Leadership Analysis Paper

Leadership Analysis Paper

Introduction

The spectrum of entrepreneurial approaches reflects a combination of profit-oriented and social responsibility-oriented perspectives. At one end is the approach where the profit motive eclipses social responsibility, for example Steve Jobs of Apple, Inc. At the other end is the approach that, although profit oriented, accords significant priority to social responsibility, for example, Sir Richard Branson of the Virgin group of companies. Steve Jobs, whose persona was indelibly imprinted on Apple, opined that continuously coming up with great innovative products up to the customers demand will help apple customer to open their wallets for their products. That statement reflected an unswerving commitment to the profit motive where consumerism was a means to an end. The following discussion presents Steve Jobs as an example of a business leader who is strongly profit-oriented, and highlights his leadership tactics, which helped him to become a successful leader. In this paper I have highlighted the leadership style and major business principles of Steve Jobs.

Leadership Style

Steve Jobs' leadership poses an extraordinary challenge for description, judging by the basic categories of leadership as delineated in most business curricula. His leadership is best summed up by the Leadership Editor of Forbes magazine in the article Steve Jobs Broke Every Leadership Rule. Don't Try It Yourself. Jobs displayed charisma, revolutionary vision, and innovative genius, along with a relentless drive for excellence. On the surface these are hallmarks of Transformational leadership. However, his formidable temper led him to berate and eviscerate employees when outcomes did not meet with his expectations. Indeed his deportment was labeled as “tyrannical behavior” Apple was described as a one man show because of the profound degree to which Jobs micromanaged his key employees (Antonakis 2002 pp. 673-704).

Business Principles

Do what you love

Steve Jobs exhorted employees to pursue their endeavors passionately, because “People with passion can change the world for the better”. He found it indispensable in confronting the challenges of leading a creative environment at Apple.

Establish a clear vision to initiate a meaningful change

Steve Jobs advocated a clear and expansive vision to harness the power that passion ignited. Such a vision generated momentum when Jobs and Steve Wozniak co-founded Apple in 1976, and it created the opportunity of a lifetime in 1979. In 1979 Jobs witnessed a demonstration of a crude graphical user interface at Xerox's research facility in California. While the Xerox engineers restricted their perspective of that event to copiers, Jobs intuitively envisioned a much more extended application. He “stole” the idea and with persistence and uncanny innovation crafted the foundations for the success of the line of computer products that eventually established Apple in the upper echelons of technology companies (Yukl 1999 pp. 285-305).

Kick start your brain with creative activity

Steve Jobs was fond of the expression “Creativity is connecting things”. He believed that very diverse experiences were necessary and expressed the view that “the broader one understands of the human experience, the better design we will have.” It has been expressed somewhat apologetically that Jobs did not “steal” ...