31 years ago, Steve Jobs used five simple words to explain what great leaders do best
What started as a conversation about software development and technology quickly turned into one of the most powerful leadership lessons of his life.
When the interviewer asked if he still had as much faith in technology as he did 20 years earlier, Jobs replied:
"Technology is nothing. What's important is that you have a faith in people, that they're basically good and smart, and if you give them tools, they'll do wonderful things with them."
'Have a faith in people.'
Five simple words. That's the lesson. Jobs flipped the question from technology to humanity. In doing so, he articulated a timeless leadership principle: Faith means trusting your people first.
As Jobs matured as a leader, he didn't just believe in technology's power. He believed in people's potential to use the technology. He knew that when you start with trust, collaboration and innovation follow.
Trust, in this sense, isn't something to be earned first. It's a gift leaders give before it's proved. Author and trust expert Stephen M.R. Covey puts it best in The Speed of Trust: Teams with high trust move faster and produce better results at lower cost. Conventional thinking says people must earn trust. Jobs, and many great leaders today, saw it differently. Trust comes first.
Jobs's approach to leadership was rooted in the belief that employees are good and smart, capable of doing great work when given the right tools and freedom. Here's what happens when leaders follow that path:
1. People feel safe
When leaders operate from trust, they create psychological safety. Employees feel free to contribute ideas, take risks, and innovate without fear of backlash.
2. People take ownership
Jobs's trust in his engineers started before they even walked through Apple's doors. His hiring philosophy was clear; as he once put it:
It doesn't make sense to hire smart people and tell them what to do; we hire smart people so they can tell us what to do.
That level of autonomy builds accountability and pride in the work.
3. People feel respected
Trust signals respect. When leaders trust employees' judgment to make their own decisions, it fosters mutual respect and loyalty. That's what makes up a strong work culture.
4. People understand the 'why'
Jobs knew clarity of vision matters more than micromanagement. Here was his take on the important of a shared vision:
Once they know what to do, they'll go figure out how to do it. What they need is a common vision. And that's what leadership is: having a vision; being able to articulate that so the people around you can understand it; and getting a consensus on a common vision.
5. People solve problems quickly
Trusting employees to act empowers them to handle issues without waiting for approval. This speeds up decision-making and improves both customer and employee experience.
The return on trust
When leaders start with trust, they unlock people's best work from the neck up. It's a competitive advantage. A team that feels trusted works faster, innovates more, and costs less to manage. In Jobs's case, this trust was the foundation for creating products the world can't live without today.
Jobs's leadership lesson starts with having faith in people. Give them the vision, tools, and freedom to do what they do best and you'll build a culture of trust, collaboration, and innovation. That's a great recipe for profitable business outcomes. – Inc./Tribune News Service
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Star
a day ago
- The Star
How to put your phone in vacation mode
Ready to get away for that late-summer vacation and want fewer interruptions from your phone or tablet while you're gone? Consider setting up a custom Vacation mode that sends most callers to voicemail and mutes notifications from unimportant apps – but still allows calls and messages from specific people to get through, as well as alerts from designated apps. You just have to set up the Vacation mode once, and then turn it on whenever you're off. Here's how. Using Apple devices Apple's Focus feature is meant to help limit distractions on an iPhone, an iPad, a Mac, an Apple Watch or a Vision Pro headset so you can, well, focus. Along with the Do Not Disturb setting, which blocks most disruptions with a tap, Focus has other preset modes – or you can make your own. On an iPhone or iPad, tap the Settings icon, scroll down and select Focus from the menu. On the Focus screen, tap the + button in the upper-right corner and select Custom from the menu. On the next screen, you can give your custom creation a label (like Vacation) and select an icon and color for it. When you tap the Next button at the bottom of the screen, you'll see a list of options you can choose for your new mode. Tap the Customize button to continue. On the next screen, select the people who can contact you and the apps allowed to send notifications when your phone is in Vacation mode. If you want relatives, the cat-sitter and your landlord to be able to reach you, add them to the list. Likewise, select the apps that can send you notifications – perhaps your weather and sports favourites. (Tap the Options menu for the settings on how the silenced notifications are displayed.) You can choose a more muted look for your phone's display and set a schedule to automatically activate your Vacation mode – at a specific time or a location, like your rented beach house. The Vacation mode can be enabled manually in the Control Center or by telling Siri, the phone's assistant, to turn it on or off. On the main Focus menu, there's an option to use your active Focus mode across all your Apple gear that is logged in with the same Apple ID. And turn on Focus Status to display a note saying you have notifications silenced when people try to text you. Using Android devices Android's Modes work in a similar way, and you can easily customise them. Open the Settings icon and select Modes from the menu. From the list on-screen, tap Create Your Own Mode. (Android also has a default Do Not Disturb mode and a few other activity-specific configurations, like Driving and Bedtime.) On the next screen, give your mode a name and icon. Tap the Done button to go to the next screen. In the Notification Filters area, select the people, apps and alarms permitted to interrupt you. The Display Settings section offers options for showing filtered notifications and the screen's appearance while the mode is active. After you have configured Vacation mode, you can give it an automatic schedule to activate itself. Alternatively, you can enable it manually from the mode's settings page, by swiping down from the top of the screen and choosing it from the Modes menu in Android's Quick Settings, or by telling the Gemini assistant to handle it. Controlling notifications If setting up a Vacation mode doesn't appeal and you simply want fewer app alerts popping up, just modify how and when notifications can pester you. For example, you can confine them to a daily summary. On an iOS device, open the Settings icon and select Notifications from the menu. Here, you can choose how the alerts should be displayed on the lock screen, if they appear in daily summaries and how each app on your phone can notify you (or not). In iOS 18.4 on an iPhone 15 Pro model or later, you can have Apple Intelligence screen your notifications and prioritize time-sensitive alerts and those deemed 'important' based on your contacts and app use. On most recent Android phones, open the Settings icon and select Notifications to get to the controls. Getting emergency alerts Certain situations – like dangerous weather – call for immediate interruption even if you are on vacation. Your phone is probably equipped to receive emergency public-safety alerts from national, state and local authorities. When enabled, these notifications override any focus or mode settings. To check these controls on an iPhone, go to Settings, then Notifications, and scroll down to the Government Alerts section. On an Android phone, open Settings, go to Notifications and tap Wireless Emergency Alerts. – © 2025 The New York Times Company This article originally appeared in The New York Times
The Sun
2 days ago
- The Sun
Apple shares rise after beating forecasts despite tariffs
APPLE shares rose 2% in premarket trading on Friday, after the iPhone maker's quarterly results topped Wall Street expectations, indicating resilience in the face of global trade tensions and intensifying artificial intelligence rivalry. Driven by a sharp rebound in its flagship phone sales, Apple posted its fastest revenue growth since 2021 and forecast 'mid to high single digit' growth for the current quarter, well above analysts' 3.27% estimate. 'Although there are specific drivers like China subsidies that can be attributed for some of the exceptional strength, the acceleration in revenue growth ... is equally surprising, especially in a quarter when consumers typically hold off purchases ahead of the next iPhone launch in September,' analysts said. Apple has been rebalancing its manufacturing footprint, sourcing iPhones from India and other products such as Macs and Apple Watches from Vietnam, while much of its product line still benefits from tariff exemptions. CEO Tim Cook warned that tariffs would raise costs by $1.1 billion in the current quarter after the company said it took an $800 million hit from tariffs in the third quarter. The company also faces stiff competition from hardware rivals such as Samsung Electronics in the premium smartphone space and software giant Alphabet, which is rapidly embedding AI into Android and ramping up AI spending with growing returns. Among the 'Magnificent Seven' stocks, Apple has lagged behind this year, with its stock down 17%, as it grapples with staying competitive in the fast-evolving AI space. Apple has delayed the release of its AI-enhanced virtual assistant - Siri, and was slow to launch Apple Intelligence, but Cook said the company is making headway and scaling up its AI spending to catch up with Big Tech rivals. 'Brand loyalty gives Apple time to get the AI transition right, but it needs to start delivering', said Matt Britzman, senior equity analyst, Hargreaves Lansdown. - Reuters
Malay Mail
2 days ago
- Malay Mail
Apple may finally open its wallet for AI, with data centre spending and big deals on the table
SAN FRANCISCO, Aug 1 — Apple CEO Tim Cook signalled on Thursday the iPhone maker was ready to spend more to catch up to rivals in artificial intelligence by building more data centres or buying a larger player in the segment, a departure from a long practice of fiscal frugality. Apple has struggled to keep pace with rivals such as Microsoft and Alphabet's Google, both of which have attracted hundreds of millions of users to their AI-powered chatbots and assistants. That growth has come at a steep cost, however, with Google planning to spend US$85 billion (RM364 bilion) over the next year and Microsoft on track to spend more than US$100 billion, mostly on data centres. Apple, in contrast, has leaned on outside data centre providers to handle some of its cloud computing work, and despite a high-profile partnership with ChatGPT creator OpenAI for certain iPhone features, has tried to grow much of its AI technology in-house, including improvements to its Siri virtual assistant. The results have been rocky, with the company delaying its Siri improvements until next year. During a conference call after Apple's fiscal third-quarter results, analysts noted that Apple has historically not done large deals and asked whether it might take a different approach to pursue its AI ambitions. CEO Cook responded that the company had already acquired seven smaller companies this year and is open to buying larger ones. 'We're very open to M&A that accelerates our roadmap. We are not stuck on a certain size company, although the ones that we have acquired thus far this year are small in nature,' Cook said. 'We basically ask ourselves whether a company can help us accelerate a roadmap, and if they do, then we're interested.' Apple CEO Tim Cook signalled on Thursday the iPhone maker was ready to spend more to catch up to rivals in artificial intelligence by building more data centres or buying a larger player in the segment, a departure from a long practice of fiscal frugality. — Reuters pic Apple has tended to buy smaller firms with highly specialised technical teams to build out specific products. Its largest deal ever was its purchase of Beats Electronics for US$3 billion in 2014, followed by a US$1 billion deal to buy a modem chip business from Intel. But now Apple is at a unique crossroads for its business. The tens of billions of dollars per year it receives from Google as payment to be the default search engine on iPhones could be undone by US courts in Google's antitrust trial, while startups like Perplexity are in discussions with handset makers to try to dislodge Google with an AI-powered browser that would handle many search functions. Apple executives have said in court they are considering reshaping the firm's Safari browser with AI-powered search functions, and Bloomberg News has reported that Apple executives have discussed buying Perplexity, which Reuters has not independently confirmed. Apple also said on Thursday it plans to spend more on data centres, an area where it typically spends only a few billion dollars per year. Apple is currently using its own chip designs to handle AI requests with privacy controls that are compatible with the privacy features on its devices. Kevan Parekh, Apple's chief financial officer, did not give specific spending targets but said outlays would rise. 'It's not going to be exponential growth, but it is going to grow substantially,' Parekh said during the conference call. 'A lot of that's a function of the investments we're making in AI.' — Reuters
