My reflection blog this week is to review the video debrief of Steve Jobs and discuss how my characteristics would  fit with the make-up and culture of the NeXT start up team. Using my Management Assessment (MA) assessment results I would think I am more than likely able to work with Jobs since the overall assessment deemed I had the great characteristics of being an entrepreneur.

Entrepreneur

In my area of processing creativity, I prefer to follow standard rules and practices when implementing solutions to problems verses adapting or shifting processes to achieve solutions. When Job met with his team, whom many followed him from Apple, made a statement “the one thing that made apple great is that it was built by the heart, and we did not always use our heads…we have a passion and need to build NeXT by the heart”.  I took from this statement that Job’s brought a standard from Apple, but opening identified that they need to shift and be smarter about how the new business should be operated.  I gather from this that Job’s is somewhat middle of the road on creativity and is aware that he need to do something very different. (Jobs, 2012)

There appeared to be someone of vision and objective clarity where Job’s kept bringing in the overall vision and the need to create a product that is attractive to the targeted community. There were concerns about software making defined commitments, and discomfort from some team members about meeting the overall commitments about various teams. It was creative when Jobs brought the team together to increase team alliance, where he was instrumental in to bring the team to work as a team, be accountable. Jobs from the beginning tend to drive home the need for perfection. I valued job’s comment of how they are 90 days into the new business, and he had forgotten how much has to be done to actually start up a business from financial accounts, kitchen with coffee, metrics, etc. Jobs had a very compassionate commitment to his efforts about leaving a legacy. (Jobs, 2012)

Where I fit in

When it came to debrief one, I cannot say that I am a very enthusiastic entrepreneur. In my MA debrief there where two areas that I was able to target and it was the community service or service to others. Although I was debriefed that I would be a great entrepreneur, it really is nothing I would be ever interested in doing. I do however embrace community service to make a difference to others, and tend to put myself last.  I feel Job’s had that same characteristic but put it into building products that would make our communities a better place.

When it comes to leadership styles I scored the highest in logical verses diplomatic strategic or logical. In the MA, “Logical leaders exhibit a team-oriented leadership approach”. I would think that Jobs and I would actually carry the same type of approach, however I would assume that jobs has more of the diplomatic and strategic characteristics based on the debrief. The value that we have in common is the logical management style is “suited for leaders who excel in organizational areas because they are concerned with meeting schedules, accomplishing specific tasks, and work toward concrete goals and are comfortable taking decisive action based on facts.” Job’s discussed these same characteristics in his debrief, and the one value is that jobs was working very hard at creating a line of communication with his team and worked better on his influence skills. (Next Step Research, 2015)

Conclusion

In watching the video and review my MA debrief, I feel Steve Jobs and I would have a lot of similar characteristics. The one area I think we would different is my goal ambition is very conservative verses I interpret jobs to be extremely aggressive in his goals. He created his very major company in his 20s and aggressive started NexT after leaving apple. The last area where we are different is that I am not very good at taking risk, and Jobs is very assertive with abilities to take risk. Finally the last thing that I think we very much have in common is strong passion in things we believe in. Steve jobs is a true entrepreneur who has vision, likes risks, and extremely motivated in his abilities to create new products. In the end, I feel the one area where we share the most valuable characteristics of passion.

Works Cited

Jobs, S. (2012, January 19). Steve Jobs Brainstorms with NexT Team. Retrieved December 19, 2015, from Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=loQhufxiorM&feature=youtu.be

Next Step Research. (2015, October 19). Management Assessment Profile. Alexandria, Virginia, USA: Next Step Research.