Steve Wang: The Leadership Style of Steve Jobs

By: Steve Wang

One of the greatest leaders of our past generation is Steve Jobs. He was the CEO of Apple and Pixar. He might have not been one of the nicest leaders but definitely one of the most influential and effective leaders of all time. It is essential we learn from someone like him because we will all lead at least once in our lives and we have to be ready for it. I havae done my reasearch and I found that Jobs led with an autocratic leadership style(Garibay, 2021) and to understand this leadership style, we should first understand it's characteristics. Subsequently, it has it's disadvantages and advanatges.

The autocratic leadership style can be understood as a leadership style that gives the leader most of the power. The leader will usually make their choices with little to no input from others. However, using this style of leadership may cause others to think you are a bossy, dictator-like, or many other horrible things. However, this amount of power and control can be useful in some situations(Cherry, 2020). In fact, there were many people who thought Jobs was a jerk and there are even articles, like the one from business insider(Love, 2011), which wrote about how horrible he was. As a result, some may say that it is not a good method of leadership. Nevertheless, there are many effective leaders other than Jobs who succeeded in using this style. Some may include Elon Musk, Donald Trump, Adolf Hitler, and Vladimir Putin (Fata, 2019; Western, 2020). Hence, I believe it is a good style of leadership in certain situations.

Just like all leadership styles, the autocratic leadership style also has its downsides. For instance, it might discourage group input, hurt morale and lead to the group hating the leader. When that happens, people will not feel valued and people might not do their best and only try to get the job done. Employees might also not try their best while doing their work. There are not only disadvantages for the employees but there are also downsides for the leader(Cherry, 2020). For example, in a stressful decision, the leader has to make very hard choices. That can be very difficult because few teammates will give advice and you have to make the final decision. Nonetheless, Jobs was able to handle the stress and do a good job.

Even Though there are quite a few downsides to this style of leadership, there are times where this style can come in useful. If there is an urgent situation, the leader can quickly and efficiently make decisions unlike other leadership styles. Other added benefits are, it will relieve stress from other workers, provide structure, and give direction for the entire team (Cherry, 2020). One instance of Jobs making quick decisions was in 1997, Apple was making a lot of computers and different products. Jobs stopped this and Apple decided to focus on only four products. This decision stunned everyone into silence. Apple was saved as a result of this decision (Isaacson, 2012). This example showed a situation that was saved by an autocratic leader making quick decisions. If Jobs used a democratic leadership style, Apple might have gone bankrupt before anyone could have made a decision.

To sum it up, there are situations where an autocratic leadership style can be very useful but all styles have their pros and cons. We should not automatically disregard this style because of its reputation to cause the leader to look like a jerk. In fact, the autocratic leadership style is one we should all consider using when we are leading. For more proof of this effect, just look at what Jobs has done and where both of his companies are today.

1. Garibay, C. (2021, April 8). Why Steve Jobs’ Leadership Style Worked for Him and Will Work for Your Company Too? - ValiantCEO. ValiantCEO. https://valiantceo.com/why-steve-jobs-leadership-style-worked-for-him-and-will-work-for-your-company-too/

2. Cherry, K. (2020, June 10). Autocratic Leadership: Characteristics, Pros, Cons. Verywell Mind. https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-autocratic-leadership-2795314

3. Love, D. (2011, October 26). 16 Examples of Steve Jobs Being an Unbelievable Jerk. Insider. https://www.businessinsider.com/steve-jobs-jerk-2011-10#a-different-kind-of-fda-1

4. Fata, E. (2019, November 24). 5 Examples of Autocratic Leadership | Starting Business. StartingBusiness. https://www.startingbusiness.com/blog/autocratic-examples

5. Western Governors University. (2020, September 29). What Is Autocratic Leadership? https://www.wgu.edu/blog/what-autocratic-leadership2009.html#close

6. Isaacson, W. (2012, April). The Real Leadership Lessons of Steve Jobs. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2012/04/the-real-leadership-lessons-of-steve-jobs