Apple

Posted: September 3rd, 2013

Apple

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1.         Steve Jobs can be regarded to as a new paradigm leader. This is because his leadership techniques were fluid. The old paradigm of leadership would solely rely on rationality as the basis for decision-making. Steve jobs, on the other hand, integrated both rationality and intuition. While running NeXt, he trusted his intuitions. Although everyone else was talking about its failure, Jobs was still hopeful about its ability to pick up.

He also chose to embrace relevant and appropriate technology in his work. He spent millions to build a state of the art factory for NeXt. It should also be noted that Steve Jobs was not just keen on quantity. He had a significant focus on the quality of a product. He insisted on the aesthetics of his products. Old paradigm leaders are known for pushing for numbers without putting major emphasis on the quality of the products.

2.         Steve Jobs’ new paradigm of leadership helped and hurt him. His ability to focus on the quality of products gave Apple an edge above the rest. The iPhones recorded exceptionally high sales due to their aesthetics. The iPhone also demonstrates his ability of embracing new ideas of merging Apple with a mobile company. This was an idea that his competitors had not thought of, and it earned Apple a lot of respect. On the other side, relying on his intuition made Jobs lose a lot of money through financing NeXt that ended up failing.

3.         A leader innovates while a manager does administrative work. The leader is known to develop a particular concept while the manager maintains it. Most of the times, leaders will challenge the status quo while managers tend to fight to maintain it. Steve Jobs was a leader. Steve Jobs co-founded Apple, but he had to hire people to help him manage and maintain the idea. Unlike competitors such as Microsoft, he chose to soar above the comfort zone by creating Apple’s very own mobile phone.

4.         Steve Jobs would land on the (9,1) category of the leadership grid. This is because he uses authority compliance in his management. He hardly developed relationships with his colleagues. He believed as authority, those below him should answer to him. He was more concerned with results than creating relationships with individuals.

5.         Self-confidence is the ability of an individual to believe in his capability to achieve whatever he sets his mind to do. Honesty is the trait of being sincere and straightforward in ones dealings. Integrity can be defined as a high level of adherence to ones values. Steve Jobs shows drive when he went ahead and called one of the founders of Hewlett-Packard to talk to him concerning a frequency counter that he was trying to build. Jobs was only twelve years old and managed to engage William Hewlett in a conversation that lasted twenty minutes. He was determined to excel on the filed of technology, and he pushed himself to seek advice from one of the best people in the field of technology.

He shows self-confidence when he rises after being dismissed from Apple, and forms NeXt. He believed that he loved technology and that the dismissal from Apple did not signify the end of his journey in technology. This was in spite of having little support. He was also honest enough to say if he did not like a product. Jobs’ integrity showed throughout his life when he chose to stand by his values. He could not compromise on aspects like the quality of products.

6.         There are five personality dimensions. These dimensions are extraversion, openness, neuroticism, conscientiousness and agreeableness. Steve Jobs’ level of openness can be rated as a five. He easily embraced new ideas like Arnold Ehret’s fruitarian diet and techniques of eliminating mucus from the body in order to keep it healthy. These were not popular ideologies but Job’s ability to broaden his perspective allowed him to embrace the ideas. Jobs was hardly agreeable as he wanted things done his way. He would get a rating of one. He always expressed what he felt and was aggressive in getting what he wanted. I give him a rating of four in extraversion.

7.         His extraversion enabled him to give Apple many innovations that profited the company. These were like the iPhone. Steve Job’s openness allowed him to embrace a wide scope of worldviews. This enables him to achieve successes like the integration of apple and mobile services. His openness also allowed him to buy Pixar and achieve great success form it. Job’s lack of agreeableness sparked a lot of friction between him and his colleagues. This saw a lot of them leave his company.

8.         Emotional intelligence referrers to one’s capacity to recognize manage and assess emotions. Steve Job did not have the ability to master his emotions and those of others. He was highly unpredictable. Many of his colleagues attested to that. This was evident when before a presentation he order for his office table to be brought on the stage. He later asked not to reveal a company’s product that was still not done. Upon hearing this, he refused to do the presentation. Moments later, as the curtains were raising, he was seen on the stage, ready to carry out his presentation.

9.         Steve Jobs mange to see the success of Apple, Pixar and NeXt without having to master emotional intelligence. This called for those working around him have a lot of tolerance. It also maintained a level of pressure that ensured the workers were always on their toes. This maintained a high level of competence. A lot was done to ensure that things were done to Jobs’ expectations.

10.       Some of the principles of stewardship are time, talent, treasure and relationship. Steve Jobs manage to express wise stewardship through the appropriate use of most of these principles. He dedicated his time to his work. This is clear when he left Apple. He did not know his own house because for many years, he had spent most of his time working. This is because he treasured his work. He was utilizing his talent of innovation to come up with creations in Apple.

11.       Steve Jobs did not manage to achieve the ideal of the principles for stewardship. This is because he did not build relationships. Most of those who worked with him respected him for his skill but were indifferent towards him. Jobs main goal was to see the achievement of his desires, even if it meant stepping on other people’s toes. Although he managed to display the other principles as a leader, he failed to build relationships with those around him

12.       Steve Jobs demonstrates a high level of courage in his leadership. He managed to master failure and look at it as an opportunity to learn and start gain. He did not let his dismissal from apple paralyze him and his dreams. Instead, he chose to lift himself from the pit of failure and start NeXt. This signified the beginning of many hurdles and successes. His resilience and determination was exceptional. This has taught me to view failure as a stepping-stone. Life will always come with its failure and success, and I must be ready to embrace the failures as much as I do the successes.

Steve Jobs also committed to a cause. Once he decided to do something, he put all his heart into it. This is demonstrated well when he starts NeXt. Despite discouragement, he gives his all into the company. This included giving his money to see the success of the company. This reminds me that as a leader, I need to committee my all into whatever it is I am working on.

13.       There are various demands that are expected form followers or a workforce. One of these demands is supporting the leader in place. The work force of Steve Jobs supported him to very large extents. This is vivid when he announces his illness to his board members and some of them are hurt to the extent of weeping. This emotional out burst is an expression of attachment and respect. Respect is also another expectation of a follower.

14.       Steve Jobs shows a high ability of not conforming. He truly valued aesthetics in his personal life and products that he created. When Apple was coming up with the Apple II, he made sure that beauty suffused every aspect of the machine. He did not one to conform to the mediocre work that his competitors had been doing. He made sure that the circuits were redone just to achieve straight lines. He made sure that he communicated what he wanted and made sure that it was delivered.

Although it came later on, Steve jobs’ accepted responsibility for his daughter born out of wedlock. After his marriage and his wife giving birth, he took in his daughter. Steve Jobs pushed Apple beyond their comfort zone.

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