This article first appeared in Forum, The Edge Malaysia Weekly on September 14, 2020 - September 20, 2020

“The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.” — Apple’s “Think Different” commercial, 1997

Try as we might to find the secrets of leadership, there is no perfect method when it comes to managing a team. There are tips, tricks and best practices, of course. But we simply cannot plan for everything.

A large part of being a great leader comes with the anticipation of unexpected problems and a willingness to tackle them. Our present new normal is a case in point. We did not foresee the pandemic coming, but we have to deal with it until a long-term solution is found.

But, really, what being an inspirational leader all boils down to is having people skills, inspiration and innovation. The fluid mindset of a leader is far more important than any rigid practices or principles.

Steve Jobs, when he led Apple, was the quintessential example of an inspiring manager. His creative awareness, his meticulous eye for detail, were clearly a driving force in Apple’s success. What made Apple such a distinct brand amid a world of fast-growing tech companies was its inspiring simplicity — and that was the brainchild of Jobs and his artistic flair.

Jobs was not just known for his artistic perfectionism, though. More than that, he was a man of his people, a hard worker by heart and a creative who fell deeply in love with his work. He was an entrepreneur who would go on to inspire generations of business people long after his death. He is but one example of inspiring leaders who have painted our history.

Inspiration is a funny thing. It is powerful enough to move mountains and paint the skies. When it strikes, it carries a leader and his goals forward like the rushing torrents of a flooded river. And yet, if you wait for it, nothing happens. A cursory look at Apple’s lack of achievements after it fired Jobs in 1985 and then his triumphant return in 1997 is a good case in point. But what is inspiration? And why is it important?

In a culture obsessed with measuring talent and ability, we tend to overlook the important role of inspiration. Its history of being treated as supernatural or divine has not helped the situation. But recent research has shown that inspiration can be activated, captured and manipulated, and it has a major effect on important life outcomes.

Inspiration, to my mind, is something that makes you want to do something or gives you an idea about what to do or create. It is a force or influence that inspires someone, that makes someone want to do or create something.

The irony is that so much is created — mountains moved, sagas written, grand murals painted — by those who might not even describe themselves as particularly inspired. Instead, they show up every day and put their hands on their shovels, their pen to paper and they move their paintbrush forward, bit by bit, word by word, perhaps not even recognising that inspiration is striking in hundreds of tiny, microscopic ways as they push through another load of dirt, another page, another colour. Or, in Job’s case, another innovation.

His saga is the entrepreneurial creation myth writ large: Steve Jobs co-founded Apple in his parents’ garage in 1976, was ousted in 1985, returned to rescue it from near bankruptcy in 1997 and, by the time he died in October 2011, had built it into the world’s most valuable company.

Along the way, he helped to transform seven major industries: personal computing, animated movies, music, phones, tablet computing, retail stores and digital publishing. He thus belongs in the pantheon of the world’s great innovators, along with Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell and Akio Morita. None of these men was a saint, but long after their personalities are forgotten, history will remember how they applied imagination and inspiration to technology and business.

In their research on inspiration, University of Rochester psychologists Todd M Thrash and Andrew J Elliot noted there are three core aspects of inspiration that can be defined: evocation, transcendence and approach motivation.

First, inspiration is evoked spontaneously without intention. Like a thunderbolt, inspiration can strike whenever time is fertile for it to jump to the fore.

Inspiration is also transcendent of our self-serving concerns and limitations. Such transcendence often involves a moment of clarity and awareness of new possibilities. This moment of clarity is often vivid, and can take the form of a grand vision, or a “seeing” of something one has not seen before (but that was probably always there).

Finally, inspiration involves approach motivation, in which the individual strives to transmit, express or actualise a new idea or vision. Inspiration involves both being inspired by something and acting on that inspiration. Interestingly, inspired individuals were not more conscientious, supporting the view that inspiration is something that happens to you and is not willed.

Another incredibly important, and oft-overlooked, trigger of inspiration is exposure to inspiring managers, role models and heroes (hence my use of Jobs as an example). As University of Texas academics Gregory Dess and Joseph Picken noted in their tome Changing Roles: Leadership in the 21st Century, our competitive global economy requires leaders to shift their focus from efficient management to effective utilisation of a company’s diversity of resources. They argue for five key roles of leadership:

•    Using strategic vision to motivate and inspire;

•    Empowering employees at all levels;

•    Accumulating and sharing internal knowledge;

•    Gathering and integrating external information; and

•    Challenging the status quo and enabling creativity.

The essence of Steve Jobs, I think, is he imbibed all the above during his time at Apple. That he was a monster boss is an open secret, but his personality was integral to his way of doing business. He acted as if the normal rules did not apply to him, and the passion, intensity and extreme emotionalism he brought to everyday life were things he also poured into the products he made. His petulance and impatience were part and parcel of his inspirational leadership.

Jobs’ necessity for perfection also made him a risk-taker often. It was also an inspiration for people around him. He trusted his judgement and understood what people needed.

Keep in mind these inspirational leadership lessons from Steve Jobs if you jump into the business world. They will help keep you on a progressive path and enable you to deal with challenges effectively to help you create a successful brand.

Zakie Shariff is managing partner of Kuber Venture Bhd, a specialist investment company. He is also a director of Universiti Malaysia Pahang.

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