Thomas R. Hoerr
Principal Connection
Lessons from Steve Jobs
Jobs’s style flies
in the face of
conventional
thinking about
leaders and
leadership.
Thomas R. Hoerr is
head of school at the
New City School,
5209 Waterman Ave.,
St. Louis, MO 63108;
trhoerr@newcity
school.org. He is the
author of The Art of
School Leadership
(ASCD, 2005) and
School Leadership
for the Future (NAIS
Press, 2008).
What can school leaders learn from Steve Jobs’s career and from the success of Apple Inc.? Jobs was a
larger-than-life individual who changed the
world with his inspiration and tenacity. He has
been favorably compared to Thomas Edison,
Henry Ford, and Pablo Picasso, geniuses in
invention, manufacturing, and art.
But Jobs was a complex figure. His compelling public persona—standing on stage
ushering in a new “must-have” product, wearing
a black T-shirt and jeans, but mostly attired
in charisma that didn’t
quit—stands in sharp contrast with his behavior as a
CEO. He violated practically
every leadership tenet and
apparently wasn’t a very
pleasant person.
In a November 14, 2011,
New Yorker article, Malcolm
Gladwell calls Jobs a bully
and says, “Even within
Apple, Jobs was known
for taking credit for others’
ideas.” Writing in the
October 27, 2011, Rolling
Stone, Jeff Goodell says “Those who knew Jobs
best and worked with him most closely;.;.;.
were always struck by his abrasive personality,
his unapologetic brutality. He screamed, he
cried, he stomped his feet” (p.; 38). In his 2011
biography of Jobs, Walter Isaacson said, “Driven
by demons, he could drive those around him to
fury and despair” (p.;xxi).
Jobs’s style flies in the face of conventional
thinking about leaders and leadership. But his
willingness to demean others and his disdain
for seeking input didn’t prevent Apple from
becoming the world’s most valuable company.
Unfortunately, Jobs is not alone in exhibiting
leadership behaviors that humiliate others. All
too often, coaches verbally abuse their players
and engage in temper tantrums. One of the
lowlights of Bobby Knight’s basketball coaching
career was when he threw a chair onto the court
in a fit of anger. And yet their teams win lots of
games. How can this be?
