Leadership Analysis of a Public Figure - Essay Example

Let us get a brief overview of his background before discussing his input and role in the advancement of the digital world. Steve Jobs was born in 1955 in California. Paul and Clara Jobs, who belonged to a lower middle class family, brought him up. He grew up in the neighborhood of engineers who used to work with electronic equipments at their homes. This environment helped him shape his interest in the field of electronics. Jobs was a brilliant student at school. He always showed good results and excellent exam performances.

He graduated from high school in 1962 and got admission in Reed College, Oregon. However, Jobs had to leave that college because of poor financial status of his parents. In 1976, Jobs along with his friends, Steve Wozniak and Ronal Wayne, invented the first ever Apple computer in the garage of his parents’ house and put it for sale. To develop the computer, he received funds from engineer Mike Markkula, who was the product-marketing manager at Intel. This was just the start for Jobs. Later on, he went on to develop Apple Lisa, Super Bowl television, Macintosh, and a number of other products.

He resigned from Apple Inc. in 1985 due to his clash with the Apple’s CEO, John Sculley and founded NeXT Computer straight away with the capital of 7 million dollars. Later on, Apple bought NeXT Computer in 1996 and appointed Jobs as the Interim Chief Executive. In 2000, Jobs became the CEO of Apple Inc. This was the real start of Steve Jobs as a leader. After becoming the CEO of the company, Jobs proved his leadership and management skills and worked hard to achieve domination in the field of digital electronics.

Jobs-inspired Apple and NeXT products are considered platforms for a number of today’s amazing innovations (Severance, 2012). Jobs was the man who never stopped working and kept on creating new products even during his bad days. He was an enthusiastic person who always worked with a positive mindset to achieve success (Grant & Sharma, 2011). Even when he was fired from Apple inc. in 1986, he did not get upset and kept on working with a new approach. He even said in a speech that leaving Apple Inc.

was the best thing which could have happened to him in his life. He did not leave his heart at that time and entered the world of creativity with new aims and heights of motivation. If we analyze the working approach of Jobs at NeXT Computer and Apple Inc., we come to know that Jobs used a combination of autocratic and transformational leadership styles in both companies. As Branson (2011) states, “Steve Jobs’s leadership style was autocratic; he had a meticulous eye for detail, and surrounded himself with like-minded people to follow his lead”.

He was a kind of leader who wanted to take charge of every matter of the company. He was also a transformational leader because he always motivated his employees to show improved efficiency and productivity. As Riggio (2009) states, “transformational leaders have the ability to inspire and motivate followers”. A transformational leader focuses on creativity and innovation (Oke, Munshi, & Walumbwa, 2009). Jobs moved Apple Inc. to the heights of success by focusing on employees and motivating them to prove their potential.

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