Leaders in business are often notoriously difficult to work with and driven by huge egos. Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, for example, alternately fought with and then praised each other throughout their careers until Jobs died. Moreover, Jobs didn’t just duke it out with the competition, he actually resigned from Apple in 1985 after some intra-company drama and then started his own computer company, NeXT.

Jobs even fought with legendary adman (and Jobs’ friend) Lee Clow, who oversaw advertising for the first iMac. Exercising a bit of his renowned ego, Jobs accused Clow of failing to capture the blue color of the iMac accurately in their print ads. He reportedly yelled at Clow over the phone — “You guys don’t what you’re doing!” — followed by some colorful language unfit to print. Clow eventually won that duel by confronting Jobs with the original photography lined up next to the print ads.

The flip side of that mercurial personality, though, is also often a streak of genius, and it can be — in Jobs’ case — an ability to see through to the essence of things. Writing for Inc.com, Marcel Schwantes refers to an interview Jobs gave to Rolling Stone magazine back in 1994. He cites a quote from Jobs when asked about the role of technology in the computer revolution underway. Jobs saw that there was and always will be something far more important than technology and summed up his thinking up, saying, “Technology is nothing. What’s important is that you have a faith in people, that they’re basically good and smart, and if you give them tools, they’ll do wonderful things with them.” Schwantes points to the heart of that quote as a perfect example of a fundamental lesson in leadership: “Have a faith in people.”

Moreover, Schwantes emphasizes that Jobs understood that faith in people extends beyond the people creating the products. “As Jobs matured as a leader,” he writes, “he didn’t just believe in technology’s power. He believed in people’s potential to use the technology. He knew that when you start with trust, collaboration and innovation follow.” Perhaps counter-intuitively, a great leader also understands that they should not insist on people earning their trust — they offer their trust and expect people to thereby experience and benefit from a sense of freedom to create.

Schwantes proposes that following this business philosophy — having faith in people and trusting them — has five important consequences.

“People feel safe.” Whenever anyone presents an idea, they are taking a risk. It might be a great idea, or it might make them look foolish. Recognizing that most ideas aren’t great and then respectfully evaluating an idea is the path toward making people feel safe to innovate without a fear of negative criticism.

“People take ownership.” Leaders aren’t experts in every aspect of a business. They hire smart people because they are the experts in their niche. When they are recognized as such, they are then eager to take accountability for their work.

“People feel respected.” Respect goes beyond respect for ideas — it extends to respect for every aspect of their role — their expertise, judgment, loyalty and motivation.

“People understand the ‘why.’” Jobs spoke extensively over the years about the importance of vision — and the importance of communicating that vision. Schwantes calls on a quote from Jobs which is the epitome of his belief: “Once they [people] know what to do, they’ll go figure out how to do it. What they need is a common vision. And that’s what leadership is: having a vision; being able to articulate that so the people around you can understand it; and getting a consensus on a common vision.”

“People solve problems quickly.” Virtually every project involves step-by-step development by every member of a team. Requiring approval at every step slows down a project immeasurably. Trusting people to approve their own work along the way, with as few stops for approval as possible, supercharges innovation.

Jobs may have been a cranky and contentious guy, but he also led a tremendously successful company. There’s value in the lessons he offers.

Photo Courtesy Joi Ito