Steve Jobs? life yields valuable lessons, positive and negative

Soon after the death of Apple's co-founder, Steve Jobs, I read Walter Isaacson's biography, Steve Jobs. Whether one liked or disliked Jobs, he is certainly one of the most talked-about leaders of our time.

In his 56-year life, he assembled and led teams that produced some of the most admired technological products of our time: Mac Books, iPods, iPhones, iPads. But Jobs also had many critics. "He mistreated people." "He was ruthless in his business dealings." And that's just the light stuff.

All said, Job's life yields valuable lessons, positive and negative, on the subject of leadership. It also highlights areas that leaders can enlist to touch the souls of people like him.

Early Influences

The Steve Jobs biography reminded me of how many leaders are shaped by events in their earliest years (even days) of life. Jobs, for example, was born to an unmarried couple who chose to give him up for adoption. The good news? The newborn child came to the home of a working class couple, Paul and Clara Jobs, who lavished great love and care on him.

When Steve was old enough, father and son began to tinker with cars, build furniture, and repair things about the house. In their time together, the father planted a powerful work ethic in his son. All work, Jobs learned, was to be marked with excellence. "(My father) loved doing things right," Jobs said. "He even cared about the look of the parts you couldn't see."

Decades later this principle would shape the development of Apple devices. Jobs always insisted the inner parts of anything bearing the Apple name be as perfectly designed and built as the outer parts. But then there's the perceived rejection of his biological parents. This appears to have haunted Jobs all his life and may partially explain his shortfalls in many human relationships.

Partnership

If one is into technology (and I confess an attraction), Isaacson's record of Steve Jobs college and twenty-something years becomes intriguing. During that time Jobs came alive to the world of electronics, drugs, literature, and a host of other experiences. But among the most important events of that period was his introduction to Stephen Wozniak, who would become his partner in the founding of Apple.

Theirs was a powerful synergy of skills: Wozniak's grasp of the inner workings of a computer and Jobs' instinct for its design and utility. The birth of Apple Computer came in the years that followed, and the two men attracted a host of brilliant youngish people.

Crash

Years later Steve Jobs hit a kind of bottom. To simplify a very complex story: Jobs was a man with limited people skills. In his haste to fulfill his visions, he could be intimidating, obnoxious, intolerant, impatient, profane, and offensive.

As often happens, the people at Apple mostly adjusted to Steve Jobs' way because he caused highly talented and motivated people to achieve things beyond their own wildest expectations. But one day the board of Apple reached a point of intolerable frustration with Jobs. At the age of 30, Steve Jobs found himself out of a job.

He once again experienced the echoes of rejection, abandonment. Those had to be moments of massive humiliation and self-searching. While Jobs may have been able to identify his failures in executive leadership, I doubt if he ever looked inside himself to seek the root of the many faults and flaws that often made working with him difficult.

When Steve founded a second company (NeXT), the products it introduced to the market, while innovative, were not entirely profitable. Jobs' place in business might have been scuttled. He was just inches from spending the rest of his life as a nobody. Sometime later the board of Apple, also facing great stress, invited Jobs back into the company.

The reinstatement turned out to be a new day for him and for Apple. I like to ask leaders if there was ever a time when they felt truly broken, stripped of self-confidence, and finally willing to seriously listen to someone other than themselves? Often, they nod their heads. Yes, there was such a time, most say. And yes, they learned to listen.

Source: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/hardware/steve-jobs-life-yields-valuable-lessons-positive-and-negative/articleshow/18523710.cms

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