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.
