[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f60dheI4ARg]
In two and half minutes, Steve Jobs nails one of the most important pieces of management advice out there.
Steve Jobs is not the poster child of approachability. I get that. But he was very successful at attracting and retaining an incredibly talented team that continues, even years after his death, to be one of the most successful companies in history.
While Jobs may not have always behaved approachably, he was very approachable toward ideas and suggestions from his team. In the video he says, “If you want to hire great people and have them stay working for you…you have to be run by ideas not hierarchy. The best ideas have to win, otherwise good people don’t stay.”
Having leaders is important, but individual leaders are no more important than any other team member. The best companies, the ones that change the world (like Apple), do it because they value ideas more than hierarchy. If you don’t create the same environment in your organization, you drastically lose growth potential. If you don’t seek out and celebrate the clash of ideas, you won’t ever hear the majority of ideas floating around in the brains of your team. Team members who hopefully are pretty intelligent people, since you hired many of them!
Approachability is the cornerstone for creating an environment that values ideas more than hierarchy. So go out there and let the best idea win.
