Steve Jobs on Leadership: Demanding Excellence
Steve Jobs' leadership style was legendary—and controversial. He built the world's most valuable company through an approach that inspired devotion and fear in equal measure.
Explore Jobs' full life story →
The Reality Distortion Field
- Named after Star Trek episode
- Combination of charisma, willpower, and certainty
- Made people believe they could achieve more
- Both inspiring and manipulative
Engineers would insist something was impossible—then do it because Jobs wouldn't accept no.
Key Principles
- "A players hire A players; B players hire C players"
- Ruthless about talent
- Small teams of excellent people
- "It's better to have a hole than an asshole"
- "Deciding what not to do is as important as deciding what to do"
- When he returned to Apple, killed most products
- Four-quadrant product grid: consumer/pro × desktop/portable
- "Simple can be harder than complex"
- Removed features rather than adding them
- "You have to work hard to get your thinking clean"
- Obsessed over products, not just profits
- "I want to put a ding in the universe"
- Long-term thinking over quarterly results
The Dark Side
- Public humiliation of employees
- Crying executives were common
- "That's the worst thing I've ever seen"
- Mercurial—could praise and destroy in same day
Many who worked for him were traumatized—others say he got the best work of their lives.
What We Can Learn
- Vision matters: Know where you're going
- Talent matters: Surround yourself with the best
- Details matter: Sweat the small stuff
- Persistence matters: Don't give up when it's hard
- Standards matter: Accept nothing less than excellent
The Debate
- Some say only he could achieve what he did that way
- Others say the cruelty was unnecessary
- Many who worked for him have mixed feelings
- Results speak: Apple's success is undeniable