In light of reading the article 10 Golden Lessons From Steve Jobs on the Ririan Project, I decided to read up a little on Steve Jobs myself. And I ran across this quote that reminded me of something I read before:
The people who are doing the work are the moving force behind the Macintosh. My job is to create a space for them, to clear out the rest of the organization and keep it at bay.
-Steve Jobs
It reminded me that as a manager and a leader, one of my top priorities should be to remove all the obstacles to success for my team as I possibly can. Obstacles can be anything. Distraction, lack of resources, micromanagement, etc. My feeling is if I can provide them with all the tools they need, and the space they need get things done, I’ve already accomplished a major part of my job.
1 Comment
May 6, 2007 at 4:15 pm
Yo Ryan what up!
If you are talking about making their jobs and daily tasks easier to accomplish by clearing out all of the minutia. I would maybe lose the term subordinate (negative) and go with calling them your team, as they are your supporting cast.
Like the blog.
Leader101: I agree with you. I actually already changed it from subordinates to team before reading your comment. Referring to them as my team includes them into the greater collective. Which is actually more the case at my company.