Essay ~ Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson (part 2)

Part 2 of 2 Top Ten Leadership Qualities of Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs had the single greatest impact on the world of business and technology of any person in the last 100 years. A complete list of his accomplishments can be found in part one of this article.  In Part One I declared that Jobs is a prime example of my belief that the outcome of ones life is completely at the mercy of destiny.  Destiny overrules personality, values, and intelligence.

Now I will list ten secondary traits and values of Steve Jobs that I feel were key ingredients to his success.  I have incorporated these tools into my portfolio of management skill as I believe they yield high levels of return in the realm of business. 

one  VISION OF GREATNESS    The skill that gave Jobs the most leverage was the gift of a grand vision.  Jobs vision was to create a great company who distributed great tech products and services that profitably met the demand of millions of ordinary people around the world.  Monetarily his company Apple achieved that goal as it is presently the most valuable company in the world.  Jobs firmly believed in his vision and embodied it as the purpose of his existents.

two  REALITY DISTORTION FIELD    The embodiment of this purpose created a source of power that pulled in required resources to bring his vision into existence.  His ability to motivate others to buy into his vision ultimately helped him and his companies become successful.  He also had the ability to block out or overrule barriers that appeared to make achieving his goals impossible.  Ultimately Jobs often times was able to bend his reality toward the vision in his mind.

three  CONSUMER PERSPECTIVE    Jobs understood products and services from the end user perspective.   At the heart of Jobs systems and products was purity.  A simple easy operating unit with minimal steps to activate function gives the end user a sense of empowerment over technology, making him the master of his new device.  An aesthetically pleasing design and product reliability causes people to have a passionate desire to be a consumer of Apple products.  These variables make up the definition of purity from Jobs perspective.

four   A Players   Jobs believed in himself and only chose to work with people who could help him make the best products.  Jobs felt that working with people he deemed as A players was a necessity and surrounding himself with people he could believe in was never optional.

five  FEARLESS   Jobs was generally not intimidated by anything and aggressively pursued his vision regardless of obstacles confronting him

six  SIMPLISTIC FOCUS   Under Jobs leadership, Apple Inc. focused on no more than three to five projects at one time.  Each product or service had reliable simplicity at the foundation of its purpose.

seven  CARE   Although most would not describe Jobs as a caring person, he in fact cared very much about each project and the experience of the end user.  Jobs constantly challenged himself and his team to reevaluate projects, making sure that what they had in production was really user friendly and aseptically pleasing.  Their best work has many drafts and models created until the perfect one was produced.  Jobs was attentive and present with every aspect of his company.  His obsession to make a great company lead him to spend most of his waking hours working on his career.

eight  APPEARANCE AND PRESENTATION   Purchasing an Apple product is more like joining into a culture and buying a piece of art.  Apple creates this feeling by presenting its brand in a way that gives a consumer the ability to magnify his own identify and or to have something greater than himself to identify with.  Jobs was able to achieve this goal through great marketing including advertising and product launch events.  Jobs believed that anything that was a big deal, only had to look like a big deal.   This was evident in his ceasing the moment on product launches. Anything consumers could see had to be appealing to the senses.  Therefore combining art with technology was a pillar to every project Jobs worked on including product design and package presentation.  Perception of his audience meant everything to him.

nine  CONTROL   Jobs believed in end to end control and responsibility of the entire user experience ranging from product content, design, production, packaging, and distribution.  It was beneficial that Jobs was given a great range of autonomous authority to run his companies the way he deemed fit at critical junctures where the company needed it most.

ten  RESTART, DO OVER   Jobs had the ability to look at works in progress or even his entire company and was willing to restart or phase out what was not working or yielding the best return.  His ability to see when projects or ideas are ineffective and could have a problematic impact long term was essential to Jobs function as CEO.  Using his fearless, unashamed ability to change direction, sacrifice projects in the pipeline or layoff staff was absolutely necessary to save the company and to make it what is today. 

These ten attributes are gifts that I believe helped propel Jobs and his companies to the level of greatness they are today.  I ask King Jesus, Lord of all to grant them to KMBriggs, LLC according to his will.  Amen   


Martin A. Briggs
KMBriggs, LLC