Square One Leadership

"You have to give up, to go up" - John Maxwell

To be humble to superiors is duty, to equals courtesy, to inferiors nobleness. – Benjamin Franklin

There has been much said recently about Steve Jobs and his style of leadership, love it or hate it, we should all learn what we can from it. In a Harvard Business Review article, Walter Isaacson, author of Steve Jobs, (@WalterIsaacson) writes, “I once asked [Steve Jobs] what he thought was his most important creation, thinking he would answer the iPad or the Macintosh. Instead he said it was Apple the company. Making an enduring company, he said, was both far harder and more important than making a great product.”

In a way, Steve Jobs was a servant leader. I won’t go as far as to say that he was the kind of leader that we would all want to follow. In fact I believe that Steve Jobs was a special kind of leader that influenced special kinds of followers. Isaacson writes, “One of the last times I saw him, after I had finished writing most of the book, I asked him again about his tendency to be rough on people. ‘Look at the results,’ he replied. ‘These are all smart people I work with, and any of them could get a top job at another place if they were truly feeling brutalized. But they don’t.’ Then he paused for a few moments and said, almost wistfully, ‘And we got some amazing things done.'”

Harvard Business Review Article: The Real Leadership Lessons of Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs knew that the people who followed him wanted to be challenged, they wanted audacious goals set, and they wanted to succeed; and he did just that.

When it comes to leading people leaders must be selfless, they must be servants. Now this does not mean subservient in the sense that you are at the beckon call of your team members but rather you help them achieve success. Entreleadership has a great podcast with Dan Cathy on this topic!

Here are 4 ways leaders can help their team achieve success:

1. Help them to set goals. (both professionally and personally)

2. Encourage them to reach those goals.

3. Keep them accountable on those goals.

4. Provide them opportunities to achieve those goals.

Here is a great Inc. Magazine article on setting goals!

When a leader helps their team members achieve their personal and professional goals they communicate to their team members that they are valuable!

What goals are you helping others achieve?

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