By Leadership lessons from Steve Ballmer
Steve Ballmer is a phenomenal leader from whom we can snatch several nuggets of wisdom regarding leadership. Although Ballmer spent about two decades from 2000 to 2014 as the CEO at Microsoft making it the leading company, more business-related lessons can be learned from his role at Los Angeles Clippers as the chairman which was an NBA franchise purchased in 2014 for $2 billion. In this article, we are looking into some of the top-notch leadership lessons we can draw from Steve Ballmer’s activities, both positive and negative.
Seek personal excellence and be dedicated to improving others
That implies that you should not only strive to improve yourself but also stay connected to the outside world. Before Ballmer became CEO, he sought contact from people inside and outside Microsoft to clearly understand the company and know what was required to improve it. After becoming CEO, he did not isolate himself but kept people who positively controlled his activities close making his work of heading the company easier with proper suggestions and advice.
There are company members who seek to control and protect those in power by disconnecting them from the outside world. If leaders are not keen to observe that, negative developments could continue for a long time making the top manager unproductive or bringing him down together with the company.
With that understanding, from Ballmer, we learn that having connections with both employees and people outside the company is essential as it reveals areas where a leader is misled at a point where the situation can be salvaged. Engaging with the outside also helps leaders to connect with the needs of the people they are serving and provide them with better services.
Choose loyalty over competency
To build a winning team, it is important to decide the right people to fit into the culture you are building. One of the mistakes committed by Ballmer was that he concentrated much on competency compared to other values. Although we do not suggest that you have incompetent people in your team, people who demonstrate loyalty and teamwork are more of an asset compared to competent people who are unproductive in teamwork and selfish. That is so because a loyal and team-oriented person can be trained how to perform a task and grasp the concept but a competent but disloyal person works to divide the team consequently bringing the entire company down.
Microsoft’s biggest mistake has been a lack of unity amongst talented professionals. Part of that disunity problem could be attributed to poor ranking methods that set workers against each other dividing them and creating a poor working environment. However, the main problem was that Ballmer considered smart people valuable and disregarded the teamwork quality. Consequently, the company ended up with many smart but deceitful personnel.
Seek to always validate your information
Another mistake Ballmer did was focusing on numbers instead of information. Mostly, Ballmer received distorted information which led him to make poor decisions as people always gave him the answers he wanted to hear. As most of what goes in is what comes out, having been fed inaccurate information, Ballmer transferred that inconsistency to decisions leading to poor results.
It is therefore essential to confirm the accuracy of the information you use or are about to share with others. Avoid exaggerating problems by ignoring the suggestions of those who bring bad news about the company and allowing impunity from high-ranking managers.
Ignoring suggestions leads to poor decision making which will eventually cripple the company. As a CEO, people coming to you with manipulative information or the information you want to hear is very common so you ought to do proper and in-depth investigation before adopting and using information delivered to you. That helps CEOs to avoid being unproductive which could bring down the company.
Love and enjoy your Job
To be the best and most productive leader, you have to enjoy your work. Ballmer displayed that when he was leaving Microsoft where he said that he left the CEO position for a much more interesting job to him. To avoid feeling like a prisoner in your place of work, seek a job that you love and enjoy doing. If you do not love your job, look for a better option so that you can always have a smile on your face and deliver the best. Thus, break from jobs that you do not enjoy and seek a way to regain the smile on your face by securing your dream job.
Focus on Precision
Avoid lengthening what can be shared in one sentence to two pages. Steve Ballmer touched people personally through the art of precision where he was able to communicate in three words; something that many mangers cannot. Ballmer was excellent in communicating what was required without boring or losing his audience. Being wordy can make listeners daydream and fail to get the point you were trying to deliver.
