I’ve been thinking about transformational leadership and Steve Jobs ever since the group I am in for this course finished a paper on the topic. Steve Jobs was no doubt transformational throughout his lifetime. He revolutionized personal computing by successfully marketing Steve Wozniak‘s computer design, and by making an innovative connection that led to the commissioning of the mouse. Jobs reinvented how we access and listen to music and how we define the word “phone”. By the standard definition of transform, to change composition, structure, outward appearance, or character, there is no doubt in my mind that Steve Jobs was transformational. However, was he a transformational leader in a way that incorporates the definition of transformation leadership?
To summarize, transformational leadership is “the process whereby a person engages with others and creates a connection that raises the level of motivation and morality in both the leader and the follower” (Northouse, 2013, p. 186). Transformational leadership combined with transactional leadership, which is more focused on the exchanges or transactions between leaders and followers, stimulates peak performance in followers according to the diagram below.
This image demonstrates that while transactional leadership is needed, the addition of transformational leadership is what inspires follower performance to reach beyond expectations. According to this definition, there are four factors that a transformational leader embodies: idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, and individualized consideration.
Now back to Steve Jobs. Few will deny that Jobs had idealized influence, the first factor of transformational leadership often referred to as charisma. Former president of PepsiCo, John Sculley, admitted in his interview in BBC’s 2011 documentary on Jobs that to this day he’s not entirely sure how jobs convinced him to leave his secure senior executive job at PepsiCo. Scully just knew that he wanted to join Jobs. Jobs’ charisma is what helped him market the first Apple computer. Along with idealized influence, Jobs also exhibited the second factor of transformational leadership, inspirational motivation. He was often heard saying that he wanted to change the world (BBC, 2011). Who wouldn’t find inspiration in that statement? According to Northouse 2013, leaders focus follower efforts to “achieve more than they would in their own self-interest” through inspirational motivation (p. 192). Jobs was an inspirational motivator in all of the companies he owned and to the industry in general. The third factor of transformational leadership, intellectual stimulation or creativity and innovation – Jobs had those characteristics too. It’s true that he didn’t build the first Apple computer and wasn’t innovative as much in the hands-on technical sense. However he seemed to know what the public needed well before the public knew what it needed, and so he was always ahead of the game taking inventions and innovations that he experienced and applying them to personal computing and media in a way that no one ever imagined was possible.
I can clearly see the connection between Steve Jobs and the first three of the factors of transformational leadership. It’s the last factor, individualized consideration, that I struggle with a bit. Individualized consideration is when a leader coaches followers based on their needs and “spends time treating each employee in a caring and unique way” (Northouse, 2013, p. 193). From what I’ve heard and read about Jobs, this doesn’t seem to line up exactly with Jobs’ style. According to Gladwell (2011), Jobs was known for screaming at his employees. He was also known as a bully, targeting people’s weaknesses and belittling them, and it is also said that he was dishonest when splitting some profit between himself and Steve Wozniak (BBC, 2011). If transformational leadership involves being sensitive to follower needs and raising the level of motivation and morality in both the leader and the follower, can we still claim that Jobs fits the definition of a transformational leader?
It’s true. Steve Jobs had an amazing impact on the world, just as he said he would. He transformed the world. However, his lack of individual consideration, one of the four factors of transformational leadership, does leave me wondering if his style does in fact fit the definition of transformational leadership.
BBC (Producer). (2011, December 14). Steve jobs: Billion dollar hippy. [Web Video].
Retrieved from http://documentaryheaven.com/steve-jobs-billion-dollar-hippy
Gladwell, M. (2011, November 14). The tweaker: The real genius of steve jobs. The New Yorker. Retrived from http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/11/14/111114fa_fact_gladwell?currentPage=1
Northouse, P.G. (2013). Leadership: theory and practice (6th ed.). Los Angeles, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.
I think a leader can be a mostly transformational leader, and still not have some of the qualities explained in the text book. Steve Jobs was a transformational leader, because he increased the level of motivation, thinking, and creativity of the people around him. I think Jobs also fits into the transformational leadership category because his style falls in with a couple of the criticism explained by Northouse. First, it’s pretty easy to see from your post that Jobs was an elitist and antidemocratic leader (2013). He always though he was right and things had to be done his way. Jobs was successful as a transformational leader because thankfully he usually was right and his way was the best way.
The problem with transformational leaders comes when they aren’t right, but are too short-sided to see the error of their ways. This leads me to the last criticism mentioned by Northouse, the tendency for a transformational leadership to be abusive (2013). You effectively explained this when you explained how Jobs use his power to take profits from his business partner. I am just speculating, but I bet if you asked Jobs, he would tell you he deserved those profits because he was the “talent” in the organization.
One last thought. For one on my group projects, we profiled Bill Gates, and had some of the same observations. Isn’t it funny how two leaders, both wildly successful; in the same field had the same leadership approach and tendencies. Maybe they is something to be said for being a transformational leader in software and computers. Thanks for posting.
References
Northouse, P.G. (2013). Leadership: Theory and Practice. Los Angeles: Sage Publications.