Guy Kawasaki worked with Steve Jobs at Apple, and presented the 12 lessons that he learned from him, two of which I found most interesting and most applicable to our class. Lesson 7 was “Changing your mind is a sign of intelligence.” This clearly relates back to the reading that talked about what makes the best decision makers. The answer was those that take responsibility for their actions and then form a new plan of action are better leaders. Kawasaki provided an example of how Steve Jobs originally didn’t want any 3rd party applications on the iPhone. He realized he was wrong and completely embraced a new path. For leaders in all fields, this teaches us that leaders need to be more married to their/their followers’ success than their own pride; humility in admitting faults, another thing we talked about, is imperative for forward progress.

The second lesson that stuck with me was lesson 9, “A players hire A+ players.” Kawasaki explains that people who are smart are also confident in their own abilities and can therefore surround themselves with smarter people without feeling insecure, lesser, or weak. B level players do not have this same confidence and hire people who they perceive to be less smart or capable than them to boost themselves up; he argues that we need A level leaders who can see their own gaps in ability and surround themselves with people who can fill the gaps. This relates back to the point of humility; overly confident or overly insecure people cannot admit their own mistakes or short-comings, making them worse decision makers and creating a feedback loop where the business/organization/mission will fail because the leader refuses to bring in the necessary talent to save it. This relates back to the previous lesson because the leader cares more about him or herself and their own pride than the larger picture.