The Leadership Legacy of Steve Jobs

The leadership qualities of Steve Jobs, co-founder and CEO of Apple Inc., are analyzed and evaluated as a legendary figure and inspiration to many upcoming leaders. His achievements have significant consequences, and his leadership abilities brought changes in various industries, including computers, animation, cell phones, music, video games, and publishing. Jobs' leadership was characterized by empowering and clarifying communication, passionate advocacy for vision, and confidence in decision-making. His ability to shut down existing projects and turn things around for the betterment of the organization is a testament to his quality as a leader.

Running Head: LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT
1
USE OF UNIVERSITY LIBRARY
Name
Institution

LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT
2
Over the past few decades multinational organizations performing in the international
market is driven by growth, success and significant achievements. It has been critically reviewed
that in such a competitive market organizations needs to strategically implement prolific plans
and diversified ways that enables them to operate specifically and attain success. Implementation
of quality strategies, prolific working environment, organizational culture, efficient employees,
and teamwork are the key factors that enable an organization to attain its objectives (Ang, 2012).
Apart from the mentioned key factors one factor that is equally important for an organization to
attain its objectives is quality leadership. An effective leadership quality within the management
of the organization can bring fruitful outcomes. It has been strategically reviewed by researchers
that a quality leader leading from the front in an organization helps in achieving the goals or
objectives of the organization quickly and efficiently. It should be taken into consideration that
leaders are not born but made (Atwater, Penn & Rucker, 2011). Therefore taking this legitimate
fact into consideration it should be understood that the role of a leader is not only to lead a team
or a group to achieve the goals of an organization but to specifically provide effective help to its
team members and lead from the front to attain not only organizational goals but also individual
goals.
Leadership is defined as the ability of an organization’s management to set and achieve
the challenging objectives, take decisive and swift action, and inspire other members to perform
well. It is leadership that provides correct direction to an organization and it is the role of a
quality leader to direct the employees of the organization to which direction they must be
heading to ultimately reach the destination. It is the quality of an effective leader in ascertaining
the employees and workers to effectively perform the responsibilities and supervising for
completing the desired tasks. With such emphasis given on leadership and its prolific attributes a

LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT
3
major example of a quality leader that sets the standard of effective leadership is Steve Jobs
(Atwater, Penn & Rucker, 20111). Steve Jobs is still remembered today for his tremendous
impact in the technological industry by his leadership skills, strong character and exhibiting
trustworthiness, honesty and integrity. The leadership style of Steve Jobs had quite a significant
impact on his founded organization Apple Inc along with the entire economy. Steve Jobs being a
legendary figure, an entrepreneur and a leader with a unique charisma and leadership qualities
have set a standard that have inspired many people and national leaders. According to Ron
Johnson, who lead Apple’s retail group from the time of its inception stated that there were some
traits that was observed by him in Steve Jobs that made him unique and different from various
other business leaders. He explained that the first and the most important thing that he noticed
was Steve Jobs knew significant things and also knew that he didn’t know many things
(Chapparamani & Jyothi, 2011). Being grown up in the industry of technology Steve Jobs gained
much experience at a tender age and whenever he faced any issues or challenges he never used to
set back hovering on the challengers he instead took significant measures and discussed things to
overcome them. This made Steve Jobs a unique personality explaining that he never termed
himself to be boss. Despite being quite knowledgeable he was quite enthusiastic in learning more
and used to discuss circumstances with the various persons. This depth of Steve Jobs helped him
in gaining much experience which led him to understand the significant limits of his own
capabilities.
Analyzing the key theories of leadership, it can be reviewed that Steve Jobs prolifically
focused his attention on the situation he operated. As explained by Fred Fiedler in his
contingency theory of leadership, leadership effectives solely depends on how a leader is
significantly focused on the relationships or tasks and to what extent a leader influences and

LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT
4
controls a group (Chiu, 2010). This significant theory of Fred Fiedler could be summed up by the
leadership approach Steve Jobs Perceived. Despite of having focus on relationships at workplace
with the fellow employees, Steve Jobs gave importance to the tasks. Thus, it can be said Steve
Jobs was much of a task oriented leader. To explain the scenario, the marketing leader Steve
Wilhite mentioned that no one ever felt being micromanaged in the workplace. He states that he
along with his team always felt that they had the attention of the CEO i.e. Steve Jobs. He was
quite eager in sharing opinions and ideas and was able to be swayed by someone’s passionate
argument. Steve Jobs possessed a trait of being focused on the task. He was quite concerned of
getting a task done properly ("Forbes Welcome", 2017). In some cases where the task was his
priority he didn’t take any consideration of feelings any relationships of the employees. This
specific trait of Steve Jobs made him gain potential advantages of his leadership style. This style
of him led him to take significant decisions quickly and this subjected to have a rigorous control
over this subordinates where the final objective mattered the most. Steve Jobs gave much
emphasis to the work efficiency level by improvising the human relations by allowing the
subordinates to participate during decisional development and promotion of mutual support. He
used to take account of the employees mood in certain circumstances. One of the basic qualities
that Jobs was quite prolific in was to exert pressure on his control over every significant aspect
for achieving perfection. According to the New York Times, Steve Jobs within a course of one
year rejected two significant prototypes of iPhone before feeling satisfied with the third and
eventually accepting it (Kamm, 2011). In an investigation done within the workplace of Apple
Inc the leadership quality of Steve Jobs was analyzed. Fortune Magazine claimed that Steve Jobs
even had significant control over the design of the organization’s bus as well as the food that is
served at the cafeteria. Further in an interview conducted with the former employees of Apple

LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT
5
Inc it was reviewed that Steve Jobs was quite strict about the organizational culture. As per the
interview it was known that Jobs encouraged the organizational culture of strict accountability at
all organization level. This was basically done followed by a meeting every week with the
executives to evaluate and analyze the specific targets or tone of the week. Jobs, himself ran a
very prolific and strict program about the meetings and reviewed each and every product
individually under development. This quality of leadership i.e. leading from the front amazed
many subordinates and executives ("Leadership Qualities of Steve Jobs | Achieve Iconic", 2017).
The eagerness of Steve Jobs in participating in every circumstance even when it felt that he
won’t be able to possibly participate was something that an effective leader should possess.
Wilhite, the marketing leader of Apple explained “Jobs use to effectively manage time and use to
participate when everybody felt that he won’t be able to”. This critically explains that Jobs were
not just a leader but also a team player who was eager enough to participate in every situation
and give much importance to every tiny bit of the task.
Another unique quality that sets Jobs leadership quality apart from all other leaders was
his dedication. Jobs use to spend whole day and night with the designing team in the design
studio to work on the physicality of any product that the organization is working on. Jony Ive the
designer of Apple Inc stated that Jobs use to work on every single curve of a product or the
perceptible quality of the product button to give a perfect shape to the product (Ojo, 2011). This
is something that hardly any CEO of any organization would get involved into. Point that needs
to be noted here that he never use to dictate Jony the designer. It was his interest and eagerness
that ked to participate in any development. Being a CEO, Steve Jobs never use to order anyone
or any agency to do something. He basically use to get involved in all situations because he
loved to express his opinions analyze others opinions and engage into a debate. The eagerness

LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT
6
and interest of Jobs in discussions and expressing in opinions always led to something better.
Jobs being the ultimate decision maker, he used to get involved in the process to understand the
basic motive. Steve Jobs always used to get involved with all levels of employees of different
levels for gaining significant approvals and opinions from different people (Pach, 2012). He
never used to term anybody superior or inferior in the workplace while taking suggestions or
evaluating certain developmental factors. Another key aspect that personified the quality of Job’s
leadership quality was when he returned to Apple Inc after ten long years. During this period,
Apple Inc was going through significant adversaries and the leading from the front charisma of
jobs was missing. The huge losses incurred by Apple Inc critically explained the need for
change. Steve Jobs after coming back to his position applied significant strategies and sought
help from Bill Gates. Steve Jobs started organizing all positions and departments leading from
the front and improved the position of the organization. The critical and decisive actions
implemented by Steve Jobs helped Apple Inc to get revived to its original state. The introduction
of first iPod in 2001 with an innovative surface acted as a catalyst and Apple finally got back his
goodwill and strengthened all its position in the industry (PANAIT, 2017). It was the tactical
move by Steve Jobs and the revolution he brought made Apple Inc greatest once again. Followed
by the iPod, the announcement of iPhone significantly brought major revolution in the cellular
industry. The success of the product and the leadership of Jobs made Apple the most reputed
organizations in the world. Steve Jobs is one of those leaders who believed in simplicity and he
used to significantly support simplicity as the only way of any battle ("The Real Leadership
Lessons of Steve Jobs", 2017). He used to take and lead the charge and use to take prolific
measures defending all the complexities which are quite important as a quality being a leader. In
terms of communication Steve Jobs handled it by empowering and clarifying. Being a leader he

LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT
7
ascertained the clarifying is the most effective tool that leads to simplification and resolving any
form of queries (Sadler, 2013). As a leader Jobs had the passionate advocacy for the vision he
perceived. He used to stick to his vision and ethics that led him to achieve all the objectives
making Apple Inc a successful and world renowned organization. Jobs decision on implementing
new strategy by shutting down an existing project “Newton” prolifically provides in depth
analysis about the quality of his leadership ability and the confidence he had within himself to
turn around things for the betterment of the organization. Despite being away from Apple Inc for
ten long years he was able to make his leadership abilities make the difference after he came
back (Sharma & Grant, 2011).
Analyzing and evaluating the leadership qualities of Steve Jobs it should be noted that he
is indeed a legendary figure and a major example and an inspiration to many upcoming leaders.
The achievements of Jobs have significant consequences and it is next to impossible to evaluate
them all. Change is something every industry or organization craves for but its always not
possible to implement it (Steinwart & Ziegler, 2014). Jobs himself brought significant changes in
various industries like computers, animation, cell phones, music, video games and publishing
etc. Steve Jobs was a multi talented person. He was an accomplished motivator, scholar, super
showman and a strategist. But most importantly he was a talented leader who fell down many
times during his pinnacle of success but he never backed out. Today Steve Jobs is remembered
because of his contribution to the field of technological industry and the leadership qualities he
possessed (Storch Rudall, 2012). According to Bill Gates, “The world would never be able to see
someone like Steve Jobs who has such massive impact and the after effects of this legendary man
will be felt in the upcoming many generations to come” (These traits made Steve Jobs a smart
leader, 2017)

LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT
8
References
Ang, E. (2012). Leadership Qualities. SSRN Electronic Journal.
http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2012969
Atwater, L., Penn, R., & Rucker, L. (2011). Personal Qualities of Charismatic
Leaders. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 12(2), 7-10.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/01437739110143330
Chapparamani, D., & Jyothi, P. (2011). Review of Literature on Leadership and Leadership
Qualities. Indian Journal Of Applied Research, 4(2), 7-9.
http://dx.doi.org/10.15373/2249555x/feb2014/169
Chiu, E. (2010). Essential qualities and tasks of leadership. Asia-Pacific Psychiatry, 2(4), 176-
176. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1758-5872.2010.00087.x
Forbes Welcome. (2017). Forbes.com. Retrieved 13 September 2017, from
https://www.forbes.com/sites/susankalla/2012/04/02/10-leadership-tips-from-steve-jobs/
#6c139f72667f
Kamm, J. (2011). Steve Jobs: The Journey is the Reward. Executive, 5(2), 101-103.
http://dx.doi.org/10.5465/ame.1991.4274695
Leadership Qualities of Steve Jobs | Achieve Iconic. (2017). Achieve Iconic. Retrieved 13
September 2017, from http://achieveiconic.com/leadership/leadership-qualities-of-steve-
jobs
Ojo, M. (2011). Integrity, Respect for Others, and Ethics – Three Essential Leadership
Qualities. SSRN Electronic Journal. http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1822043

LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT
9
Pach, D. (2012). ‘On Steve Jobs’. Oncology Times, 34(2), 10.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/01.cot.0000411533.42231.4c
PANAIT, C. (2017). DEVELOPING LEADERSHIP SKILLS. IDENTIFYING LEADERSHIP
QUALITIES AND ATTRIBUTES. Review Of The Air Force Academy, 15(1), 167-172.
http://dx.doi.org/10.19062/1842-9238.2017.15.1.22
Sadler, S. (2013). Steve Jobs: Architect. Places Journal, (2013).
http://dx.doi.org/10.22269/130312
Sharma, A., & Grant, D. (2011). Narrative, drama and charismatic leadership: The case of
Apple’s Steve Jobs. Leadership, 7(1), 3-26. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1742715010386777
Steinwart, M., & Ziegler, J. (2014). Remembering Apple CEO Steve Jobs as a “Transformational
Leader”. Journal Of Leadership Education, 13(2), 52-66.
http://dx.doi.org/10.12806/v13/i2/rf3
Storch Rudall, Y. (2012). Steve Jobs: The Exclusive Biography20122Walter Isaacson. Steve
Jobs: The Exclusive Biography. Little Brown, 2012. £25 656 pp.
9781408703748. Kybernetes, 41(7/8), 1160-1161.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/k.2012.41.7_8.1160.2
The Real Leadership Lessons of Steve Jobs. (2017). Harvard Business Review. Retrieved 13
September 2017, from https://hbr.org/2012/04/the-real-leadership-lessons-of-steve-jobs
These traits made Steve Jobs a smart leader, a. (2017). These traits made Steve Jobs a smart
leader, according to his right-hand man. Business Insider. Retrieved 13 September 2017,

LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT
10
from http://www.businessinsider.com/why-steve-jobs-was-such-a-smart-leader-2016-6?
IR=T
.

LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT
11