Steve Jobs and Leadership

According to Fred Vogelstein in his anecdotally-driven “And Then Steve Said, ‘Let There Be an iPhone’,” Steve Jobs was a very driven leader—determined to unite showmanship with performance, and he manifested this determination in no uncertain words, often expressing his dissatisfaction with his engineers by telling them directly, sternly and seriously, “‘You are [expletive] up my company,’ or, ‘If we fail, it will be because of you.’ He was just very intense. And you would always feel an inch tall” (Vogelstein). Jobs did not mince words or dance around what he wanted. Even if what he wanted was technically impossible—like sending radio waves through metal—he would insist that the engineers figure out a way to bring his vision to life. He was insistent, but he could back up his insistence with a vision that was truly innovative and revolutionary, which made his insistence meaningful.
Vogelstein identifies other personality traits of Jobs—such as his obsession with controlling leaks in the company. Being the consummate showman that he was, Jobs wanted to surprise his audience whenever he gave a presentation on a new product. This was especially the case with the introduction of the brand new, first ever iPhone. Jobs was so obsessed with keeping the presentation a secret that he developed a master list of who can enter the hall during the preparation stages of the presentation and he wanted the crews who would work the lights and sound to spend the night in the building the night before the show so that no one could get out to leak word to the press. While this latter idea was nixed by aides, Jobs’ dedication to secrecy and to showmanship made him a very controlling individual who wanted nothing to reduce the effect that he was trying to produce.
Jobs was also a perfectionist. He wanted everything to work beautifully. For example, when he gave a presentation he wanted the big jumbo screen that the audience would be watching to respond to his own finger taps on his iPhone. Most presenters would simply put a camera on the iPhone—but not Jobs. He did not want his finger showing on the big screen: he wanted the audience to see what he was seeing. Again, it was all about communicating his vision flawlessly to the public—and in the end engineers did exactly as he wanted, and the effect, as Vogelstein observes, was “magical.”

Being a “taskmaster,” as Vogelstein calls him, Jobs was able to unite these personality traits into a successful run as Apple’s CEO. His personality traits—perfectionism, obsession, dedication to vision, being stern, direct, and even downright verbally abusive with workers was all part of how he went about being a taskmaster: everything he did was filtered through his vision, so there was always a reason for his actions. If he felt that he needed to push his engineers to bring his vision to life, he would push them as far as he knew he could (Vogelstein). In this respect, he was a like a sports coach, challenging his players to overcome hurdles and reach the goal. It was in many ways a transformational style of leadership that Apple greatly needed and benefited from—even if it was highly unorthodox among CEOs.

Jobs did not mind if he was unorthodox. In fact, he thrived on being unorthodox. He was there to shake up the industry, to launch new products the world had never seen before. His personality was geared towards being different, being demanding. This was the secret to his success. By putting his vision out there and demanding everyone else to get on board and find ways to make it work, he incentivized his team and changed the world.

Works Cited
Vogelstein, Fred. “And Then Steve Said, ‘Let There Be an iPhone’.” New York Times, 2013. https://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/06/magazine/and-then-steve-said-let-there-be-an-iphone.html