Biggest and Most Influential Technological Leaders in the World

kolaklk ajjdThis Essay will look at two of the biggest and most influential technological leaders in the world today, the chairman and co-founder of Microsoft, Mr. Bill Gates and the chairman and CEO of Apple inc. Mr. Steven Paul Jobs. Both of them were born in the same year and together completely changed the way we live.

Both of them are very passionate, hard working and self-confident individuals who dropped out of college to pursue their passion. They had the drive for success and the ability to influence other to see things their way. They also had the relevant job related knowledge as they started from scratch and knew what exactly they were doing. So they had all the basic traits of a leader.

Even though both of them were very successful, they accomplished this with very different working styles. Mr. Gates was someone who worked very closely with his subordinates. He had a very participative style. He involved his subordinates in all the decision-making processes. But he was very careful about who he brought into the company. He hired people he knew and trusted when he first started up. After the initial success he continued to insist they only hire the best minds. This allowed him to build a strong small but close team and provided them with a creative environment to progress. He believed in delegating task to people he trust, for example he hired his friend from college, Steve Ballamer. He was put in charge of human resource.

He also motivated his subordinates are rewarded them. He had the full control over an employee's performance and deciding upon the remuneration package for them. He believed in keeping his staff happy and content so as to increase productivity and motivate them to work harder. He also certain enforced coercive power, which involved the punishment and withholding of reward if work was not up to standard. This did work out well and he was getting positive results. He was very careful about not misusing his authority and never used it to manipulate others to gain personal benefits.

He is an expert at what he does and this made his subordinates depend on him for technical advice. He had the skills and knowledge that only few people had. Even thought he practiced an autocratic behavioral style with his employees, he had a good personal relationship with them. This gain gained him loyalty of his employees. He believed in theory Y where by, under right conditions, people will work.

Mr Jobs, who is equally successful, had a totally different leadership style. His employees feared him. He was reported saying "My job is not to be easy on people. My job is to make them better. My job is to pull things together from different parts of the company and clear the way and get the resources for the key projects." This clearly shows he is not a people person. He is very goal oriented. He just wants to get things done the way he wants it.

He practiced centralized authority.