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I just finished reading a very interesting book, Inside Steve’s Brain by Leander Kahney. I highly recommend it to anyone who finds the rise of Apple, or Steve Jobs in particular, interesting. I think there are some great leadership principles that can be found in the book (although some I would suggest are not transferable to church leadership).

At the end of each chapter, Kayney provides a point form overview of the principles Steve follows. Over the next few days, I’m going to list some of them for you. If you’re a pastor or leader reading this blog, I do suggest you grab a copy of the book and read it for yourself.

Chapter Two: "Despotism: Apple’s One Man Focus Group"
Here are the lessons from Steve:

• Be a despot. Someone’s got to make the call. Jobs is Apple’s one-man focus group. It’s not how other companies do it, but it works.
• Generate alternatives and pick the best. Jobs insists on choices.
• Design pixel by pixel. Get way down in the details. Jobs paid attention to the tiniest details. You should, too.
• Simplify. Simplifying means stripping back. Here is Jobs’s focus again: simplifying means saying "no."
• Don’t be afraid to start from scratch. Mac OS X was worth forcus doing over, even if it took one thousand programmers three years of nonstop toil to do it.
• Avoid the Osborne effect. Keep the new goodies secret until they’re ready to ship, lest customers stop buying the current stuff while waiting for the new stuff.
• Don’t shit on your own doorstep. Apple’s engineers hated the old Mac OS, but Jobs ordered a positive spin on it.
• When it comes to ideas, anything is game. Jobs is not a design radical, but he is willing to try new things.
• Find an easy way to present new ideas. If it means spreading glossy sheets all over a big conference table, get a big printer.
• Don’t listen to your customers. They don’t know what they want.

As a leader, I need to understand people. That begins with being in tune with the Spirit of God. It also means having a basic understanding of human nature. Why do people behave the way they do? What motivates them to move from point "A" to "B". The reality is, much of what we do as ministers is inspire people that they truly can live a fulfilling, spirit-filled life.

I really like this last point about not listening to customers. Now, later on in the book, Kahney explains that Jobs does respond when customers complain, but I get what he’s saying here. As a minister, people will often tell you what you need to preach on. "Pastor, I think you should do a series on …" The reality is, however, that far too often, what people think they need, and what they really do need, can be very different. As a leader, I need to be careful not to bow to that pressure and instead trust that God will direct me in the series that we do.

Next Up: Perfectionism.