Was Steve Jobs A Great Leader?

I got an email today from a client with that question, with the rider: if so, why?

Here is part of my reply: A great question, my answer, an unequivocal yes! Why? There is a book here but I'll opt for the cliff notes:

1. His track record of accomplishment for one — the evidence of serial success in being great in leading others:
1. Transforming a group of independent amateur geeks, who worked for fun and for free in the early days of computers, including his friend Woz into business people selling their creations — many of whom, as a result founded successful companies
2. He cofounder Apple with Woz and led a revolution in our thinking about, and attitude toward, computers 
3. He led an industry to think about "the end user" the consumer rather than the arcane thinking of an in group — the GUI as an example  
4. After being fired from Apple he created NeXT and led a team that built a business that he subsequently sold to Apple for $429 million which was the platform (the OS) for Apple's recovery
5. He bought The Graphics Group from Lucas films and turned it into Pixar. At the time he sold it to Disney it was valued at $7.4 billion, it had won 26 Academy award, 7 Golden Globes and displaced Disney as the leader in animation films. Working with creatives of the calibre of Pixar's team required consummate leadership
6. The turnaround of Apple from 1997 - unprecedented in corporate history, which in addition to unequalled returns to share-owners, transformed:
1. The music industry
2. The cellphone industry
3. The retail industry with unmatched sales growth and industry beating sales per store
4. The school textbook industry
5. ...
2. His attraction and retention of top talent — one measure of leadership is who is following and what do they accomplish. Great leaders have great leaders as followers, Steve Jobs had more than any comparable leader. Look at Apple's leaders, how long they have been in place, and their accomplishments. For example: Jonathan Ive (Now Sir Jonathan Ive) - 15 years — acknowledged design guru — awards galore, Tim Cook now CEO - acknowledged logistic and supply chain guru, Ron Johnson former retail guru – 11 years — now CEO of JC Penney
3. He led the way in enrolling and retaining strategic alliance partners:
1. Music labels in joining up with iTunes
2. AT&T with the iPhone
3. Thousands of App developers
4. Book publishers for iBooks
5. Even Microsoft in '97 as an investor and before and since as software developer 
6. ...
4. He was a stand for genius, design and perfection and enrolled other in Being that and providing that – great leaders do this masterfully:
1. He hired geniuses:
1. He was a stand that that was so
2. He asserted that was so — which means he could provide the evidence if asked, and had tons
3. His assessment was that was so — which means in those instances he didn't have evidence, it was so but he just intuitively knew
2. He interacted with people from they are geniuses:
1. If he got mediocre or less than perfect output from someone he considered to be a genius he would pull no punches in telling them what they produced was crap and more fitting of the output of an idiot [subtext — and you're not an idiot and it pisses me off you are trying to pass yourself off as one and further, it royally pisses me off that you think for a second that I am an idiot and would accept this crap from you as good design and perfection] In other words, the relationship of genius interacting with genius in the service of the mission, design and perfection — as a result, the individual's relationship with him or herself as genius happily restored! 
5. He inspired loyalty, love and relationship:
1. He loved - Apple, the people who worked for Apple and the people who loved Apple's products
2. When he upset, or hurt people – and he did — the stories are legion of his cleaning up and his apologies. Even the ones that took longer to handle than, he acknowledged, they should have
3. The outpouring at his death is evidence enough that he was loved in his turn, that he had build a loyal following in and out of Apple.
6. He was acknowledges by his peers as a great leader
7. The majority of those who study leadership and have some standing in opining on the subject acknowledge he was a great leader.

In case I have been too equivocal, let me just reiterate – Yes, I think Steve Jobs was a great leader.

Leading From Breakdown to Breakthrough

We need to keep reminding ourselves we have an in-built resistance to declaring breakdowns. Apart from the personal and emotional upset that goes with breakdowns, in many organizations it can be career limiting to acknowledge failure to meet objectives or even to flag the possibility that specific, desired results may not be produced with current performance.

The reason that most people write their accountabilities and KPIs in such vague terms is a recognition that to do otherwise is to court failure.  If accountabilities and KPIs were to be specific, the risk [real or imagined] of the consequences of failure go up exponentially.

Before I propose a process, a word of warning. 

Beware:  your natural tendency will be to dwell on what's wrong. What’s wrong with you as leader, with it, or with him or her, or the ubiquitous "them". As soon as that conversation surfaces with you, or with anyone in the organization . . . KILL IT! Or it will kill any prospect of people committing to results that involve the risk of failing – in effect killing creativity, innovation, BHAGs; every initiative that stands a chance of causing breakthroughs.

So, here are some recommended steps:

1. Declare the breakdown! – To all who can impact a possible breakthrough.
2. Stop the action. Call everything to a halt – stop the production line. No point in continuing with what's not working. Don't react.  Do not try fixes.  Relax.
3. Say what, precisely, is the breakdown  – in a sentence? Exactly what happened, or did not happen, and when?  Distinguish between what happened and the reason explanation and story.  Then describe the breakdown in one sentence.
4. What commitment(s) are being stopped, blocked or thwarted? Which of your commitments are being blocked or hindered by the breakdown?  Bring yourself and others back to the source of effective action – the future you are committed to.
5. Say what a breakthrough will make possible. What would a breakthrough under these circumstances look like?  What would that breakthrough make possible?  Are you committed to producing a breakthrough, one that furthers these possibilities?  if 'yes', continue.
6. Identify what is missing or what is present and in the way. Take stock of the situation.  What are the facts, what's so now? We are committed to X we have X-  What is missing, that if present, would allow actions to be taken to move forward quickly and effectively?  What is present and in the way that if removed would allow the action to move forward quickly and effectively?  
7. What possible actions could [I] we take to further [my] our commitments? Leave the current situation and what is missing in the background.  Stand in the future ­– the breakthrough having been accomplished – follow a rigorous process like this [#3] for example, to develop a rich array of possibilities, opportunities and actions that will produce the desired results.  
8. Promise actions! Make offers, promises and requests – remember to be specific: what, who, by when.

And remember, declaring breakdowns is part of a process, it is not an event. Keep following the process in tight time intervals until breakthrough is proceeded. Between each iteration do an after action review to build on what is working and eliminate what isn't.

Stuff Happens... Breakdowns Happen

We have an in-built resistance to acknowledging that something is not going, or will not go, as planned – a fear of failure, of looking bad, of being seen as less than able or competent, of loosing the respect of our peers and the confidence of our bosses, ...

We frequently wait well beyond the time we “know” things are off track – from the facts, or our intuition, or our inner concerns – before we flag our concerns to those who have a stake in our performance or before we actually do anything.

Mostly, when we do acknowledge that things aren’t going as we want, we explain, rationalize, make excuses, justify, all in an attempt to make what is happening acceptable “given the circumstances”.  It is as if we have an inner algorithm that goes like this: no result + a good reason, explanation and justification = the desired result. And the formula includes that the scale and elaborateness of the explanation and justification is directly correlated to the scale of the gap between intended and actual outcomes.

The unintended consequence of this in-built resistance to acknowledging failure, or impending failure, is that we lose the opportunity to take actions that will produce the results we were committed to.  This is a normal and reactive experience, and one that we need to learn to interrupt, and act independently of, as early on as possible if we are committed to producing breakthroughs.  

Powerful leaders are able to re-generate their capacity to deliver breakthrough performance rapidly when they go off-course.

The first and most critical step is to “declare”, paraphrasing the Apollo 13 crew, "Houston we have a breakdown". 

We are declaring that we know that we are not on track for the committed results. We may declare a breakdown because, for example:

• We have missed a milestone
• We know from our current results we are going to miss a milestone
• We think a specific action or our overall plan will not produce the desired result  
• Unplanned and unanticipated events have occurred
• A previously reliable person, process or product has failed
• ...

A declaration has a “We say ” component about it, as in: we have these facts, this evidence, these opinions and assessments about the facts, and “we say…”.  In other words, a declaration is  making a call in the face of a mass of opinions and facts.  It is a “generative” act that puts leaders back in the driver’s seat responding to circumstances not being at the effect of circumstances.

Declaring a breakdown is an expression of Being accountable. Not declaring a breakdown in the face of evidence that results are at risk is an expression of Being a victim.

The declaration of a breakdown requires being straight about those things that are occurring that are inconsistent with our intentions and values.  In declaring a breakdown:

• We regain our power to keep promises and take action
• We start operating again from “being responsible” and “causing”, rather than being a “victim” at the effect of circumstances
• We can initiate a process to transform the breakdown into a breakthrough

BREAKDOWNS ARE THE SOURCE OF BREAKTHROUGHS.  POWERFUL LEADERS KNOW THIS AND  CREATE (DECLARE) BREAKDOWNS “AT CAUSE” SO AS TO PRODUCE BREAKTHROUGHS.

In my next post I will propose a methodology to transform breakdowns to breakthroughs.

Increase the Likelihood of Leading Your Organization to Breakthrough Performance

 Every leader, every executive every manager and individual performer wants to be able to deliver results that are consistent with their accountabilities. Everyone wants to produce beyond what is expected of him or her. Nobody, in my experience at least, wants to settle for missed milestones and failed efforts.

So as to increase likelihood of leading your organization to produce breakthrough performance establish, or re-affirm, a shared set of disciplines and practices. Here are some recommendations:

1)     Have everyone declare an unequivocal commitment to do everything they know to do [#4], and some, [#3] to deliver the results you are counting on them to deliver - without qualification. Which means no qualifiers like: subject to, if all goes well, depending on, I'll do my best, ... Qualifiers implicitly externalize the source of results to a cause(s), which cannot be controlled or responded to. Outstanding performers relate to themselves as the source of their results – that is my interpretation of Being responsible, Being accountable vs. Being a victim of circumstances.

2)     Every week have everyone declare their gaps, letting colleagues know explicitly the gap between their current run rate and the specific measurable result - be it stretch goal or KPI or... for at least the top five results for which they are accountable 

3)     Establish a methodology and set of practices to explore new possibilities: Create a safe condition for everyone [for whom this is appropriate] to acknowledge that simply exploiting existing know-how, experience, past-based ways of doing things, will be insufficient to meet their accountabilities. Assure people this is a necessary first step to be able to produce breakthroughs, and is NOT evidence of something wrong or lacking in their skills or abilities which they need to hide, but a natural consequence of going for stretch goals. That means there needs to be an aligned on methodology to, Explore, Invent, Generate, Discover how to close the gap between what is known and what is a mystery - for now at least. For example:

i)   Surface our hunches about what might, possible, maybe, could, ... be a way to close the gap

ii)  Develop heuristics - prompts to help thinking so hunches can be expressed in language that will allow ideas to be refined and honed. For example an ideation process, or a breakdown to breakthrough process, or after action reviews, or...

iii)   Create some algorithms so as to produce specific desired result, examples:

(1)  Possibilities - in the context of the problem to solve with no selecting for feasibility, capability to realize, ...

(2)  Refine possibilities to opportunities – we could do it, we have the resources or can get them in time, we have the capabilities or can get them in time, ...

(3)  From opportunities commit to action – someone promises to do X by Y time, so as to produce Z result

(4)  Evaluate the outcome: a) failed to produce result; b) produce partial but insufficient result; c) produced the desired result

(5)  In the event the outcome is a) or b) 

(6)  Repeat from 3.1. Ideally this is a short time cycle iterative process - weekly for example till desired results are produced.

4)    Up the anti on Exploiting current know how:

i)     Rigorously hone and refine every process, practice and discipline inside current  knowledge

ii)    Be specific about what results needs to be produced, by whom, by when

iii)   Evaluate outcomes - not as reports on the past, but calls for new action for the future

iv)   Hold people to account vs. blame, make wrong and recrimination - which means:

v)    Acknowledge what's so - succeeded or failed

vi)   Make new promises sufficient to close the gap and be back on interim milestones

vii) Extract learnings from successes and failures

viii)    Eliminate waste - that is, any activity that does not produce a specific, measurable, desired result. If the 80/20 rules applies, a 10% reduction in wasted effort converted to productive effort = 40% productivity improvement. Which makes producing breakthroughs more accessible and less daunting

ix)   Lower everyone's tolerance for putting up with and settling for reason and excuses as a substitute for desired results

x)     Do after action reviews after meetings, a days work, a client meeting... build on what works, eliminate what doesn't work, and add what is discovered to be missing

xi)   Identify problems to solve before they become breakdowns that cause distracting resource consuming fire-drills - by staying focused on what outcomes is needed by when vs. focused on activity or process. Put every problem/puzzle in one of two categories:

(1)  Can be solved with existing knowledge - then go solve it

(2)  Can't be solved with existing knowledge follow steps in #4