You won’t often find me reading the latest titles on the shelves of airport bookstores. But I had a long look at the straight-staring photo cover of Walter Isaacson’s biography of Steve Jobs, published just after his death, and an even longer 12-hour flight to Cape Town in February, which pushed me over the edge. If you’ve ever worked with a visionary, charismatic leader, or if you’ve been told that you are one, then this book is a worthwhile read. Isaacson captures one after another of the anecdotes that make up Jobs’ management of himself and of Apple’s work by “reality distortion field”. Jobs was able to imagine well beyond what was believed possible and propel employees into that workspace. And by doing so, he brought the unimagined into our daily lives and built the most successful company in the world. Beware, though, this book isn’t one about “nice guys finishing first”, even though we hear a lot about Jobs’ lifelong aspirational Buddhist practice. Jobs could be brutal and hard-judging in his relations. For someone whose own creativity was abundant, he had quite a strange penchant for hoarding credit for the ideas and innovations suggested to him by others. Or, the stories make one wonder, was the power of creative suggestion such a spur for him that Jobs ran with a new idea and made it his own even unconsciously? I find myself still chewing on the composite of this amazing man and recommending it to coaching clients a lot lately. I’d be curious to know what you take away from this portrait.
