From Toy Story to the Macintosh, Steve has made such an impact on my life but more importantly – he’s changed the face of technology. After reading his biography, I’m well versed in his temperamental ways, and some of the horrid behavior that he became known for – but I still admire his vision and leadership.

Today Apple posted a tribute video on their website to commemorate Steve, and I wanted to share it with all of you.

Have a safe and happy Thanksgiving,

@coryjstewart

Here’s 7 traits any good leader should have:

HUMILITY & HUMBLENESS

If one thing is of utmost importance, it’s a leader’s ability to truly embrace being modest and respectful. Ego is a human downfall at times, but a good leader can check themselves (before they wreck themselves).

INTERPERSONAL SKILLS

Whether introverted or extroverted, it’s important that a leader be able to relate to people.  This kind of quality encourages team members to want to relate in return while making them feel comfortable and motivated. Approachability and likability are engrained into the path of leadership.

SELF AWARENESS

The best leaders are always cognizant of their faults, and are not afraid to admit to them. Because they can recognize their shortcomings, they surround themselves with people who can complement their individual skill sets.

VISION

There’s always a goal in sight (abstract or not) that a leader can share with their team. Having a good understanding of where they want to go, and what needs to be true to get there separates the leader from followers.

A CAN DO ATTITUDE 

It’s important that a leader doesn’t give in easily. Leaders are the ones who say “YES WE CAN” rather than “NO, WE’VE TRIED THAT” or “IT’S IMPOSSIBLE”. A leader understands that a “NO” from someone is just one step closer to a “YES”.

AN ALL STAR TEAM

The saying you’re only as good as your weakest link is something that reins true in a leaders’ head. Making sure the right people are put together to complement each other’s skill sets is paramount to success.

CURIOSITY

Leaders should know (and want to know) anything they can about their industry, their competitors, and even their team members. The more informed a leader is – the better decisions they can make for their business.

Last week, I was attending a book club meeting where we were discussing Eric Ries’ now famous novel: The Lean StartUp. In the book, Ries outlines all of the basic principles that a startup can put in place to achieve measureable success with proper testing and evaluation. The lean principles can merit their own blog post, so I won’t get too detailed today– but the idea of identifying precisely what your consumer wants came up in discussion.

We talked about making sure to listen to the consumer, and really take into perspective what they’re asking for. It was then proposed that the consumer is more likely to provide you with a complaint, or a desire that perhaps has nothing to do with the current product or service they’re using.

Let’s put this into context: back when VHS tapes were in their prime, one of the major gripes was that they took forever to rewind. Traditional thinkers would take this complaint, and try and design a faster VCR – when really, the customers were actually indirectly asking for a DVD player.

This concept (though simple) blew me away. I’ve always considered myself an out the box thinker – but to hear this put into such a simple example really resonated with me. One of the key parts of innovation is being able to hear feedback, and produce products and services that are able to better consumer user experiences. This was done ingeniously by the introduction of the DVD player, but has transcended into many different facets of technology to provide us with some of our now daily necessities.

It’s just a true testament to the fact that the consumer doesn’t always know what they want, but they certainly can identify what they don’t want. It takes great vision and foresight to look beyond the present day products, and create products or services from ground zero.

I’ll leave you with a quote from the late, great Steve Jobs:

“A lot of times, people don’t know what they want until you show it to them.”