would not be able to retain the employees. Jobs had made a statement to his employees during the recession stating that “While hundreds of companies are firing employees, we have no intention of doing so.”

Partnerships and Collaborations

Throughout what seems like his entire career, Jobs has had quite a few partnerships. One in particular stands out to me as a huge crutch in his success. Steve Wozniak was a co-worker of Jobs. They met while working at HP together; Jobs was there for a summer position. (Finkle T.A., & Mallin M.L ,2010).  These two worked together through multiple careers including Jobs career at Atari. They eventually went on to create Apple together. While working with Apple Jobs collaborated with Microsoft to add products such as word and excel to Mac computers. This was a huge boost in success for his company as well as Microsoft. Another collaboration was between Pixar; where Jobs was owner; and Disney. (Finkle T.A., & Mallin M.L ,2010).  By using these partnerships and collaborations he was able to show value and make both parties more successful.