The Timeless Leadership Wisdom of Jobs and Sinek

After being fired from Apple, Steve Jobs founded a company called NeXT. NeXT was a technology firm that specialized in creating advanced computer workstations for business and higher education. Its programming innovations and enhanced graphical interfaces were groundbreaking, setting trends in the early evolution of home and office computing.

While working at NeXT, Jobs gave a talk at MIT. After his presentation, he invited questions from the audience. One student asked:

“What was the most important thing you personally learned at Apple that you are now doing at NeXT?”

Jobs immediately responded, “Great question,” and paused for a long moment, thoughtfully considering his answer. After reflecting, he told the class:

“I’m not sure I learned this at Apple but based on the data when I was at Apple. And that is, I now take a longer-term view on people. In other words, when I see something not being done right, my first reaction isn’t to go fix it. It’s to say, we’re building a team here, we’re going to do great stuff the next decade, not just the next year. And so, what do I need to do to help so that the person that is screwing up learns. Versus how do I fix the problem.”

This insight from Jobs ties into another story shared years later by Simon Sinek, the bestselling author and motivational speaker. Sinek was ordering coffee at a Four Seasons hotel in Las Vegas when he struck up a friendly conversation with the barista. During their chat, Sinek asked:

“Do you like your job?”

Without hesitation, the barista, Noah, replied, “I love my job.”

Curious, Sinek followed up, “What is the Four Seasons doing to make you love your job?”

Noah quickly explained, “Throughout the day, managers will walk past me and ask how am I doing and is there anything I need to do my job better? He continued, “Not just my manager, any manager. I also work at Caesar’s Palace and the managers are trying to make sure we do everything right, and they catch us when we do things wrong.”

Jobs shared his lesson in 1985. Sinek shared his story in 2016. Even though 31 years separate these two experiences, the underlying message is timeless: people we lead want us to teach them, help them, stand with them, and pass along our knowledge to them. They want our help, not our criticism. They want to know making mistakes isn’t a bad thing, because we can help.

When we practice what Jobs learned at Apple, when we ask how we can help, we create a safe place for those we lead. And like Noah, they’ll love it.

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