Steve Jobs Broke Every Leadership Rule. Don't Try It Yourself.

The mistake of this article is to divorce intent from execution.

Most workplaces aren't looking to change the world. As such the employees aren't willing to put up with the same exacting standards. So acting like Steve Jobs in such a company wouldn't work.

But the reason Apple works is because the employees believe in a higher cause. They believe in making the computing experience better and are willing to take abuse to achieve that. Because they realize the abuse has a purpose. Look at the MobileMe example given in the article. Jobs didn't say "I hate you" or "you're fired" he said "YOU should hate each other for having let each other down"

So the question of "Should you act like Steve Jobs?" is answered like this. If your employees share a common purpose they feel passionately about then the Jobs model is the right one.

I would say that you should probably not try to emulate any leadership style too much*. I don't think Steve Jobs did. Successful leadership styles seem to me to come from your own personality, as well as things you have observed to work. That's not to say "Don't learn from others", but it is more "Don't copy other people's style", Steve Jobs or otherwise.

This article would have been more interesting if there were a list of things he did wrong, and examples of other large companies doing the same things and how it screwed them over.

Otherwise, the saying comes to mind "In Theory, Theory and Practice are the same. In Practice, they are not."