Red Paint Balls: Leadership and Steve Jobs
I was coaching an IT Director of an international bank and we were discussing the challenges of getting consensus decisions in a large organization. He was frustrated and described his approach thus; “When everybody is trying to decide what color to paint the wall, I throw red paint balls at it and then the decision about what color it should be is passed and we can get on with finishing the painting!”
With the sad passing of Steve Jobs today I wanted to make the point that he was a leader who threw lots of red paint balls. Steve did not conduct customer focus groups or ask other people for their opinion; he trusted his aesthetic sense and gut feel. Steve will not be remembered as a great people manager or collaborative team member but as an inspirational innovator who redefined the way we view and use technology.
Steve Jobs was a Self-leader; fully aware of his strengths and unapologetically used them to pursue his vision. He was often compared to a modern day Thomas Edison and I think you could also compare him to Galileo who similarly challenged authority and gave us a new way of looking at science rather than hanging on to outdated models.
Steve Jobs will be missed for sure, but what can the rest of us learn from his leadership style? Should we all just trust our gut and say, “to hell with what other people think”?
Firstly I think that if we know our strengths and work on developing them we should not be shy about letting people know what we are talented at. As the great Will Rogers said, “If you’ve done it, it isn’t bragging.”
Secondly we must realize that although we strongly associate Steve with Apple, Apple is more than Steve. Steve was smart enough to attract and retain good people around him to get the job done. Yes he was a charismatic leader but he was not a loner.
When we witness genius, such as that which Steve embodied, we might surmise that we could never be like him, but perhaps you can throw red paint balls in your life? Collaboration is great but not when it leads to procrastination or second rate solutions, so look for an opportunity to lead, to make a difference and to live your legacy – because nothing feels as good as being able to say, “I did that.”
October 6th, 2011 at 4:15 pm
Well said Andrew,
I was inspired by what Obama said in his tribute to Steve Jobs upon Jobs’ sad passing today, “Steve was among the greatest of American innovators – brave enough to think differently, bold enough to believe he could change the world, and talented enough to do it.”
Indeed the world has lost a great visionary, but we are blessed with the creativity of his legacy and inspired by his example.
>> Be brave enough to think differently. Change your mind.
>> Be bold enough to believe in yourself and your goals. Get rid of irrational, debilitating and limiting fears, self-doubt and unbelief. Have faith.
>> And leverage your talent and and the talents of others to make things happen.
Rest in peace Steve, and thank you for your contribution to my life and the lives of so many.
Tim Wade
October 7th, 2011 at 7:09 am
Thank you, Andrew,
The tributes are pouring in, mostly adulation and fawning. The man deserves better than that and (at the risk of sounding fawning myself) this insightful piece does reach the core of the man.
Henry Ford said something similar about focus groups (not that they were called than is his day) along the lines of “If I asked my customers what they wanted, it would be a faster horse.”.
I moved to Apple workstations when they decided to move out of the OS kernel business by adopting the *nix-like FreeBSB platform and focused back again on the user experience.
Uncompromising excellence is a hopefully will continue to be the hallmark of Apple products (excluding the current Lion Address Book).
David