CASE STUDY OF A FIRST TIME MANAGERi Fred This was early in my career, and I didnt have any experience

in promoting people into management. But I was working for a rapidly growing company, and my organization had gotten too big for me to manage all by myself. I needed to add a manager below me to supervise some of the programmers. Fred had already demonstrated project leadership skills, and he seemed to relate to people pretty well. I didnt have a lot of other candidates in my organization, and I wanted to promote from within, so I decided to give Fred a shot as a new manager. Two things sabotaged Freds chances from the start. First, he seemed to think that making him a manager made him always right. Where previously he would have open and honest discussions with project team members about technical details, now he didnt want to get their feedback. The way he saw it, he was manager so he told his people what to do. If he didnt know what to do, he just made something up. Big mistake! Second, he couldnt handle the pressure. This was probably related to the first reason, but it made matters worse. He would freeze up and become almost unresponsive in certain confrontational situations. Its as if he was trying to hold himself back from exploding. Or maybe he just froze out of fear. I tried to help Fred in his new role, providing advice and coaching. But it was clear that things werent going to change very quickly, and so I took Fred out of the manager role and looked elsewhere for a solution. Fred calmed down once he was off the hot-seat, and he went back to being a good project leader. I lost track of him over the next few years, so I dont know whether he ever got over his initial problem and went into management again. His first attempt certainly didnt work out well, so I could understand him being reluctant after that. Lessons Learned (by me, by Fred) You cant always tell in advance who will make a good manager and who wont. Obviously I was wrong about Fred. Some guidance from my own manager about how to pick a new manager would have been useful, but I was pretty much left to fend for myself. Being in management doesnt give you any special knowledge or insight that you didnt have before. And its important that you dont act like it does. Being a manager gives you some authority and the opportunity for some different behavior. Its up to you how you use it. It helps if theres a way to reverse a bad promotion. In some companies you couldnt move Fred back to an individual contributor role youd have to fire him. And in other companies Freds pay grade would have changed with the promotion, and it would be an administrative nightmare trying to change him back to his old position and salary. Few companies allow you to try out a manager.

CASE STUD OF STEVE JOBSii Who was He?

Steve Jobs was the Chairman and CEO of Apple Computers Inc. and arguably one of the worlds most successful businessmen of today. He founded Apple in the 1970s, got chased out by his own board of directors, but returned eventually as Apples CEO. Since then, he has revolutionized the IT industry with his creations like the MacBook, the iPod and the iPhone. Since his return, he has brought Apple Computers Inc. from a fledgling company to a global force to be reckoned with.

A Quick History
Steve Jobs was born in San Francisco in Feburary 24, 1955. He was an adopted son of the Jobs couple from California. Jobs attended Homestead High School in California and often went to the after school lectures by Hewlett-Packard Company. It was there that he met his eventual partner, Steve Wozniak. Jobs would have his early beginnings working at Atari as a technician building circuit boards. In 1976, he would start the company Apple Inc. with Steve with funding from a millionaire investor. In 1984, he developed the Macintosh, which was the first small computer with a graphic interface in its time. It had promise to revolutionize the whole PC industry. However, bad business decision and internal stife with his CEO would eventually cause Jobs to leave his own company. He went on to start two other companies; NeXT and Pixar. Pixar would be acquired by the Disney Company and NeXT would be acquired by his own Apple Computers Inc. With the acquisition, he returned to Apple Computers Inc. in 1996 as interim CEO. From that time on, the rise of Apple Computers began again as the iMac would be developed. The famous iPod and iPhone would later be developed and it would revolutionize the whole handphone and MP3 player industry. Under his leadership, Apple Computers Inc. became a force to be reckoned with. In 2009, Jobs would have a personal net worth of $5.1 billion. However due to the need for a liver transplant, Jobs took a break from his work since January 2009.

LEADERSHIP LESSONS 1. Persistence is the key Steve Jobs was a very persistent person and it was most exempilifed through his exit from Apple. He would not give up, but went on to start NeXT computers which would eventually be acquired by Apple Computers Inc. If Jobs was like most people, he would have given up and spent the rest of his life being bitter about his loss. As a leader, you have to be ready to face setbacks. Setbacks are a part of life and whether you become successful or not often depend on your ability not to give up. It is all the more important to display this attribute, especially if you want to build a never-say-die team. 2. Innovation brings leadership Jobs saw the power of innovation in building his company. Till today, we can see the innovating power of Apple Computers Inc as it continues to take market leadership in the industry. If you want to maintain your leadership, you have to be the one whos constantly up with new ideas, new initiatives, all in the spirit of moving your organizational mission forward. In whatever industry youre in, your constant innovation in alignment with your mission will keep you ahead of the pack.

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