Not all great leaders are involved in politics. The leader I choose has never been asked to review a new law or bill, has never served in the military, and has actually never been involved with politics at all. He has however, inspired a countless number of people and has single handedly helped change the technology landscape for people all over the world. No, I’m not talking about Bill Gates (good guess), but of course am referring to Steve Jobs, the CEO of Apple Computers.
Many people have studied, and written about Steve Jobs management style, and for good reason. Jobs is able to keep his company highly productive while at the same time being very lax, and not interfering with the employees’ creative process. What stands out most about Steve Jobs leadership style, is that he is extremely charismatic. People often say there is an “aura” about Jobs that makes him very easy to respect, and follow. Employees enjoy working with Jobs, because they feel inspired, correct, and important. John Sculley, from Fortune magazine was walking through the Apple headquarters with Jobs and had this to say of him, “…it became clear that he wasn’t just another general manager bringing a visitor along to meet another group of employees. He and many of Apple’s leaders weren’t managers at all; they were impresarios…Not unlike the director of an opera company, the impresario must cleverly deal with the creative temperaments of artists…His gift is to merge powerful ideas with the performance of his artists.” Apple has many departments, from PCs, to laptops, to MP3 players, and even cellular phones. Jobs has to manage these departments, and see to it that each department is on goal with that of Apples plan. Apple employs some of the world’s greatest minds, which can be hard to manage. Jobs does an excellent job of keeping all people on track with Apples vision. He is able to do this by being a visionary charismatic leader, and focus on the long term. Apple has not