Leadership is an important function of management that helps an organization to achieve its objectives. Having an effective and influential leadership style can motivate the workforce to improve its productivity. Steve Jobs has been known for his influential and innovative leadership. With his innovative ideas, he managed to revolutionize the industry.
Summary of Biography (Steve Jobs)
Family
Steve Jobs was born on February 24, 1955, in San Francisco. The biological parents of Steve Jobs were Abdulfattah ‘John’ Jandali and Joanne Carole Schieble. However, it is important to mention that he was adopted by Paul Reinhold and Clara Jobs. He had four children, Lisa Brennan Jobs, Eve Jobs, Erin Siena Jobs, and Reed Jobs from his spouse Laurence Powell.
Education
The youth of Steve Jobs was riddled with frustration regardless of the fact that he was an innovative and intelligent person. He was enrolled at the Reed College in 1972 after passing from the high school. It is important to consider the fact that six months after enrolling in the college, Steve Jobs was dropped out. He dropped out to pursue his interest through a calligraphy course (Sharma & Grant, 2011).
Profession
Steve Jobs started his professional career in 1973 as a technician at Atari Inc. in California. After a significant amount of time, he went to India in order to find spiritual enlightenment. He returned after a period of seven months to create a circuit board in the Atari Inc. Steve Jobs founded Apple Computer Company along with Wozniak in 1976. Initially, that company was formed to create circuit boards. In the meantime, they invented the Apple I computer. Steve Jobs created NeXT Inc. in 1985 due to the difference in opinions with Wozniak. In 1998, Steve Jobs was able to introduce Apple iMac to the world. His brilliant management and leadership skills motivated his employees and colleagues to come up with innovative ideas. It is important to mention that he became Walt Disney Company’s largest shareholder in 2005. He managed to get more than 7 percent stock of that company, which ultimately made him an important board member (Toma & Marinescu, 2013). One of the biggest inventions of his career was launching the iPhone. iPhone provided him with immense fame and popularity that changed the fortune of both Steve and his company. In 2011, he managed to introduce Siri in the iPhone 4S. It was virtual assistance that allowed a consumer to resolve his/her queries through a voice recognition mechanism.
Mentee (Mark Zuckerberg)
It is important to consider the fact that Steve Jobs inspired the majority of people during his professional career. His innovative leadership skills provided other people with inspiration and motivation to come up with new ideas. It is notable to mention that every successful entrepreneur had a mentor or it had been mentees to other entrepreneurs. Steve Jobs inspired a lot of entrepreneurs to establish their own business in the digital world. Steve Jobs even served as a mentor to the co-founder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg. It has been examined that mark Zuckerberg was inspired and counseled by Steve Jobs during the early years of his company to make a successful entrepreneur. In the early years of its launch, Facebook was going through a rough patch, which appeals to many investors and businessmen to buy the company. Steve Jobs provided him with some useful advice to reconnect with the mission of the company. After the death of Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg thanked him in a social media post by stating “Steve, thank you for being a mentor and a friend. Thanks for showing that what you build can change the world.”
Transformational Leadership Theory
Principals
It has been observed and analyzed that Steve Jobs believed in the transformational leadership style as it provided the employees with inspiration and motivation. There are four main principals of the transformational leadership theory including inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, idealized influence, and individualized consideration. Followers of transformational leadership theory are usually inspired and motivated with a common objective. They tend to fulfill the mission, values, and vision of a company (Mulla & Krishnan, 2019). As a leader, these individuals help workers to understand that the task they engaged in is valuable for them as well as for the organization. Furthermore, the transformational leadership style is well known to change the status quo (Dorfman et al., 2012). If they observe that a specific idea of the company is not good enough for the company, then there are more likely to introduce new ideas that contain mutual benefits for both the company and employees. Like a transformational leadership style, Steve Jobs also did not hesitate to discard a status quo for the mutual benefit of the organization. Intellectual stimulation was one of the most inspiring factors in the leadership style of Steve Jobs as it set employees up for success. It motivates employees to be creative and innovative to approach problems in order to produce better solutions.
Idealized influence is another prominent principle in the transformational leadership style that influences employees to adopt various principles that are set forth by a leader (Sharma & Grant, 2011). The idealized influence of Steve Jobs allowed him to inspire the majority of his employees to adopt the ethical principles that are set forth by him. It is necessary to understand the fact that Steve Jobs’ interaction with employees had a significant impact on them which influenced these employees to consider him as his role model. Moreover, individualized consideration is also an important principle of the transformational leadership theory. It is notable to mention that Steve Jobs focused a lot on the concept of recognition. He believed that an organization can only work effectively and efficiently if its leaders are able to recognize the true talent within that organization. Steve Jobs recognized the skills of each person, which allowed him to motivate them to encourage their success. The concept of recognition allowed Steve Jobs to motivate individuals so that they can create opportunities for them.
Components of a Transformational Leader
A critical examination of the components of a transformational leader is effective to determine various qualities that are required to be successful in an organization. Transformational leaders have a significant quality of inspiration and motivation that allows them to encourage their employees to increase their productivity. It is notable to mention that Steve Jobs had the ability to change the behavior of his employees through inspiration and motivation. He was always able to create a vision for his followers and employees to emulate their actions. The concept of self-efficacy is one of the most important aspects that allow a leader to motivate his employees that they can go beyond expectations (Busse, 2014). It is necessary to understand the fact that transformational leaders such as Steve Jobs usually relied on charisma. Steve jobs influenced his workforce through charisma, which is described as a social authority to change the behavior and character of the individual. Instead of his role and position, Steve Jobs modifies the behavior and character of his team members through his legitimacy and social authority. The social instincts of Steve Jobs are considered a positive force that helped him to mobilize Apple Inc. He focused on deviation management and corrective action to increase the profitability of his organization. Deviation management of Steve Jobs allowed him to recognize the valuable talent from his workforce so encourage them to meet upon the performance standards. A critical examination of Steve Jobs’ leadership styles illustrated that he presented himself as a positive role model regardless of hierarchy. Even his tenure in other organizations, he tried to connect with his colleagues and employees regardless of hierarchy. Steve Jobs had the ability to increase the performance of his team members to elevate the effectiveness of the organization. Through appropriate motivation and constructive criticism, Steve Jobs managed to increase the performance of his employees.
Behavioral Traits of a Genius
Steve Jobs happens to be an inspiration for many people in the tech world. Behavioral traits of a person describe all about his actions, words, habits, and thoughts (House & Aditya, 1997). A critical examination of the life and leadership style of Steve Jobs illustrated that he fostered certain values such as honesty, justice, equality, human rights, fairness, and loyalty. Due to his impressive behavioral traits, he was able to inspire the vision of the organization's future. He successfully motivated individuals to enhance their productivity to contribute to the success of the organization. Social interaction with colleagues and employees encouraged others to develop a culture of collaboration in the organization. It is the core responsibility of a transformational leader to bring out the best in teams and individuals. The same was the case with Steve Jobs as he established a positive working environment in the organization through his various behavioral instincts. Transformational leadership has the ability to foster higher moral maturity in others. Being a positive role model for his entire organization, Steve Jobs managed to foster an interdependent work relationship that helped enhance the moral maturity of his team members.
Burns on Transformational Leadership (James MacGregor Burns 1978)
According to Burns (1978), “transforming leadership occurs when leaders engage with followers in such a way that leaders and followers raise one another to higher levels of motivation and morality”. Therefore, it is important to understand that the crucial task of transformational leaders is to engage in such ethical activities that allow them to raise the awareness of their followers towards a significantly high standard. A critical examination of Burns idea on the transformational leadership style indicates that a transformational leader always thrives for excellence. It is important to mention that the transformational leadership of Steve Jobs allowed him to seek changes in the existing thoughts and status quo. His ability to seek innovative ideas and techniques allowed him to contribute towards the greater good. The transformational leadership style of Steve Jobs has high expectations with employees; therefore, they always try to inspire their employees to reach their goals. Leaders are well aware of the fact that increased motivation levels of employees are of utmost importance for the organization. Consequently, they managed to inspire and motivate people to deliver the vision for collective good.
Ethics and Values
Wok habits
A critical examination of the works ethics and habits of Steve Jobs is highly important to understand the reasons behind his successful career. It has been observed that Steve Jobs had always shown persistence in every task. Steve Jobs persisted by returning to rescue Apple Company in 1997, which proved to be effective as it helped Apple Inc. to grow into one of the most significant companies. He always focused to embrace innovation (Allio, 2013). For instance, Steve Jobs observed the commercial potential in the mouse, which attracted his attention. He embraced innovation and use it for this first computer, which proved to be highly effective. Furthermore, Steve Jobs always paid attention to aesthetics to establish a potential emotional connection between the customer and the product. One of the most important work habits of Steve Jobs was to seek the opportunity to change the lives of individuals. With his innovative ideas and personal instincts, Steve Jobs managed to revolutionize the American industry.
Wealth position
At the time of his death, Steve Jobs was worth billions. The estimated worth of Steve Jobs at the time of his death was nearly 10.2 billion dollars.
Social Responsibility
It is notable to indicate that socially responsible leadership has a responsibility to develop a socially responsible company. It is the responsibility of a leader to consider the impact of his/her activities on employees and customers (Waters & Bird, 1987). Steve Jobs always tried to evaluate the potential pros and cons of his innovative ideas before implementing them. Complying with the interest of employees and customers was the first priority of Steve Jobs. These priorities helped Steve Jobs to comply with corporate social responsibilities in an effective manner.
Critical Cultural Theory
World Viewpoint
The basic purpose of the critical cultural theory is to change society as a whole through careful examination. Instead of only explaining or understanding society, a critical cultural theory emphasizes on critiquing and modifying a specific society. The unconventional leadership style of Steve Jobs helped him to spot areas of improvement. He always carefully examined the entire situation and tried to come up with a possible to mitigate a problem. A critical assessment of the current state helped him to establish potential solutions to overcome that issue. Analyzing the need for the entire world regarding technology, he made innovative decisions.
The Misfits Stance
A critical examination of the Misfits Stance by Steve Jobs demonstrates that one can never ignore criticism. Whenever someone comes up with new ideas and thoughts, people usually shot him down with destructive criticism. Steve Jobs tried to inspire people that they can do whatever they want. He motivates people that if they are smart enough to come up with new ideas, then they are more likely to change the world.
Apple INC. Organization
Failures vs. Successes
Steve Jobs stated that “innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.” He was well aware of the fact that innovative ideas are key to become a leader. However, throughout his career, he made certain mistakes. The first failure of Steve Jobs can be reflected through the Apple III computer. Apple III had stability issues which resulted in design overhaul. In the Apple Inc. organization, Steve Jobs was known for his intense perfectionism. In his early years in Apple Inc., he fired many talented employees without hesitation when they did not provide immediate conforming to his design aesthetics (Finkle & Mallin, 2010). Due to such reasons, he had to leave that organization in 1985. However, he managed to temper his obsession with control. Steve Jobs faced the task of reconstructing Apple Inc. in 1997 as it was on the verge of bankruptcy. He releases iMac in 1998 in order to streamline the company’s focus and to drop costly projects. It proved to be effective as Apple Inc. managed to sell approximately 800,000 unties of iMac at the very beginning of its launch. After that, Steve Jobs provided with an idea of creating Apple's App Store and iTunes, which increased the profitability of the organization.
Adhocracy Organization Culture
The success of Apple Inc. is highly associated with its cultural and organizational structure. Steve Jobs established a positive working culture where employees and leaders collaborate with each other to enhance their productivity. He managed to develop a corporate culture in Apple Inc. to support certain strategic objectives in order to increase profitability. Steve Jobs’ drive for innovation was accomplished by aligning it with the cultural traits of the company.
Conclusion
In a nutshell, Steve Jobs’ influential and innovative leadership style provided him the opportunity to become a successful leader. The unconventional leadership style of Steve Jobs inspired and motivate individuals to enhance their productivity for the collective benefit. Steve jobs embraced his failures and tried to fix them through effective decision-making skills.
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