The bulk of the work that I do as an executive coach involves leadership both development and enhancement. It doesn’t matter the type of organization, the level of the individual or the functions involved: it always is about leadership. Often I am asked to coach a new leader to make sure she/he is successful quickly; or to increase emotional intelligence (EIQ) in very brilliant introverts, whose teams are not performing as well as they could, or high potential executives who need coaching to insure continued success. For the most part, executive coaching works to develop and enhance existing behaviors as well as adding new skills deemed necessary.
Often the major skills or behaviors I am asked to work on include impulse control or self-regulation, which is one of the internal EIQ subsets. At times I am retained to coach an executive who is brilliant but comes across to her/his team as manipulative, scary, narcissistic and highly volatile. The organization wants those behaviors eliminated from the executive and new more collaborative behaviors instilled.
Yet it is exactly those “negative” behaviors that organizations deem inappropriate and harmful that Steve Jobs displayed as the leader of Apple. From what you read about him, it is exactly these traits plus his brilliance and passion that made Apple so successful. So, the question becomes, are we entering a new era of what leadership looks like and what motivates and drives a successful team? Are the countless surveys and studies that state that leadership based on collaboration, and more humanistic approaches outdated and ineffective now? Or is Steven Jobs really more in touch with his EIQ than we think?
Steve Jobs was aware enough to know that his volatility and emotional outbursts would test the strength of his staff’s convictions, but he also knew that he needed someone to pick up the pieces of his destruction. The COO who is now his successor, is a compassionate, silent type who makes sure things work operationally. Perhaps Steve Jobs did know what he was doing after all.
So maybe being as brilliant and forward thinking as Steve Jobs, coupled with self-awareness about what he can and cannot do, and whom he can intimidate and whom he needed to praise, is a possible way to lead. Just make sure you are as brilliant and adventuresome as Mr. Jobs and are willing to accept the consequences.
