Steve Job and Leadership Theory

Note :

This column ran under the headline, “Steve Jobs’ poisonous personality was never an asset for Apple.” Yikes. I would never have chosen this title. It makes it seem as if I think Jobs was not an asset for Apple. This would be absurd. The truth is that columnists do not get to write the headlines for their work. Below is the title I submitted.

Steve Jo bs and Lead er ship T heo r y: Reco nciliatio n Needed?

B y Ri c h a rd M c Kni gh t Friday, January 6, 2012 For the Philadelphia Business Journal

©

 2011

 Philadelphia

  Business

 Journal

When I began reading Walter Isaacson’s hefty biography of Steve Jobs, I wasn’t sure I could get past the first chapter: The late Mr. Jobs comes off as forbidding, to say the least. I wasn’t sure I could read 600 pages about a guy who is repeatedly described by his official biographer as “cruel,” indifferent to his children, and a “control freak.” According to Isaacson, Jobs was a profane man who would publically castigate your ideas one day and claim credit for them the next, and would resort to crying if no other method worked in getting his way. Jobs was more than just a notoriously difficult person, of course, which is what makes his story fascinating, so I read every word. Many writers covering his death have compared him—as his biographer does—to Thomas Edison and Henry Ford. Isaacson calls him “the greatest business executive of our era.” I come away agreeing. To me, however, as a leadership educator and coach, Jobs’ business accomplishments sit uncomfortably alongside his methods. I’m left with a vexing question: If Steve Jobs was a great business leader, how are we to reconcile his exceptionally abrasive personal style and self-centered, even brutal approach with

the popular formulation of the leader as nurturer of talent and leadership as the act of getting out of the way so others can rise to greatness? Was he not a leader or do I have to revise my definition of leadership? Karol...