Steve jobs and the Path-Goal mentality
As we all know certain companies become extremely successful, while others unfortunately succumb to failure. This of course can be due to various amounts of reasons, but one of those major reasons may be due to lack of leadership skills. A company that has everything going for it, great product, a nice work place and so on and so forth does not always become successful unless they possess prime leaders. As we have learned so far, there are various degrees of leadership styles and when and where they are best used and therefore most efficient. Lesson 6 shows, demonstrates, and defines the path-goal theory and allows us to better understand why certain leadership styles work and why some fail to become worthwhile. The path-goal theory(LN 6, pg. 11) in short shows how leaders are able to motivate their followers in order to accomplish a variety of goals. Steve jobs was in my opinion, a successful leader and that showed through his extremely successful company. Not only are the products that Apple makes great, but the reason they became as successful as they did was due to the fact that Jobs had a clear leadership model and understood what worked and what did not.
(E. Hom , 2013) “Jobs emphasized the importance of teamwork to his employees. Though he made the final decision on product designs, he knew that the right people would be a company’s greatest asset. “That’s how I see business he said. “Great things in business are never done by one person; they’re done by a team of people.” This type of attitude that Jobs’ portrays gives us insight on the type of leader that he was and the type of mentality that he had about leadership. I would compare Jobs’ leadership style within the path-goal theory to be rather supportive and participative because he involves his employees, he does not simply direct them to do a task and then leaves them to do it. As the quote above states and shows, he based his leadership methods around teamwork and listened to what his employees had to say, their input was important to him.
Not only was Jobs a role model to his team but to people all around the world. People wanted to know what his secret to success was and were always excited to listen to what he had to say. He gained and had a great deal of respect from followers and this is what a good leader wants, Respect. A leader that lacks respect from his or her followers will always be unsuccessful in the long run. A leader that does not give respect to his or her followers will also find difficulty in leading that team, the team will likely lose motivation and feel as if they are not supported in their goals and their tribulations. All of this will inevitably result in a failed business or loss of a company. Like I said in the beginning, a company may have everything going for it such as great products and amazing future goals, but a lack of good leaders and one can say bye-bye to that company, it will simply fall through or be a very negative environment.
So may we beg the question of whether or not the path-goal theory method will work for everyone and every company? Of course! Just because the path-goal leadership theory worked so well for Steve Jobs may or may not mean that it will work for you and or your company. Anytime something works for one person and ends up being very successful, people think that it will work the same way for them, well then wouldn’t we have a bunch of Steve Jobs running around town? Every company has their own way of becoming successful and that does not mean they all used the path-goal theory but you can be sure that they used some type of successful leadership method that obviously worked for them, well that certainly sounds familiar doesn’t it? Using a method of leadership that works best for you and your subordinates? That is what the path-goal theory is all about. A good leader will analyze and assess their team members, their personal goals as well as company goals, and the amount of work and what work needs to be done (task characteristics). After this assessment the leader may choose which behavior or behaviors and styles will work the best to attain the result they want. We may wonder why would someone want a directive leader? They do not seem to be supportive and participative, but in some instances, a directive leader is needed, and that will all depend on the subordinates as well as the tasks at hand. A smart leader and a reliable one will know which one to choose to be effective, Steve Jobs is a great example of this, and therefore the reason I chose him as an example.
References:
Hom, E. (2013). Steve Jobs Biography. Business News Daily. Retrieved from http://www.businessnewsdaily.com/4195-business-profile-steve-jobs.html
Penn State World Campus (2013). PSYCH 485 Lesson 6: Contingency and Path-Goal theories. Retrieved from https://courses.worldcampus.psu.edu/su13/psych485/001/content/06_lesson/04_topic/05_page.html