14 Leadership Traits and Qualities of Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs had a rough start in his life, but he could turn it around and become one of the most powerful leaders in the world.

These qualities and traits as a leader helped him do well:

He had vision

Steve Jobs thought at a much different level than previous leaders. He was a visionary leader with the ability to identify client needs.

Jobs told Campbell in an interview about what personal computers will look like and how they would revolutionize the world. After interviewing him, Campbell said that vision was what distinguished Steve Jobs from others.

"Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower."

Steve Jobs

He had confidence

Steve Jobs showed us how important it is to believe in oneself through his work. With his confidence, Steve Jobs broke all the rules and gave us the most innovative pieces of technology.

Once, he was in a hurry to find a specific kind of glass for his iPhone. When an employee said that getting the glass in a short amount of time was impossible, Steve Jobs said, “Yes, you can do it. You can deliver, don’t be afraid.”.

The people on his team were inspired by how he was so sure of himself.

He was passionate about his work

Steve Jobs was very interested in how technology can change the world for the better. He found a way to turn this interest into a business that made him money. Soon, his ideas turned out to be true.

Even though he had a lot of money coming in, he never lost the passion and excitement he had at the start.

It is said that even when he was very sick and lying in a hospital bed, he was coming up with ideas for how to hold an iPad in a hospital bed and how to make oxygen monitors better.

He was a perfectionist

Apple’s Human Interaction design team is alleged to have had to meet with Jobs every other weekend to submit their ideas. ’ As a perfectionist, Steve Jobs would often criticize their ideas, request a redo, and then have another meeting to review them two weeks later.

Even Steve Wozniak, the co-founder of Apple with Steve Jobs, stated many former colleagues had indicated they would never want to work under Jobs again. However, many of these Apple workers were surely motivated to enhance their standards due to this ongoing pressure.

Consequently, many people considered Apple goods to be among the finest available. Apple’s technological revolution would not have occurred had it not been for the workers who remained despite Jobs’ perfectionism and persevered.

"Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren't used to an environment where excellence is expected."

Steve Jobs

He hired the best employees and helped them grow

One of his best traits is finding the right person for the job. Steve Jobs once said, “It doesn’t make sense to hire smart people and then tell them what to do. Instead, we should hire smart people so they can tell us what to do.”

In one interview, he said that the best people could care for themselves and don’t need to be managed. So, it’s best to hire the best people and teach them how to do the job. Once they know how to do it, they can do it. All they need is to agree on something.

"Great things in business are never done by one person. They're done by a team of people."

Steve Jobs

He was a risk taker

Steve Jobs often took risks to achieve his goals, and he never compromised on perfection. He trusted his instincts when taking chances, and he recognized what others needed the most.

Jobs went to have the headphone jacks changed even before the iPod was released. This demonstrates how driven he was to take such risks for greater results.

He was charismatic

At first, some people who didn’t like Steve Jobs thought that his charismatic way of leading Apple Inc. caused most of the problems inside the company. But that wasn’t what happened.

Because of his charisma, he had an idealistic view of the world and was brilliant at coming up with new ideas.

He was so set on his ideas that, at one point, he couldn’t let the management board argue with him. When he was CEO of Apple, Inc., his charisma helped him improve the company’s performance.

He was determined

Steve Jobs was highly determined. He was sure that his new products would be exciting and different. Customers liked his products the most because he was a good leader.

He was always focused on making good products and putting all of his energy into making those products better. His business became a well-known brand because he could keep his attention on making things instead of making money.

He had perseverance

One of Steve Jobs’ most essential abilities was adaptability, which he utilized to keep himself psychologically strong in numerous scenarios. Jobs was sacked from Apple when he was 30 years old due to a lack of empathy and other leadership abilities.

Then, over the following 12 years, he changed his abilities and leadership style to better match the organization’s demands. He suffered from his criticism and weaknesses for a long time, but he could adapt.

"Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith."

Steve Jobs

He was creative

Steve Jobs always thought outside the box, and as a creative leader, he never took the easy or usual way out. He saw that people burned CDs from the Internet on their computers.

Even though the Mac could play videos and photos, it couldn’t record CDs, and Jobs thought this was a missed chance. With iTunes software and the iTunes store, he changed the entertainment industry by redesigning the idea and creating a new ecosystem.

Steve Jobs successfully made it easy to buy music from websites, organize it, and put it on an iPod or a computer.

He was self-managing

Steve Jobs learned to take care of himself when his parents left him as a child. He was becoming more self-reliant and more likely to decide things independently.

When his family moved away from him and left him near Silicon Valley, where many electronic masters used to work, he figured out what was most important to him.

He was also drawn to this field. So, he finished his childhood by going to work for HP with the help of his neighbor and starting his career in technology.

He had psychological ability

Steve Jobs’ psychological ability assisted him in controlling his coworkers and maintaining authority in the organization.

Jobs was known to be harsh in the first place to undermine the confidence of anybody who dared to disagree with him. Then he created a father figure to advise that guy and persuade him to accept Jobs’ idea.

He was a strategy thinker

Redesigning necessitates a strategic thinker who will guide the product to success. Apple’s iPhone went through multiple prototypes before Jobs’ team settled on a beautiful and practical design.

Initially, the iPhone featured an aluminum covering that covered most of the phone’s front side, leaving just a tiny space for the display and blocking radio waves from reaching the signal processors.

Then, using their strategic thinking, Jobs and his electrical engineers created a second version with a glass front side, which enhanced signal quality.

He had great presenting skills

Steve Jobs had great presenting skills and used a few methods in his presentation that always encouraged his audience. He inspired his clients, investors, and staff with his presenting skills.

He was usually selling dreams to the audience rather than things. When the iPod first hit the market in 2001, he said, “In our own modest way, we’re going to make the world a better place.”

While most people regarded the iPod as a music player, Steve Jobs envisioned it as a tool to enhance people’s lives.

He led by example

Leaders need to be aware that their subordinates and subordinates’ subordinates keep an eye on their every action.

When it came to delegating work to others, Jobs wasn’t one of those managers who didn’t do anything himself. Jobs was right there with his workers if they were working through the night, and he had higher standards for himself than he did for them.

With both new and old ideas, Steve Jobs was always looking for ways to improve upon what was already there. Jobs’ work ethic is important to learn from, regardless of whether you worked with him.

“Steven, you have given me and many other businesses with nothing but the greatest route and leadership abilities to imitate,” said Speedmaxpc.com CEO Adam F. after Jobs’ death. “You’ll always be one of the greatest people our nation has ever had.”

"Stay hungry, stay foolish."

Steve Jobs

Final verdict

Steve Jobs was an autocratic but visionary leader. His leadership qualities distinguished him from previous global leaders, allowing him to be regarded as one of the greatest leaders of all time. Looking at Apple, how it altered the technical sector would not have been possible without Steve Jobs’ extraordinary traits and talents.