The Real Leadership Lessons of Steve Jobs

Walter Issacson, the author of Steve Job's autobiography, has an article in the Harvard Business Review in which he discusses the real leadership lessons of Steve Jobs.  Steve Jobs was a very polarizing person and it took a certain kind of person to be able to work with him.  Typically a person that would be an "A" player.  someone who was very sharp, talented, and could stand his/her own ground.

As I continue to read Job's autobiography, I continue to see the varying levels of what made Jobs Jobs.  Steve Jobs is often sited as a person who was out of control, treated people poorly, and was beyond difficult to work with at times.  But as Jobs has stated if he hadn't been that way, if he hadn't rejected meritocracy and didn't push people beyond their limits Apple would not be what it is today.

“Look at the results,” he replied. “These are all smart people I work with, and any of them could get a top job at another place if they were truly feeling brutalized. But they don’t.” Then he paused for a few moments and said, almost wistfully, “And we got some amazing things done.”

 “My passion has been to build an enduring company where people were motivated to make great products. Everything else was secondary. Sure, it was great to make a profit, because that was what allowed you to make great products. But the products, not the profits, were the motivation."

Here are the leadership lessons that Issacson notes in his HBR piece

1. Focus
2. Simplify
3. Take Responsibility end to end
4. When behind, leapfrog
5. Put products before profits
6. Bend reality
7. Impute
8. Push for perfection
9. Tolerate only "A" players
10. Engage face-to-face
11. Know both the big picture and the details
12. Combine the humanities with the sciences
13. Stay hungry, stay foolish