Great Leadership: Is Total Control The Number One Must Have Quality?

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Every person with an opinion on great leadership will dispute the number one quality for leadership as discussed in this article (and my previous articles – ruthlessness and fiery temperament), and will submit a range of counter suggestions. The reason for this is that great leadership is not an exact science.

It’s at best hit and miss.

A characteristic that might make one leader outstanding could make another person a hated dictator. Bill Gates of Microsoft was considered a great leader, yet he was also renowned for his temper tantrums and outbursts.

Bill Gates

Gates kept his finger in every single pie in the company and ruled his staff by constant and fierce interrogations which often led them to reverse their opinions and decisions. Control was basic to Gates’s nature and his management style.

He had an obsession with detail and with checking up on his staff. Even getting his right hand man, Steve Ballmer, to have his expenses slip signed off by him was part of his tasks. Bill Gates never treated his staff as equals and needed to control every part of the organisation.

If one were to then look at Microsoft as an example of a successful company, which one would need to agree to, and the leader it had through its extreme growth phases then one would say that every successful company needs a leader in the same mould as Bill Gates.

With that conclusion one would say that the number 1 must have quality for great leadership would need to be total control over the organisation. No staff member may do anything but follow the leader’s say so. Nobody may make one creative move.

Just in case you might think this is an example of an exceptional company with an extraordinary leader then look at Steve Jobs and Apple.

Steve Jobs

A Harvard study concluded that Steve Jobs is a horrible manager. He believes in the Great Man Theory of Leadership. This is a CEO-centric model of executive power which should be considered outmoded, unsustainable and ineffective.

This is how Steve Jobs rules.

He totally dictates to his staff. He overworks them,  underpays them. He shrouds his company in secrecy, treats his employees to tyrannical outbursts and he refuses to listen to customer feedback. His idea of life and business is that regular rules do not apply to him.

Just as an example of Job’s hard attitude to his customer he introduced the USB port on the Apple computers well before this technology had many followers. Apple users just had to find external gadgets that had USB connections if they wanted to plug anything into their machine.

Same principle with the hyper thin laptop the Air. No DVD drive anymore. Stop complaining Mr Consumer. It’s a beautiful machine, what do you need a DVD drive for. After all everything is now available to download online. There’s no doubt that this will happen in the future, but is not a reality as yet.

Here are two dictators. They are inflexible, hard-nosed, lacking in people skills type leaders. Their attitude crosses over into the consumer space. Gates told his consumers they would have to have Internet Explorer and Jobs has been as inflexible in dealing with his customers.

Yet they have built companies from nothing into world leaders becoming extraordinarily wealthy in the process. Yet every leadership manual out there will inform you that these qualities need to be avoided at all cost. They are not what’s needed to make an organisation work well.

So what’s your view?

What’s the number one quality for great leadership?