Leadership styles from the 80s: Steve Jobs vs Bill Gates

By watching the great leaders of our century, we can take valuable types of leadership which can make our business and ourselves grow and develop. These are the keys to leadership from Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, two technology titans.

Look ahead

Both the founder of Microsoft and the CEO of Apple had something in common: they always looked ahead, searching for the best tactic to achieve their goals, which they never lost sight of. Their actions, when leading their companies, were always intended to taking the next steps that would get them closer to their goals. Do as them; focus your energies on ensuring that every move you make takes you closer to the goal, instead of away from it.

Define immediate steps

What truly differentiates great leaders like Bill Gates or Steve Jobs from other CEOs is their ability to know what really needs to be done, beyond all the theories and intangible ideals that many managers have in mind for their performance as leaders. The important thing, and what makes the difference, is to adopt the appropriate leadership strategy: knowing what must be done today to achieve results tomorrow.

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Visualize your great goal

Bill Gates devoted all his efforts to making a dream come true. The founder of Microsoft envisioned a world in which every person had access to a computer at a time when that was something not even remotely common. Years later, virtually every office for any job in the world has a PC.

Meanwhile, Steve Jobs visualized the big accomplishment of his iPod: he fantasized about the idea of ??having all conceivable music stored in a pocket-sized device. Do as both leaders did and visualize what you want to achieve.

Create added value

Both Apple and Microsoft, thanks to their strategies carried out by their charismatic leaders, go way beyond their mere products. In the case of Gates’ company, the advantage is clear: the Windows operating system is very much widespread, thanks in part to its continuous ability to update and launch new products to increase its value (for example, the entire Office package, the Internet Explorer browser, or Windows Media Player).

As for the almighty Apple, it is also much more than their mobile devices. The iOS operating system used by Macintosh computers and other extremely well-known hardware products, as well as its business culture, have generated an undisputed technical leadership in the industry. Follow the example of Apple and Microsoft, and always try to create added value in your company so that creativity and upgrading will be a core idea in your business and your leadership.

Count on the people

Talking about Bill Gates and not mentioning his philanthropic and humanitarian face, would be painting an incomplete picture Microsoft’s leadert. Despite his great fortune, Bill and his wife Melinda Gates, started the Gates Foundation to help fight against inequalities. An empathetic gesture that helps people see in Bill Gates not only a tycoon, but a good leader who also works to help others grow, a quality that every successful leader must have.

Steve Jobs also had confidence in people, but in a different way. He was the author of many company motivational speeches of the XXI, a skill – the ability to motivate – essential to maintain a good team atmosphere and a positive attitude that will lead us to success. The CEO of Apple also showed that he had confidence in his team when, back in 2011, he proposed to Tim Cook, current CEO of the company, to replace him as head of Apple. Jobs knew then how to rely on his people, yet another one of the qualities of good leadership.

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What other leadership strategies do you take from Bill Gates and Steve Jobs?

Image: Flickr / Kay Kim