Steve Jobs: Leader or Manager?

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Apart from these, Jobs was optimist and decisive as he alone believed in the future of his products and took a stand wherever a controversial decision had to be taken. He also reflected a high level of focus which he also demanded from his employees and managed to inspire the organization as a whole when moving towards a new direction. Jobs was a confident individual, who was honest to his staff, no matter how brutal he may become at time and always accounted for the success or failure of his decision.

Was Steve Jobs a Manager? A Leader? Or Both?

The effective leader is one who adapts his behavior to the requirements of its own unique situation. Leadership is considered in terms of their effectiveness or ineffectiveness, but there is another aspect of leadership, ethics or morals. Blake and mouton proposed an ideal method of analyzing the basic management styles of a leader in 1964 (King & Lawley, 2012). This is shown below:

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(King & Lawley, 2012).

The degree each manager has for the importance of tasks and concern for employees varies between each manager. According to leadership and management theories, Steve Jobs was more suited as a leader for many years during his tenure. According to Sonnenfeld (2013), leaders are involved in the development of the vision of the organization. For example, Steve Jobs vision of Apple building a computer for routine use. When Steve Jobs joined the company again in 1997, ten years after he left, he founded Apple Computers in big turmoil. Sales declined and the stock decreased. He understood that the company needed a new vision and a new direction (Sharma, 2011).

Jobs was a classic mix of a visionary and transformational leader as he transformed his organization on the basis on his singular vision. In addition, he was charismatic, self-reliant and confident enough to be approved by the consumers and appreciated in ways like none other during the time. Jobs majorly relied on his skills and attributes that separated him from the rest. He was situational as he speculated a need for an innovational change that would attract millions of people throughout the world. Furthermore, he also tackled every issue at the right time thus making him an effective situational leader as well.

Steve Jobs always attracted people when he spoke. He used it as a great communication tool to transform his vision and the ability of adaptation to others. For example, in 1997 when he re-joined Apple, he launched a campaign to re-market to Apple employees as part of its various marketing activities for the purpose of motivating them and providing them with new confidence and hope. This typically highlighted him as a transformational leader, who was able to transform a dying company to one of the biggest innovators of the 21st century (Isaacson, 2012). In his own words, Jobs aimed to offer amazing products with which people could do amazing things. In addition, Jobs also proved to have combined skills of a visionary and transactional leader. He redefined Apple’s image and encouraged feedback from his co-workers, which acted as few of the major reasons for his success (Isaacson, 2012). It was evident that Jobs favored a management style that was obedient to him and did not question his actions. This also reflect his leadership style of favoring autocratic style more, with a combination of democratic as he welcomed feedback from his employees but only made decisions himself without a hint of any doubt whatsoever (Sharma, 2011). However, as time progressed his style changed in to a complete authoritarian as he criticized others for their work and led many employees to leave the company.

Characteristics that help Steve Jobs lead Apple

According to Heracleous (2012), Jobs learned not to rush things they needed more work and details. He also understood that his workers had a limit to withstand loads of responsibility, although no longer a difficult boss as he had been in the past. Jobs spent months readying their equipment introductions and thoroughly rehearsed his appearances (Northouse, 2015). This represented his basic skills of patience, which is considered to be one of the basic requirements within a leader especially in times of crisis (Northouse, 2015). In addition, when Jobs was asked to leave, he created another organization known as PIXAR. This showed his determination to prove himself and succeed no matter how many problems he faced. Jobs was also a very confident individual. He relied on his skills and abilities and intended to motivate others to follow him in his vision. The company reflected his self-confidence and the confidence in the company itself. Burnes (2012) revealed that when Jobs discovered he had cancer, he began to help those employees who had a sick loved one with the same disease. They made ​​planning sheets on the types of treatments that could take and he spoke with the doctors who treat these people (Lussier, 2015). This highlighted his human skills of caring personally for a cause and believing in it. His self-confidence and high morale led him to make the Apple one of the biggest successes of the century. Schlender indicates that the true motivation of Jobs was only leave a positive impact on the world, leaving a bruise in the universe. As simple as that and with the changes that Apple products have resulted in humanity, it could be said that in his way, he succeeded (Kane, 2015).

That's the Jobs management style during the early years of his career. However, something was wrong. His most people close left the ship (traumatic was the march of another founder, the legendary Stephen Wozniak). Products like Lisa and Macintosh suffer sales problems and endowed a dangerous advantage to its competitors (IBM and Microsoft). His position was questioned by the Board and Apple eventually abandoned him. Many blamed Jobs for reaction towards employees. He easily blamed others and criticized them. He was also known to shout when things did not work his way. Thus after he was asked to leave, his reaction was that he became paranoid and only established a line with him or against him (Lunenburg, 2012). Thus, it could be said that Jobs was more suited as leader as compared to a manager.

His return years later coincide with a very difficult situation for the company that he had founded. Many doubted that it was able to stand up and lift itself, because everyone knew Jobs as a manager and were only aware of his management style. But something changed on his return. H realized that a need for a change in his personality was desperately required if he wanted to retain his company and respect (Isaacson, 2012). He realized