Alberto Gil
After
watching the video of the “NeXT” company start up I was reminded of some of the
techniques which I read about throughout the last two semesters and I was a bit
surprised by Steve Jobs leadership skills. Although he is a very successful
business man I believe that through studying his mistakes there are some
different techniques which I could have applied to give the NeXT Company a
chance at survival. As mentioned in this video what we were watching was the
NeXT start up team, even though this was supposed to be a team I feel like it
was not treated as a team where everyone had an equal say. I do believe that
just by looking at this video that Steve was definitely in charge and he seemed
to drown out everyone else’s voice.
There
are many different characteristics to a “self-managed work team” (Brown 2011),
I think that if the strategic components of a self-managed work team would have
been implemented in the case of this start up team things could have turned out
differently. One of the characteristics of a self-managed team which I believe
would have made a difference is that “team members have a sense of vision”;
having a vision ensures that everyone is on the same page. One issue which I
saw stand out to me was the fact that everyone had their own vision of what
this new computer system had to be. Some people could not agree on the price
and the technology, others could not agree on a
deadline; Steve’s leadership style seemed to dictate all of these decisions.
It seemed like Steve was so much in control that it made me wonder why he was
having these retreats and team meetings if he was not going to seriously
consider what his team was trying to explain to him. Even though it is
important to be objective in a team it is also important to take your team
members advice seriously even if you do not agree with them.
Looking
at my results from my management assessment I saw a couple of things which I
was not surprised about. It said that I have more of a tactical leadership
style than anything else, the characteristics of a tactical leader consist of persuade,
negotiate, troubleshoot, and appreciate (Management assessment). I found this analysis
to be spot on, I do not try to run the show in a totalitarian way; instead I
like to persuade with facts and also negotiate. I believe that in a team
atmosphere there is no characteristic more important than someone that knows
how to negotiate, if we are to be team leaders we need to know how to deal with
others and find common grounds. I believe that my leadership style could have
been a good fit in a group of individuals similar to this one where everyone is
very knowledgeable.
Another
characteristic of “Self-managed work teams” is that “there is a strong
partnership between members and management”. So even if Steve was considered to
be strictly management in these meetings there should have been a stronger
sense of partnership. To me it seemed like Steve was acting as a team member
but in the end he would make the management decisions on his own while keeping
a supervisor/ subordinate relationship. I believe that since Steve brought
these people over from another company to be partners then he should have
treated them as such. I think I was able to sense a bit of resentment from some
of the team members; there was a sense that they felt their opinions did not
make a difference.
I do
not believe that I have all of the answers to being a good leader but based off
of my past experience and studying my personal management assessment I do
believe that I can be a good team leader. I have noticed that I do like to
listen to others and I take into account others opinions and weight them
heavily prior to making a hasty decision. Even when I am in charge and
accountable for being the sole leader I listen to others opinions rather than
use the power of my title. Being in charge is a great privilege but I believe
that with that power comes the great responsibility of knowing when to listen
to others as well. I believe that if Steve had taken into account his team
members advice the outcome for NeXT could have been different.
References:
Brown, D. (2011). An experiential approach to
organizational development (8th ed.). Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall.
Client Report Alberto Gil. (2015, May 20). Retrieved May 21,
2015.
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