What HR and HR Tech Should Learn From Steve Jobs

Posted by Jason Averbook 以下文章是作者认为所有的HR人员和HR Tech应该向乔布斯学习的一些东西，相信作者的观点会给您新的启发。

WRITTEN PRIOR TO THE PASSING OF STEVE JOBS TODAY 10/5/2011 Whether you re a mac or a PC I m pretty sure we can agree on one thing about Steve Jobs this guy was a testament to great leadership. He took a near obsolete brand and propelled it to a cultural icon and possibly the most valuable company in the world. As he stepped down from his post as CEO, I ve been thinking about the leadership lessons I ve learned from him. This week has me especially grateful for these lessons, as I had the honor of watching Knowledge Infusion make the Inc. 500/5000 List for the third consecutive year. The path to this success has taken tremendous effort from the entire KI team and it s taken some amazingly tough decisions by our leadership team. I ve learned that great leadership is not an accident, it takes practice, it takes a healthy appetite for risk and it takes some serious guts. Here are 5 Lessons I ve Learned from Steve Jobs: 1) Think Different Apple makes tools so the people crazy enough to think they can change the world can. There is no doubt that Steve Jobs thinks about everything differently. It s been at the core of his leadership style since I was age

13 when I got my first computer ever from my parents, an Apple II+. And he doesn t just talk about it he makes thinking differently the reason for Apple s existence. Apple s hardware and software business has been engineered to attract people who think differently it s been engineered to attract the crazy ones, the misfits, and the troublemakers. If your goal as an HR professional is to make a difference, and change the world , then you ve got to have the hutzpah to buck the status quo, leap out of your comfort zone and think differently. 2) Reinvent Everything Just when you think you ve made it reinvent it. Reinvention is a recurring theme in the world of Steve Jobs. He helped reinvent (and rejuvenate) the Apple brand when he came back in 1997 and launched the original Apple Store and he continues to help reinvent the way we all work and live as he leads Apple s overwhelming success with mobile products. One of my favorite reads about Steve Jobs came from Josh Bernoff where he discusses in his blog entitled, The Meaning of Steve, how Jobs has changed the world 5 times. What are those 5 times?: The personal computer when everyone thought there was no such thing as a personal computer with the Apple II Macintosh what? A mouse, icons, graphical user interface? iPod now why would you have an iPod when the Sony Walkman would always rule the world (an example of a company that didn t reinvent in time) iPhone interesting.. this device could never take over for the Palm or the Blackberry (more examples where reinvention didn t occur iPad now for something that can destroy the PC industry unthinkable (well, it is happening very quickly) As a leader, your job is to stay ahead of the curve and constantly reinvent what success looks like. To stay ahead of that curve, your approach to people, process and technology needs continual reinvention. 3) Trust Yourself to Lead In 2005, Steve Jobs told the graduating class at Stanford: You can t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life. As leaders we have to trust ourselves to make the tough decisions especially when our future is uncertain we won t always be popular and our decisions won t always make sense to people; but real leaders surround themselves with intelligent people, do their homework and trust their instincts to forge ahead. Within Knowledge Infusion, there are days like yesterday which I dread for many reasons. But I trust in myself and realize that on some days the decisions that look right are wrong and that ones that look wrong are right. You ve got to trust in yourself that you have all of the information possible to make a decision, and that you ve surrounded yourself with others that can lead and who trust you to continue to push forward. 4) Leave a Legacy It s better to be remembered for taking chances than to not be remembered at all. Steve Jobs has taken a lot of chances, some worked out, and the rest went gangbusters no matter what the outcome though, one thing is certain he is leaving an unbelievable legacy. He has changed the way we think about so many routines in our lives. I recently read an article titled, what apple babies reveal about our tech routines. In the article Martin Lindstrom describes how babies react to technology (he gives them Blackberry s and when the screens don t light up, half of them put it in their mouths) and he makes the point that a whole new generation is being primed in their most formative years to think Apple. It s fascinating the way these new technology rituals have entered our lives. And they are replacing old rituals. Take the time to think about your legacy or more importantly why you want to leave one (hint: self-serving legacies don t survive.) Your legacy will be creating the OSM (Oh Shit Moment) where you look in the mirror, your department looks in the mirror and says, this is our one chance to truly make HR a strategic function and we are going to leave our legacy. That time is now! 5) Plan for the Future (not just for the CEO) On Wednesday, Steve Jobs announced that he is resigning his post as CEO of Apple. At the opening bell, Wall Street had a small panic attack and some folks are already planning for slow death, but my bet is that Steve knows exactly what he s doing. He has built an executive management team and embedded a culture at Apple that will sustain their innovation and ability to think different. As HR leaders, it s our responsibility to help the organization plan for the future. We can t let shorter term initiatives like upgrades and implementations derail us from the long term goals. We can t let the fact that we don t have the data today get in our way tomorrow. We must effective TODAY, make a plan to get the data, create the process and procure the technology in 2012 to really plan. The CEO role is important, but there are jobs within Apple and organizations like yours that are even more important than the CEO. What got Knowledge Infusion to the Inc. list is hardly based on the CEO, it is based on a group of dedicated, passionate people who believe in the same thing. The CEO can help drive this, but it is ensuring the others are in place. And when they are not in place find them, groom them and turn them into leaders and more importantly, believers. I ll leave you with one of my favorite quotes from Steve again it came from his

05 commencement speech: Your time is limited, so don t waste it living someone else s life. Don t be trapped by dogma which is living with the results of other people s thinking. Don t let the noise of others opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary. For your Friday Fodder, take the above quote and break it down Your time is limited - if you can t do what you believe has to be done in your organization, find an organization that you can. Contact me for a job within Knowledge Infusion, we need more people like you. Don t be trapped by dogma most of HR is in this situation today. Today is a different day. The world is different, the people are different, the business world is diff