People Wit

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Extracting leadership lessons from this strange tale—40-plus years of roller coasters, intrigue, and management fog—is an interesting task.  “Apple management,” Guy Kawasaki said at an Atlanta gathering in 1995, at the bottom of the bottom of the company’s fortunes: “It’s an oxymoron.” Nevertheless, here are 15 conclusions we can make about leadership, based on the Apple experience:

■ Run for the beach! No! Run for the hills!

A lack of leadership can be a terrible thing, especially during natural disasters and manmade cataclysms.

■ Look for the adult supervision in the back of the garage.

Apple was made possible not only by boy geniuses, but also by seasoned pros. Strong leadership doesn’t necessarily strut its stuff.

■ Note to would-be CEOs: If you don’t control much voting stock, get a good bead on those who do.

You need to be the leader. Will you be able to lead, or will the 400-pound gorilla/ major shareholder get in your way?

■ Successful IPOs can make everybody that much harder to control.

Rich guys don’t take orders very well.

■ Somebody is usually better than nobody.

Is your CEO looking a little ragged? Does he or she really need to go? Wouldn’t some R&R on a beach somewhere patch him or her back together?

■ Perceived inequities often come back to bite leaders.

One of the worst things a leader can do is create multiple classes of citizenship. If one group gets fresh-squeezed orange juice, everybody gets fresh-squeezed.

■ Surgeons and leaders of creative teams are not necessarily nice guys.

The relentless quest for perfection makes for good surgical outcomes and product launches. It doesn’t make for great companions.

■ Don’t let your board chairman and biggest stockholder run your most important division.

The possibilities for conflict are enormous—even if there aren’t two huge egos involved.

■ Trading market share for margin may be eating the seed corn.

We know that John Sculley delivered the margins. We’ll never know whether Steve Jobs could have delivered the market share.

■ Great leaders instill great values. A company that lacks one lacks the other.

This is at the heart of the leadership challenge: leading by value-laden example.

■ Boards have to pull together—and in the right direction.

In any recitation of a leader’s strengths and weaknesses, the board behind that leader has to be taken into account. Do they cohere? Do they lead?

■ Weak CEOs beget more weak CEOs.

It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy: If your last CEO was irrelevant, you’re likely to make your next

one irrelevant, too (if he or she lets you get away with it, that is).

■ Thwarted princes tend to remember where they came from.

It’s usually a huge mistake to underestimate the emotional quotient of leadership. People with big brains often have big egos, and emotional investments, to go with those brains.

■ Good leaders swing their swords—but also bury their hatchets.

Steve Jobs did in his predecessors’ pet projects, but didn’t let the desire for revenge consume him. He sized up the outsized Bill Gates, and sued for peace.

■ Stay off alien territory—unless you’re some kind of genius.

A great leader knows his or her limits, but also isn’t intimidated by “expert” opinion. If you’re a great broad-jumper, leap.

Source : The Apple Way. 12 Management Lessons from the World’s Most Innovative Company. Jeffrey L. Cruikshank.McGraw-Hill. 2006