Steve Jobs Successful Leadership in Apple Company

Introduction

The competitiveness in the world facing organizations require proper strategies to responds to these challenges., However, any change in a firm is not possible if it lacks sufficient leadership skills that embraces change and innovativeness. There are different macroeconomic forces that are influencing running of organization and they are growing stronger as years progress (Kotter, 2012). Effective leadership is an essential element in influencing performance of any organization. A leader enables the employees to share with the vision of their company and this boosts their commitment in their assigned duties (Kotter, 2012). Some of the successful companies in the world have adopted a mechanism of influencing some change in their employees to motivate them and build their creativity. Steve Jobs former CEO of Apple Company shows significant leadership traits that helped the company to grow (Steinwart, & Ziegler, 2014).  The paper focuses on Steve jobs and his leadership capacity in influencing change, innovativeness and competitiveness of Apple Company in the world. 

Fundamentals of Leadership, Leadership Styles and Traits

Successful organizations in the world associate their progress to the style portrayed by their leaders. Transformational leaders form an important asset for organizations that are competitive in the global market. An organization cannot achieve its objectives without concerted efforts of employees and their managers (Achua & Lussier, 2012). Transformational leaders have certain qualities that make them influence change and passion in their employees. One of the characteristics of such leaders is availability of a vision for their company. Steve jobs as a transformational leader had clear vision for his company and this influenced its success in the computer industry (Steinwart & Ziegler, 2014). Steve was able to foresee the changing needs of consumers in the electronics industry and thought on how to respond to such changes.  He was able to see Apple as a company that could rise to be a leading computer company in the world despite its humble beginning. 

Though he grew under adaptive parents and did not have chance to complete college, his vision for excelling in computer production remained (Steinwart & Ziegler, 2014). The vision made it possible for him to get a chance to start Apple company but resigned after a disagreement with management in 1985 (Steinwart & Ziegler, 2014). However, he was able to found NeXT Company that Apple Company bought in 1996 and employed him where he rose to the ranks of a Chief Executive Officer (CEO) (Steinwart & Ziegler, 2014). Through his leadership, the company grew to be a market leader and in 2011 named most valuable company in the world (Steinwart & Ziegler, 2014). Actually, transformational leaders are able to articulate ideal vision for their companies. The leaders ensure that their vision is able to rally and uplift followers to share a common purpose (Achua & Lussier, 2012). The impact is focusing on the same objective by the management and the employees who feel the need to utilize their capacity to enable the vision to come to a reality. 

Transformational leaders further possess idealized influence on their followers through some inherent symbolic power that attracts their subordinates (Achua & Lussier, 2012). Apple Company under Steve leadership experienced this influence where there was evident emotional attachment from the employees. Indeed, through the style of leadership, the leader was able to infuse employees with idealism characteristic that boosted their commitment to their organization. Additionally, leadership that was able to inspire motivation on employees influences their overall productivity (Steinwart & Ziegler, 2014). The leader was also able to communicate with precision the idealistic vision to their followers without enforcing his status quo on them. Structured conversation by Steve Jobs helped employees in Apple Company to prepare and tackle challenging organizational goals (Steinwart & Ziegler, 2014). 

Through individual consideration, transformational leaders take the role of mentoring their followers. The leaders identify the developmental needs of individual’ employees and help them exploit their potential (Achua & Lussier, 2012). As a leader, Steve offered individualized exchanges with the employees making them develop their self-worth. Through intellectual stimulation, Steve encouraged innovation among the employees to ensure that they brought new ideas that would help develop their company (Steinwart & Ziegler, 2014). Stimulation of intellectual capacity of employees makes them willing to share their thoughts and ideas with their leaders. The resultant is capacity of employees to exploit their talents in responding to needs of their customers and exceeding such expectorations (Achua & Lussier, 2012).

Emotional Intelligence

Emotional intelligence involves the capacity of individuals to handle their feeling and attitudes towards others (Bradberry & Greaves, 2009). The capacity helps employees and leaders to handle their disappointments or excitement with soberness. Leaders have to show relatively higher emotional intelligence to their followers in order to influence confidence in them (Steinwart & Ziegler, 2014). Steve Jobs show some significant amount of emotional awareness through his social and personal competence in his work. Personal competence allows Steve Jobs to portray traits such as self-awareness that makes it possible to exploit his skill in leading Apple to become leader in computer industry (Steinwart & Ziegler, 2014). Further, through self-management skills, Steve is able t interact with employees and correct them whenever they make mistakes in work. He understands that the approach a leaders uses towards the employees may reinforce on decline their capacity. Emotional intelligence enables effective leaders to manage their behaviors whenever they are upset (Bradberry & Greaves, 2009). The situation reduces incidences of conflict between leaders and followers. Further, it helps lower chances of developing fear in employees, which has potential to lower their effectiveness in their work. 

Social awareness is important in understanding how different employees respond to changing environment especially when faced with new demands. As a leader, it is important to help employees boost their emotional intelligence through giving them an opportunity to open about their concerns. However, social awareness unachievable if there is no proper understanding and self-management of leaders (Bradberry & Greaves, 2009). Leaders require remaining composed when responding to people and situations to ensure they enhance the confidence of their followers. Failing to have emotional intelligence has potential to cause fear to employees and this paralysis their thinking and decision-making. Steve Jobs while working for Apple showed higher emotional intelligence through exploring different option when faced with uncertainty (Steinwart & Ziegler, 2014). The result was development of a positive feeling and selecting best action when presented by different choices.  Actually, emotional intelligence plays a significant role in influencing leaders to halt their personal needs and instead hold changes that support organizational growth (Bradberry & Greaves, 2009). Leaders who have high emotional intelligence are also able to be proactive thus avoid unnecessary situations of reacting to situations (Bradberry & Greaves, 2009). Steve Jobs understood emotions of the employees and helped them tackle their personal problems that could limit their performance. 

Managing Change

Change is inevitable for any organization that hopes to keep with the competition in the market where different alternatives products are present. However, change is achievable when a leader establishes urgency in his employees (Kotter, 2012). The leader must ensure that he makes the employees understand the need for change and their role in enhancing this change. During such transformation, it is the responsibility of the leader to foresee possible obstacles and provide solutions in advance. When Steve got the job as the CEO Of Apple Company, he brought different changes such as development of iPhones. He further introduced change through simplifying how things operated in the company (Faas, 2011). The move formed a leadership hallmark that marks his successful tenure in Apple. During his tenure, he was able to introduce product matrix that matched the changing needs of consumers. Through his initiative, Job introduced consumer notebooks, consumer desktop, pro book and pro desktop (Faas, 2011).  However, he did not achieve this alone but through engaging other employees especially the development teams that were the brainpower of the company. 

Good leaders understand that changes are prone to facing some resistance at the beginning and therefore create methods to overcome them in advance. It is the role of a leader to create significant urgency and conviction to the employees on need to embrace certain changes (Kotter, 2012). Leaders who fail to identify this reality suffer from frustration when the employees ignore their ideas. It is therefore necessary to make employees aware of importance of different changes in the organization.  Indeed, effective leaders do not emphasize their status quo to their followers but consider their importance in implementing change. Steve Jobs approach to change in Apple is notable through the way he built confidence in employees about their ability to bring new ideas to their company (Faas, 2011). Through the method, Steve was able to reduce issues of anxiety that builds on employees when they face compulsory changes. Ensuring that employees feel the urgency to change enable them remain focused on their assigned roles and this boosts overall productivity of a firm. Steve established that emphasis of bureaucratic structure was limiting communication between the employees and the management. Steve proposed need for flat structure that brought close workers and their managers thus enhancing sharing of ideas to make Apple successful (Faas, 2011).  

Additionally, Steve jobs supported teamwork in the organization by recognizing each person as an important contributor to growth of their company. Through personal commitment, Steve was able to establish teams and assigned team leaders to direct the efforts of all employees to a specific goal. An effective leader has charisma and this helps in influencing employees to embrace changes that help achieve organization objective (Kotter, 2012). The role of Steve as a role model for employees made it possible for the company to reengineer new products that boosted its competitiveness in the market. Through strong leadership, Steve was able to influence dedication in his employees and this enhanced synergy for the company (Faas, 2011).  Apple enjoyed agility in its operations and this allowed easier embrace of technology that match with the changing dynamics in the electronics markets in the world. 

Strategic Planning

In achieving growth in an organization, strategic planning plays a significant roller of ensuring that there is mobilization of different resources in the firm. However, mobilizing human workforce requires leaders to have a strategy that shows them the required results. Further, the leader needs to give the employees a space to use their skills to accomplish that goal (Lewis, 2003).  Understanding the characteristic of a workforce is the first step in ensuring achieving of different goals in an organization. A leader sets the goals for the employees and through strategic planning provides gradual steps towards achieving that objective. Steve Jobs capability in embracing project management tools helped Apple to come up with new software (Kimbrell, 2014). The company has significantly utilized schedule of releasing software updates annually to enable users efficiently use their computer devices. However, the first step in this strategy is through creation of a structure where employees understand their role in meeting customer needs. Through his leadership, Steve was able to instill the culture of strategic planning where all employees meet before the onset of any new project (Kimbrell, 2014). The move makes it possible for workers to avoid redundancy and time wastage in the workplace. 

Through strategic planning, a leader further ensure that he gets the right people suited to carry out different responsibilities in the organization. A leader knows that, without a reliable workforce achieving any objective of a firm remains a dream (Lewis, 2003). Apple Company understands this phenomenon and knows that poor fit in the job gives poor quality products to the products. The result is possible declining demand of such products by consumers. Steve Jobs ensures that during hiring process he gets best team that share with the vision of the company (Kimbrell, 2014). Job looks into potential employees who have capacity to understand company needs. The company identifies that understanding employees are able to remain focused on set goals and ask relevant questions whenever they are u ensure of something. The resultant is reduction in unnecessary errors that occurs from workers who are relatively incompetent in their duties. Actually, skilled workers allow leader to offer facilitation without need to use commanding approach (Lewis, 2003). 

Apple Company further understands that strategic planning requires challenging existing process as they seek opportunities to serve the market better. According to Lewis (2003), organizations that challenge their processes are able to embrace experiments that help boosts their products. Indeed, the organizations understand that the preferences of consumers are changing and there is need to respond to such changes. Steve Job challenges employees to take risks in trying new things and this works as a motivation to the workers (Kimbrell, 2014). The inspiration supports the strategy of the organization to remain a market leader in the industry. However, such inspiration is not possible without first understanding every employee’ goals and what could hinder such accomplishment. Offering timeline for different goals is also appropriate and allows the leader to carry constant checks to verify the progress of entire team. 

Problem Management and Decision-Making

The interaction of people within an organization as they strive to meet expectation of their employer has potential to bring problems. Ignoring of problems that arise during project management can result to losses to an organization (Project Management Institute, 2017). It is the role of a leader to ensure he avoids problems to ensure that creation of unique services or products is possible. Uncertainties occur during project implementation but a leader provides solutions ensuring that such limitation do not affect the progress of the organization (Project Management Institute, 2017). According to Davenport (2011), Steve Jobs ability to identify problems and solve them in time contributed to development of unique products such as iPhone. Different technology reviewers praise Steve for his determination and enthusiasm in ensuring that new features were available to phones despite different challenges during the projects. Steve ensured that he identified causes of any problem and provided a solution that was long lasting (Davenport, 2011). The impact is ability of the company to survive amidst changing technological advancement. Indeed, the company remains a leader in phone related technology in the world. 

Concerning decision-making, Steve jobs was strict in ensuring that employees followed his decision even if they were not agreeing with them. Actually, he ensured that workers gave no excuses for not accomplishing their assigned duties (Davenport, 2011). Though some employees saw the approach as dictatorial, it helped in ensuring the company registered best results during his reign. Steve was tough and did not condone mendacity in any of his employees and this build a culture of responsibility for all the workers in the organization.  Additionally, Steve made decision to have his employees challenge him in areas they felt he was doing wrong. Project Management Institute, (2017) identifies that decision of leaders to engage their employees during various steps of project management from initiation to closing influences better results. The engagement allows the employees to be conversant with their role in monitoring project and communicating any control needs to their leaders.

Conclusion

Effective leadership is an important element in influencing the performance of an organization in the competitive market in the world. Steve Jobs transformational leadership in Apple made the company rise to become a leader in computer and phone industry in the world. Through his style of leadership, he was able to inspire vision in his employees to focus on the main goal of their company. However, in achieving this success, Steve had high emotional intelligence thus able to control his behavior and understated emotions of his employees. He further inspired his employees to embrace change through guiding them on their specific roles within the organization. The approach ensured that he did not face resistance from the workers in his attempt to introduce different changes. Through strategic planning, he was able to foresee consumer needs in future and supported employees to come up with products such as iPhones to match these preferences. Concerning problems in the organization, Steve offered workable solutions in time and this boosted confidence of workers in him. He further made strict decision of challenging workers to give their best to the company and never allowed mediocrity in his teams. Indeed, through Steve leadership, Apple Company remains a recognized company and a brand in the world. 

References

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Davenport, T. H. (2011). Was Steve Jobs a Good Decision-Maker? Harvard Business Review. Retrieved January 24, 2019, from: https://hbr.org/2011/10/was-steve-jobs-a-good-decision

Faas, R. (2011). How Steve Jobs Changed Apple. Retrieved January 24, 2019, from: https://www.computerworld.com/article/2510820/it-management/how-steve-jobs-changed-apple—.html

Kimbrell, G. (2014). Four Project Management Lessons You Can Learn From Software Engineers. Forbes. Retrieved January 24, 2019, from: https://www.forbes.com/sites/theyec/2014/01/31/four-project-management-lessons-you-can-learn-from-software-engineers/#55c0f6d82a8c

Kotter, J. P. (2012). Leading Change. Boston: Harvard Business School Press. 

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Lussier, R.N & Achua, C.F. (2012). Leadership: Theory, application, & skill development (5th Ed.). Mason, OH: South-Western Cengage Learning

Project Management Institute (2017). A guide to the project management body of knowledge (PMBOK Guide, 6th Ed.) Newtown Square, PA: Project Management Institute, Inc. 

Steinwart, M. C. & Ziegler, J. A. (2014). Remembering Apple CEO Steve Jobs as a “Transformational Leader”: Implications for Pedagogy. Journal of Leadership Education, 1(1), 52-66