Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs once quoted,” I think it's a natural curiosity for people to want to understand where certain traits come from." "But mostly, I'm an environmentalist. I think the way you are raised, your values, and most of your worldview comes from the experiences you had growing up."

The leadership qualities that Jobs has displayed over time are a direct out come of his professional competencies and his personal understanding of his life and surroundings. Before going into the details of his leadership traits that he has shown again and again with or without Apple, let us have a look on his personal life incidents that made him what he is today.

1955Steven Paul Jobs was born on February 24th, 1955. He was adopted by Paul and Clara Jobs, where they lived on 45th avenue in San Francisco. His father was of "imposing demeanor" and before he was a repo man, he was an engine room machinist in the Coast guard. He'd tinker with cars and sell them for a profit.

Steve was a hyperactive child. Somewhere in his childhood, he ingested a bottle of ant poison and had to be brought to the emergency room.

1965Even at 10, Steve's attraction to electronics was becoming obvious to his parents. At one point in his childhood he got a bad shock when jamming a bobby pin into a wall socket.

1970-1971Steve Jobs meets Steve Wozniak through a friend and they bonded quickly over electronics and pranks, Bob Dylan and the Beatles. Woz was the first person Jobs had ever met who knew more about electronics than he did; Woz admired Steve's confidence with people.After reading an article in Esquire about phone wreaking, they begin working on Blue Boxes used to crack codes on the public telephone systems for free calls. Some police found them

trying to make free calls and got suspicious. Woz and Jobs got out of trouble by telling the officers their Blue Box was a music synthesizer.

1972Jobs attends Reed college and drops out after one semester. Jobs and Woz take $3 an hour jobs at the Westgate Mall in San Jose, dressing up as Alice in Wonderland characters.

1973Jobs remains in the Reed college area for 18 months dropping in random classes like calligraphy, which would later impact the typography on Macs.

1974Returned to California and worked at Atari. He just showed up and said he wouldn't leave until they hired him. Back at Atari, Nolan Bushnell asked Jobs to work on a special project that would eventually become the game Break-Out. He made a deal to pay Jobs a certain amount if the machine had less than 40 chips. Woz, who was an expert at such things, helped Jobs complete the design in 48 hours, and Jobs got the bonus. The design was too complex to be manufactured.  In 1985, Woz found out that his friend and partner had shorted him on that bonus, and is rumored to have been so hurt that he cried. When he was confronted at that time, Jobs is said to have repeated that he didn't remember that happening. If Woz had found out earlier, he may have never joined up with Jobs to create Apple.

1976Woz and Jobs start Apple. Mike Markkula is their first investor. Seeing their work, he thinks he can put Apple on the Fortune 500 in 5 years (and he eventually does).

1977Apple Computer becomes a corporation when Mike Markkula and Jobs and Woz sign papers at Mike's house, on January 3rd.

Mike Scott becomes Apple's president, and offends Jobs in two ways: First he awards Woz the position of being Employee #1because his design was instrumental in the company's founding. Jobs would later insert himself as Employee #0. Later, he informs Jobs his body odor is stinking up the office. Jobs begins leaving his mark on Apple's design by hiring Intel's ad agency, Regis McKenna, to redesign the logo to the rainbow-filled Apple, which would be easily recognizable when small, although expensive to reproduce with its many colors. The bite out of its side was a play on the word "byte" and kept it from being confused with a tomato.

Jobs' girlfriend, Chris-Ann Brennan, becomes pregnant, and Steve denies being the father. She refuses to get an abortion and it ends their relationship.

1978May 17th 1978, Jobs' daughter Lisa Nicole is born at the All-One farmhouse in Oregon, near apple orchards. Steve visited and helped name her but still denied paternity. At that time, Steve begins pitching a next generation business machine that will eventually be called the Lisa.

At the first Apple Halloween costume party, Jobs dresses up as Jesus Christ.

1979He starts working on the Lisa project, rumored to be named after his then estranged daughter. 

1980Apple stock goes public. Jobs is worth $217 million by the end of the first day of trading. Jobs' friend and India travel partner Dan Kottke, received no stock at all, despite being employee #11. It is rumored that Jobs denied him stock because he felt betrayed that Kottke offered Chris-Ann a shoulder to cry on after her split with Jobs. Other early employees received little or no stock. Woz, on the other hand, offered stock to many who Apple did not provide for, giving away 1/3 worth of his shares under his Woz plan.

1981Mike Scott leaves post as CEO, unhappy with the job, but happy about the stock. Jobs takes over as president.

The Mac team defines the "reality distortion field" as different from how we describe it today: An engineer would mention an idea to Jobs, who would call it stupid, and weeks later he'd bring it up as his own, knowingly or not.

When the first IBM PC came out, Apple took out a cocky ad in the Wall Street Journal led with the text "Welcome IBM. Seriously." Jobs was quoted as saying that if IBM were to win, there would be a sort of "computer dark ages for about 20 years". Steve also said, "We're going to out-market IBM. We've got our shit together." 20 years later, the heirs of the IBM PC, running Microsoft's Windows, would have over 90% market share.

1983Steve Capps of the Macintosh team hoists a pirate flag above their building. The Lisa team steals it, but it is retrieved and stands for over a year.

"It's better to be a pirate than to join the Navy," said Steve. The Mac project stole more and more technology from the Lisa project, especially after Burrell Smith figured out how to get the same processor as the Lisa, the Moto 68000, into the Mac. Jobs refused to make the two machines code compatible, however.

The Mac initially sells well, but starts to falter in sales because of word of its bugginess and lack of competitive functionality. Jobs' Mac development team starts to discover that they, slaving under the motto of "working 90 hours a week and loving it" were grossly underpaid compared to the Lisa team's staff, and even compared to the junior engineers on the Mac team. Many feel betrayed by Jobs. Bonuses helped alleviate morale problems, but then the profitable Apple II team became resentful of the Mac team's privileges.

1985Jobs and Woz receive the first National Medal of Technology from Ronald Reagan.

Around this time, either before or after it, Jobs discovers that Woz has resigned.

Jobs visits nerd and supermodel Bo Derek to convert her to a Mac user. She was unimpressed with both Jobs and the Mac.

Jobs says in a Playboy magazine interview that he was not happy that he learned, from a video tape he was not supposed to see, that every US nuke operated out of Europe was being aimed using an Apple II. Scully is tipped off by a VP that Jobs will try to unseat him while Scully attends a a trip to China. When confronted, Jobs says, "I think you're bad for Apple and I think you're the wrong person to run this company." Scully calls an emergency meeting for the next morning. "I'm running this company, Steve, and I want you out for good. Now!" Scully made each man in the room pledge their alliance to Jobs or Scully. Jobs is quiet the entire time. Jobs goes to assure Scully again that he'd respect his leadership, but Jobs is plotting a final coup attempt behind his back. Tuesday evening, May 28th 1985, Jobs is stripped of all duties, but remains the chairman of the board. Friends worry he'll kill himself.

He resigns at sunset, by handing a letter to Mike Murray on his front lawn, with press in attendance. Dramatically, he told the press, "If Apple becomes a place where computers are a commodity item, where the romance is gone, and where people forget that computers are the most incredible invention that man has ever invented, I'll feel I have lost Apple." "But if I'm a million miles away, and all those people still feel those things...then I will feel that my genes are still there."

Jobs sells almost all his Apple stock, over 4 million shares ($11m), citing a lack of confidence in Apple's managment. He retains one. Some say for sentimental reasons, some say so he still receives quarterly reports.

Apple sues Jobs for using company research to launch a new company. Jobs responds, "It's hard to think that a $2 billion company with 4,300 plus people couldn't compete with six people in blue jeans." The suit is dismissed before it could go to court. Jobs names his company NeXT. A Businessweek cover story at the time featured a quote by Andrea Cunningham, an ex publicist for NeXT, "Part of Steve wanted to prove to others and to

himself that Apple wasn't just luck... He wanted to prove that Sculley should never have let him go.''

1986Jobs spends $100K to have designer Paul Rand, creator of the IBM logo, among others, to create a brand identity for NeXT, including a logo.

Around this time, Jobs has begun to build his relationship with his daughter, Lisa, who is about 7.

1987

Jobs, sometime in his thirties, learns of his birth parents: Joanne Carole Schieble, a speech therapist, and Abdulfattah Jandali, a Syrian political science professor. He also finds out that they have a daughter—his birth sister—Mona Simpson, who is a novelist.

Mona, brings Jobs to a book party for her new novel, Anywhere But Here, revealing their relationship as siblings to those who attended the party. Some believe Jobs was the base from which Mona created her main character in a later book, A Regular Guy.

1991-1992The PowerBook comes out.

Steven Jobs and Laurene Powell are married at the Ahwahnee Hotel in Yosemite National Park, on March 18th in a ceremony held by Buddhist monk Kobin Chino.

1995Jobs and his best friend Larry Ellison, of Oracle, are on vacation in Hawaii and they discuss the possibility of a hostile takeover of Apple while walking on the beach. They'd arranged for $3m in financing and to have Jobs take the helm. "We came very, very close to doing it,'' Ellison says to the NY Times, ''Steve is the one who decided against it.'' ''I decided I'm not a hostile-takeover kind of guy,'' Jobs says. ''If they had asked me to come back, it might have been different.''

1996"I am saddened by the fact...that Microsoft...makes really third rate products," said Jobs in an interview this year.

To Fortune magazine, Jobs says, "You know, I've got a plan that could rescue Apple. I can't say any more than that its the perfect product and the perfect strategy for Apple. But no body there will listen to me."

Gil Amelio replaces Michael Spindler as CEO of Apple, and the stock soon hit a 12-year low.

Apple announces intent to purchase of NeXT for $430 million to pay back investors, and 1.5m in Apple shares to Jobs. Jobs would also re-enter the company as an advisor, bringing

"a lot of experience and scar tissue." He's also recognized as having mellowed out in his management, as one Pixar employee describes: "After the first three words out of your mouth, he'd interrupt you and say, 'O.K., here's how I see things.' It isn't like that anymore. He listens a lot more, and he's more relaxed, more mature.'' Jobs attributed the change to an increased faith in people: "'I trust people more.''

1997

Jobs: "The cure for Apple is not cost-cutting. The cure for Apple is to innovate its way out of its current predicament."

Jobs calls Dell computers boring beige boxes; Michael Dell says if he ran Apple, he'd give the share holders back their money.

Jon Ive is hired, beginning a new era of Apple design.

1998Jobs shuts down many projects, focusing on computers at Apple.

Eve Jobs born.

The first iMac is born.

1999Pirates of Silicon Valley, the movie, comes out. Noah Wyle plays Steve Jobs and Anthony Michael Hall plays Bill Gates. The film opens on the set of the 1984 Super Bowl ad for the Mac.

2000Jobs is the permanent CEO of Apple again.

PowerMac Cube comes out.

2001First Apple retail store opens in McLean, Virginia.

iPod comes out.

OS X 10.0 comes out.

2003Power Mac G5 comes out in familiar all-aluminum case.

Al Gore joins Apple's Board.

Jobs discovers malignant tumor in his pancreas. It's a rare form of pancreatic cancer that can be cured. He tries 9 months of alternative medicine, unsuccessfully curing the cancer.

2004Steve has a surgery to remove a tumor in July and takes a month off to recover. In a letter to Apple employees, he wrote from the hospital on a 17-inch PowerBook, "I have some personal news that I need to share with you, and I wanted you to hear it directly from me... This weekend I underwent a successful surgery to remove a cancerous tumor from my pancreas."

2005

Jobs turns 50.

iPod Nano, Video iPod, iPod Shuffle come out.

Jobs gives the commencement speech at Stanford, telling three stories, one about intuition and how he went to college and what he learned from it despite dropping out. One was about his love for Apple and losing the company. And the last was about death and his experience with cancer. The video and transcript are widely available online and the most personal look we have at his life during his second era at Apple.

2007The iPhone is announced in January, then launched in June.

Apple TV comes out.

2008Macbook Air comes out. Rumors abound about Steve looking too thin to be healthy.

Psystar announces a $400 mac clone, using Hackintosh work arounds to get OS X on a clone PC.

Jobs beings to give keynotes by sharing the stage with other Apple executives.

Gizmodo runs a rumor that Steve is sick and will step down in the Spring; the mainstream press denies it, particularly CNBC bureau chief Jim Goldman and some WSJ reporters, until January.

2009Steve Jobs takes a health related leave of absence in January, until June. Tim Cook takes over day to day responsibilities while Jobs retains the CEO title. Steve Jobs receives a liver

transplant in Tennessee. Steve Jobs returns to Apple in June 2009, quietly, by appearing on campus, and by being quoted in a press release.

Jobs makes non-tech headlines over email bickering with a 22 year old journalism student. "Our goals do not include helping you get a good grade," he replies, before finally dropping a "Please leave us alone" bomb.

2011

Jobs sends out a company-wide memo informing Apple that he'll be taking another medical leave of absence, though says he will "continue as CEO and be involved in major strategic decisions for the company." Tim Cook placed in charge of "Apple's day to day operations." It remains unclear whether the departure is a consequence of Jobs' liver transplant or earlier bout with pancreatic cancer. "I love Apple so much and hope to be back as soon as I can," he concludes.

Through the analysis of all the events over his lifetime there are certain things that can be said with full assurance about Steve Jobs. He is a man who from his birth had issues with trusting people, which began with being left by his mother to his foster parents. Later he demonstrated this trait when he denied parenthood of his daughter Lisa. Somewhere down the line this behavior of his became a bigger issue when started reflecting this mistrust in his fellow workers and employees as depicted by the above mentioned incidents.

Also it can be seen that he had a mind of his own and never really bothered to listen to others. He found only his logics to be the ones that would work. This was in a way that reflected personalized leadership trait in him.He was also very bad at taking criticism from others.

STEVE JOBS as a Leader

Types of leadership styles demonstrated by Steve Jobs can be enumerated as under.

Charismatic Leadership:

Steve Jobs is famed for his ability to give speeches and captivate the audience attention. He is able to captivate his employees and audience with the ability of an evangelist. In this respect we can observe that he posses the charismatic abilities by communicating his ideas using metaphors and analogies and storytelling.

Interestingly, when presenting the new Apple product “iPad” he would sit down on a couch as some of us would have at home and create a scenario that helps the viewer and listener to imagine a Sunday-morning scene at home, using this new product while reading a paper. Jobs then also started by opening the webpages of an American newspaper. By creating these stories in our head he communicates the advantages of his products most efficiently.

He is a gifted speaker with an uncanny ability to confound his employees and the public with an almost evangelistic delivery . 

Jobs charisma is largely dependent on his deep knowledge and understanding of the technology he is immersed in (expert power). Jobs technical knowledge might not be that of his engineers, however, Jobs has been the founder of Apple together with Wozniak, and together they developed the very first hardware. Certainly Jobs understanding of the technologically possible combined with a visionary gift help him to develop his visions and then efficiently communicate them, for execution, to his employees.

His charisma enables him to whip up the enthusiasm of his employees (job involvement) to achieve more by doing seemingly impossible tasks, and also convince customers to buy Apple products. 

Personalized leadership

Jobs is described by some as being manipulative, dishonest, and boorish. An indication for this can be found, when he says, for instance: “My job is to not be easy on people. My job is to make them better. My job is to pull things together from different parts of the company and clear the ways and get the resources for the key projects. And to take these great people we have and to push them and make them even better, coming up with more aggressive visions of how it could be.”14 He wants people to follow him, expects obedience and much of it seemingly out of the self-interest, since working at “Apple” is what he considers a valuable goal in his life.

Autocratic Leadership

Jobs seems to micromanage at Apple. Jobs admits that there are an incredible amount of up to 100 individuals reporting directly to him. As a known, he is perceived as autocratic. The fact that so many individuals report to him directly is representative for his will and eagerness to hold all the strings in his hands. Total control is certainly the basis for this leadership. We assume that the amount of Jobs’ participative leadership is low. Anecdotes rumor that he is a rather rude participant in meetings and extremely impatient. This behavior certainly does not contribute to people wanting to voice their opinion and participate.

From the documentary “The triumph of the nerds” we may conclude that his humility levels are very low, bringing his personality in conflict of the requirements for a participative leadership style. This documentary has Jobs talk about some of his less successful episodes, blaming others for the losses.

Entrepreneurial Leadership

At the same time Jobs is being described as entrepreneurial: “Jobs may be a multibillionaire, but that hasn’t cut into his work ethic. He brings an entrepreneur’s energy to tasks many CEOs would see as beneath them”.

From the above discussion we have seen already, that Jobs can be described as being enthusiastic and a visionary, being impatient and having a strong will for achievement. Additionally, Jobs has taken risks and seized on opportunities many times in his career, for instance when leaving Apple (though being forced to) and leading Pixar to success, just to come back to Apple some years later and saving the day for a company in dire straits at the time.

His continued entrepreneurial spirit is also shown by the fact, that he repeatedly introduced products to the world that revolutionize the entertainment industry, and the way entertainment media is distributed (e.g.: the iPhone and iPod as media devices, and iTunes as distribution channel).

Transformational leader:

Jobs has transformed several companies over the years. He has transformed Pixar into a success story.He has all the necessary attributes to be considered one: he leads by example, he practices empowerment, he has a vision and as mentioned he can be perceived as charismatic.

However, he appears to lack the humane qualities of a transformational leader, which are also mentioned as a prerequisite for a transformational leader, namely: emotional intelligence, personal encouragement, building trust (Apple is famous for its secrecy, even admitted by Jobs himself: “It is generally not Apple’s policy to trumpet our plans for the future; we tend to talk about the things we have just accomplished”) etc.

Personality traits of effective leaders

Let us now see how some of the personality traits of effective leader have impacted Steve Jobs.

Self-confidence:  intimidatingly high

Humility: incredibly low. (The documentary “The triumph of the nerds” can be used for reference38. This documentary has Jobs talk about some of his less successful episodes, blaming others for the losses.)

Trustworthiness: probably low, if the mentioned secrecy he exhibits in dealing with the world outside the company is in any way a reflection of how he deals with flow of information within the company (which is likely, since many projects remain incredible enough, secret until they are unveiled, like exemplified in the recent introduction of the iPad39).

Authenticity: true authenticity is based on self-reflection, which requires a degree of humility we can safely assume from the already analysed not to be found in Jobs.

Extraversion: his self-confidence may at first be mistaken for extraversion, however, extraversion in a socially interested way appears not to be extractable from the above analysis.

Assertiveness: the description of how he runs meetings and the aggression with which he motivates his employees speaks for a high degree of assertiveness.

Enthusiasm: his speeches and his entrepreneurial behavior indicate a large degree of enthusiasm.Sense of humor: he never exhibited it, in case he posses it.

Conclusion

Interestingly, in general Jobs personality traits would not be characterized as the traits of an effective leader. Nevertheless his charisma, self-confidence and passion for work overshadow all his negative characteristics thus making him one of most successful CEO’s of the decade. We can define him as being a leader of his own kind who has broken all the rules and yet rules the mind of many.