Steve Jobs Theories Of Leadership

Introduction

Effective leadership is one of the most important key factors for success and longevity in every organisation. So it does not come as a surprise that the topic of leadership has continued to be a subject of interest in the modern world both from practitioners as well as academics and the extensive research for decades has not exhausted the topic (Bennis W., 2007).The purpose of this essay is to apply the three relevant leadership theories in relation to Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Inc., one of the most admired leaders of recent times. The essay firstly introduces the concept of Charismatic leadership, transformational leadership and transactional leadership and then briefly reviews Jobs and his leadership styles in relative to the

He exhibited all charismatic traits which helped him to propel the successful Apple Inc. (Patterson, 1985) Steve added value at Apple Inc. because of his vision and everlasting enthusiasm to show people the future potential of the product. Jobs was one of the first people to foresee the impact of personal computers in the life’s of normal people throughout the world which let to Apples mass production of personal computers . Except being a visionary leader Jobs was a leader who believed strongly in his theories. This was evident during the release of iPod music player. Which many economists thought it was going to fail regardless; Steve Jobs insisted on its launch and continued production. Because of this risk the iPod today is the most dominant digital music player in the world. Another trait that Jobs possessed was his unusual unique business behaviour. He was not your usual leader who sticks to ‘books’. According to Peter Elkin (2008) Steve job has conflicting behaviours and he often had his subordinates to tears if they did not follow his vision. Despite his complex leadership skills he was a simple person who liked to wear his trade mark blue jeans and black top to Apple Inc. product presentations. On the other hand Steve was a hard man to impress because he was a perfectionist who only expected high performance and nothing less. This was evident when he let Apple to produce the first IPhone in 2007 which

Jobs inspired his team to improve the IPhone and IPad to be better than their competitors and the products successor’s. His also a leader who effects change, he revolutionist the way companies sell phones by establishing the technological advanced Apple stores. Steve is deeply passionate about what he does from a tender age when he quit varsity to pursue and fully dedicate his whole time to making and selling electronics his even considered the heart and soul by hard core Apple consumers. His extremely focused leader who stopped at nothing to reach his goal, he never gave up on Apple even when they were struggling earlier in the beginning; he focused on making Apple one of the top companies in the world. Jobs had strong ambition for his company and its future success. He was famous for giving inspiring speeches to keep his employees motivated and convey his innovative ideas to them (Harvey,