GlocalNet

I just read several great articles on Steve Jobs in Fortune Magazine - he was given the title of CEO of the Decade.  As I was reading, I began to think about him, and other leaders - like Gandhi, Mother Teresa, Churchill and others I’ve read a lot on.  They seem to have some things in common.  There are probably a lot more - but here are some that come out in the articles and some that I’ve seen in biographies I’ve read. 

1.  Intuition.  They have a sense of where things are going.  They really don’t ask what the customer wants - what they are going to do is often going to cause revolution, uprisings, hardships, etc.,  Jobs says most people don’t know what they want.  The key has been his ability to see a little bit into the future and get there before others.  Lincoln is the most incredible illustration of that.  Jobs had a tendency to listen to “whispers” more than focus groups. 

2.  Sponginess.  They are constant learners.  Jobs was challenged by Andy Grove to not think he knows it all - Jobs response was - “OK, teach me.”  I found it interesting that Jobs is fascinated with Gandhi.  Jobs isn’t a philanthropist but was fascinated by how Gandhi changed a nation and lead.  I think cross-disciplinary reading and learning is indispensable for this world. 

3.  Risk.  For weeks on end Apple would be on the verge of bankruptcy.  They worked harder, not fearfully.  Neither were they ever content, they were always trying to perfect things.  To Jobs whatever they made had to be functional and aesthetic.

4.  Execution.  They delivered.  Everybody was in the right spot and when they weren’t they were moved.  The mission was above everything else.  Research, decide, and act.  They would also build platforms that enabled more to happen than just the product.  It was always building things that were more operating systems that could handle other people’s ingenuity.  Ipod, Itunes, and now the applications on Iphones.

5.  Detail.  Here is what amazed me most and I’m still trying to get my head around.  Jobs was into the detail - even being called a micro-manager at some levels.  Churchill was the same way, Mother Teresa as well.  I could go on and on - even some of my pastor friends of huge churches - giga churches - are accused of the same thing.  There’s no way they can be in all of it, but in some details with some departments and divisions the CEO or leader is present and often the people in those departments don’t like it.  Where’s the balance?  None of them ever found it.