Kaila Colbin wrote an interesting blog at MediaPost's Online Spin: The Productive Narcissism Of Steve Jobs. At the heart of the article is a plea for bosses to not attempt to emulate Steve Jobs or Henry Ford -- both notorious "asshole" bosses -- but rather to understand that good people can also be great managers.
She explains:
"Jobs and Ford were tyrants because they were visionary, because
of their internal dissonance between reality and possibility. If you do
not suffer from this dissonance, no amount of bad behavior towards your
colleagues will turn you into a visionary. And I believe it’s entirely
possible to be a visionary and to be kind."
This is the kind of message I think bosses and potential bosses need to read...maybe two or three times. Too often, those in charge assume that with enough bluster and bullying they will seem like leaders. Want proof, ask everyone you know if they have ever had an asshole boss. Depending on your mindset, you will be amazed at the response.
While I agree with the post in regards to managing people, I think there's a challenge in equating Jobs and Ford.
In response to Kaila's post, I commented:
"A challenge, historically, though is in using Jobs and Ford as the
models here. Ford, despite his shortcomings as a person/boss, built a
system that revolutionized business. For all the hagiography about Jobs,
the iPod, iPad, etc., can hardly be thought about the same way. Perhaps
Jobs would have done something more important with his power and
creativity had he lived a longer life, but I don't see how we hail him
for making consumer goods that exist merely to get people to purchase
them.
The root of evil in Jobs' case is narcissism and money. He felt entitled
to act the way he did b/c he was too big for anyone to stand up to him.
Perhaps history will some day view him as the world's worst boss than
some kind of creative genius for creating consumer goods that have no
societal value."
Yes, people love their Macs, iPhones, iPods, iPads, etc., but can we get past turning Jobs into a saint for creating basically worthless consumer goods? As such, there is no feasible way to compare Ford and Jobs on historical importance.
The eminent historian Gordon Wood recently commented about the value of having a historical mindset, saying, "To get our bearings, to get our directions, we need to know where we've been." He added, "Without knowing history, one is living in a two-dimensional world, not experiencing reality as it ought to be experienced."
Jobs hagiography is not good history.
