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It\u2019s been more than a decade since we lost Steve Jobs, the mastermind behind some of the biggest technological innovations in history. He lost his battle with pancreatic cancer in 2011, and would have been 69 years old today.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Jobs\u2019 outsized influence as Apple\u2019s leader left a lasting impression on managers and employees alike. But one of his most unwavering beliefs might surprise leaders who aspire to success as great as the Apple<\/a> cofounder.<\/p>\n When Jobs and Apple\u2019s other cofounders, including Steve Wozniak, first realized how big their company would be, they decided to go out and hire what they called \u201cprofessional management,\u201d or folks who just knew how to manage people. But it quickly backfired.<\/p>\n \u201cIt didn\u2019t work at all,\u201d Jobs said in a 1985 interview<\/a>. \u201cMost of them were bozos. They knew how to manage, but they didn\u2019t know how to do anything.\u201d<\/p>\n Jobs\u2019 comment gets at the crux of a central debate in management: whether managers should actually want to be managers or not. Jobs argued the people who were least expecting to be leaders ended up being the best managers in the long run. That\u2019s because other employees were more likely to actually learn something from them because they\u2019ve mastered that skill\u2014rather than only focusing on management techniques.<\/p>\n That\u2019s the first of Jobs\u2019 best management tips: elevating the people to management who perform at the highest levels.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cYou know who the best managers are. They\u2019re the great individual contributors who never ever want to be a manager, but decide they have to be a manager because no one else is going to be able to do as good a job as that,\u201d Jobs said in the same interview.<\/p>\n Jobs took a gamble on Debbie Coleman, a member of the Macintosh team who was 32 years old at the time he promoted her. She studied English literature in college, but earned her MBA from Stanford University and proved herself to be an exceptional financial manager.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s no way in the world anybody else would give me this chance to run this kind of operation,\u201d Coleman said in a 1980s interview<\/a>. \u201cI don\u2019t kid myself about that there\u2019s an incredible high risk\u2014both for myself personally and professionally, and for Apple as a company\u2014and put a person like myself in this job.\u201d<\/p>\n Apple was \u201cbetting on a lot of things\u201d when it made her a financial manager, Coleman said. They were \u201cbetting that my skills and organizational effectiveness override\u201d her lack of tech and manufacturing experience. Coleman went on to become chief financial officer of Apple and was referred to as one of Silicon Valley\u2019s \u201cmost prominent technology executives.\u201d She died in 2021.<\/p>\n Another key position held by Jobs was that Apple would be a collaborative company\u2014and uniting his employees with a \u201ccommon vision\u201d was a central concept.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s what leadership is: having a vision, being able to articulate that so that people around you can understand it and getting a consensus on a common vision,\u201d Jobs said in the 1985 interview.\u00a0<\/p>\n That collaborative approach has continued to show itself throughout Apple\u2019s history as Jobs long said that his company was the \u201clargest startup\u201d in the world.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s tremendous teamwork at the top of the company, which filters down to tremendous teamwork throughout the company,\u201d Jobs said in a 2010 interview<\/a> at the D8 Conference. \u201cTeamwork is dependent on trusting the other folks to come through with their part without watching them all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n Jobs took it upon himself to be heavily invested with and involved in recruiting at Apple. He wanted people who were \u201cinsanely great at what they did\u201d but \u201cnot necessarily those seasoned professionals.\u201d<\/p>\n Jobs wanted employees and managers who knew what Apple could do with technology and wanted to bring it to \u201clots of people.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe neatest thing that happens is when you get a core group of 10 great people,\u201d Jobs said in the 1985 interview. \u201cIt becomes self policing as to who they let into that group. So I consider the most important job of someone like myself [to be] recruiting.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\nGreat individual contributors make great managers<\/h2>\n
Keep the company collaborative<\/h2>\n
Recruit the right people<\/h2>\n
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