Great leadership is the centerpiece of every successful enterprise, and Apple is no exception. The precedent-setting tech company can consistently be relied upon to deliver the most cutting-edge devices out there. And when a new product from them hits the market, the business' countless loyalists get in long, and occasionally violent lines, and wait to use it. Much of the modern mythology that is the story of Apple centers around Steve Jobs, the company's perfectionist, occasionally tyrannical and undeniably brilliant co-founder and CEO. For all those companies out there aiming to lay tracks for a successful operation, Jobs is one of the first people they're likely to look to. But what aspect of Jobs' tenure should be scrutinized? How about something that's universal to pretty much every organization out there – running meetings. Here are some takeaways for how Jobs led meetings that can be applied to your office or not – depending on the atmosphere you're trying to have:
- Don't overpopulate them: Ken Segall collaborated with Jobs for a long time, and was so impressed with how the man took care of business that he wrote a book about it entitled, "Insanely Simple: The Obsession That Drives Apple's Success." In an excerpt from the book published on Entrepreneur, Segall explained that one of the characterizing features of a typical Apple meeting was its lack of overcrowding. Many companies seem to think that the more staffers you stuff into a room, the more seriously they'll take the meeting, but Jobs knew that wasn't the case. When Jobs ran a meeting, he made sure that it contained only the relevant staff members – the ones who'd be able to provide direct contributions and benefit the most. In this way, staff gatherings were more expeditious and productive.
- Kick out the irrelevant people: This may sound like a mean piece of advice, but if you want to run a Job-like office, you have to be ruthless. Basically, Jobs wasn't afraid to kick people out mid-meeting who weren't an asset to what was being discussed. There's a story, for instance, about him singling out a new employee during a meeting and determining that she wouldn't really add anything to the conversation. Therefore, he told her kindly but firmly to get out. The only thing here is that if you employ this practice, you can basically guarantee that it'll lead to office tension. The question is: Can you find a way to leverage that tension for productive ends? If not, then maybe steer clear of being confrontational in meetings.
- Ditch the PowerPoints and embrace the face-to-face: It may seem ironic that arguably the world's most influential tech leader was averse to deploying multimedia technology in his meetings, but that was exactly the case. Whereas many corporate leaders can't string two words together without a PowerPoint in front of them, Jobs hated any kind of technology that would detract from the face-to-face time that's central to business meetings. Jobs was so adamant about this that there was actually a strict no-slideshow rule for Apple meetings. A lot of people think they're helpful, but Jobs clearly thought they were something to hide behind.
- Forget long meetings: If you've ever sat in a business meeting – and we take it you have – then you're familiar with the sleepiness that descends after about the 20-minute mark. If you can make it to the end of a one and a half-hour meeting without momentarily losing consciousness, then we laud you, but that's not a feat we can claim to have achieved ourselves. Jobs understood that people don't function well in long meetings, and therefore he kept them to half-hour slots.
