A great deal has been written about the co-founder of Apple Computer in the aftermath of his passing. Colorful stories abound about his brilliance at developing products that millions of people have fallen in love with. At the same time, the darker side of Steve Jobs is also well documented. Is there a valuable lesson we can extract from his career?
We think there is one huge lesson from which we all can learn. Simply put the lesson is this. Steve Jobs will be remembered because he possessed a handful of remarkable strengths that he leveraged. These strengths were so profound, they completely overshadowed his failings. End of lesson.
How does that apply to millions of people in the world who occupy positions of leadership? We think the lesson is for all of us to work on developing our strengths, and to not automatically gravitate toward trying to overcome something that we don’t do well. Our experience and our research confirms that the great majority of leaders, when asked to create a plan of development, immediately want to find out their faults and failings and start there. The underlying assumption is that “Whatever strengths I have — those will take care of themselves.” “The way to get better is to fix my failings.”
The research is clear, however. The most effective leaders are not the ones without flaws, nor are they above average on virtually every leadership competency. Neither of those paths leads someone to being a great leader. You must possess 3 to 5 competencies on which you excel.
Jobs had great passion for product excellence. He insisted on elegant design and simplicity. Unlike many other CEO’s he became extremely engrossed in the details, especially when it came to the product and how it was marketed. He set stretch goals for both hardware and software and pushed people to accomplish more than they dreamed possible.
These strengths trumped his imperfections. Yes, he could be rude, unreasonable, fickle, and arrogant. He took credit for other’s ideas. This list is nearly endless. Let’s be very clear, if he had not possessed the remarkable strengths noted earlier, this behavior would have capsized him earlier in his career. Strengths eclipse shortcomings.
The message to every leader is this. Identify those distinctive strengths you possess. Find ways to magnify them. Lead with them. They will make you into a truly extraordinary leader.
By the way, do your best to minimize any negative behavior. The number of leaders who simultaneously combine profound strengths with fatal flaws is roughly 1%, according to our research. Possessing seriously negative behaviors greatly diminishes your chance of being a truly extraordinary leader, but simply removing the negative behaviors without developing strengths does nothing more than getting you to ground zero.
Jack Zenger — CEO & Co-founder
Learn more about The Fascinating Case of Steve Jobs in the upcoming webinar on Jan. 25, 2012 at 1:00 PM ET.Register Now
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Tags: building strengths, business, business results, developing strengths, extraordinary leadership, Imac, Ipod, jack zenger, leadership, leadership development, leadership training, professional development, Steve Jobs, strengths-based leadership, zenger folkman
