Steve Jobs Leadership Lesson #1 – Focus

Steve Jobs was famous for his laser-like focus. This natural personality trait was further honed by his study of Zen philosophy; “deciding what not to do is as important as deciding what to do”. Shortly before his death, Larry Page, Google’s co-founder visited Jobs to ask for advice. Jobs told him to figure out the top five products Google should focus on and “get rid of the rest, because they’re dragging you down”. Page followed his advice, announcing to Google employees in January 2012 that they would “focus on just a few priorities, and make them “beautiful,” the way Jobs would have done.

Steve Jobs Leadership Lesson #2 – Simplicity

Steve Jobs focused on annihilating complexity when creating products. He lived and breathed the Leonardo da Vinci tenet that appeared in Apple’s first marketing brochure: “simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” Ten years ago, the portable music player industry was ripe for a shake up, and Jobs’ quest for simplification led to the revolutionary iPod followed by the iPhone. When setting their sights on what to do next, today’s emerging business leaders need only find products that are more complicated than they need to be.

1. The RealLeadership Lessons ofSteve Jobs

2. Deciding what not to do is as important asdeciding what to do“That’s

true forcompanies and itstrue for products”

3. Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication To be trulysimple you haveto go

really deep

4. He was allergic to thethought , that unapproved apps or content

mightpollute the perfection of an apple device.That was an approach that

did not always maximize short- tem profits, but it led to astonishing

products marked by delightful user experiences

5. WhenBehind, Leapfrog If we don’t cannibalize ourselves, someone else

will

6. Put products before profitsDon’t CompromiseMake Products insanely

greatPut a dent in the universe “When the sales guys run the company,

the product guys don’t matter so much, from that stage companies start to

decline”

7. Don’t Be a Slave To Focus Groups“read things what are not yet on the

page” Caring deeply about what customers want is much different from

continually asking them what they want

8. Bend RealityYou can doimpossible ifyou don’trealize it isimpossible

Jobs’s (in) famous ability was to push people to do the impossible

9. People dojudge thebook by itscover

10. Nobody will ever know but you will know A great carpenter isn’t going

to use lousy wood for the back of aPush for perfection cabinet, even

though nobody’s going to see it

11. Tolerate Only “A” PlayersBy expecting them to do great things, you can

get them to do great things.

12. Engage face to facePeople who know what they are taking about don’t

need PowerPoint

13. Know both the Big Picture and the DetailsOne of the jobs salient

traitswas his ability and desire toenvision overarching strategywhile also

focusing on thetiniest aspects of design

14. Combine the Humanities with the sciencesThe creativity that canoccur

when a feel forboth the humanitiesand the sciences existsin one

strongpersonality was whatmost interested jobs

15. While some see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the

people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the

ones who do