Steve Jobs, Leadership and clarity: empowerment to be ourselves.

“It doesn't make sense to hire smart people and tell them what to do; we hire smart people so they can tell us what to do.” – Steve Jobs.

Sometimes you read books, attend webinars or spend years trying to figure out what's your leadership style. When we think of great leaders, we can't help thinking of controversial figures, like Steve Jobs. If we think of the leaders of our times, it's often massive egos, high end profiles and status quo challengers fostering the idea of empowerment.

What does empowerment actually means?

The Cambridge dictionary defines it as "the process of gaining freedom and power to do what you want or to control what happens to you or power given to someone to do something".

"individuals are given empowerment to create their own dwellings".

This got me thinking: are we really in control of our lives? Are we really, realistically, in control of pursuing the careers of our dream, our Ikigai?

Short answer is no. As John Lennon used to say: "Life is what happens when you're busy making other plans". That couldn't be a more accurate description of a career crafted between an economic crisis and a post pandemic chaotic world.

The good news is a career is made of those soft skills that you learn when you're, actually, not in control. Fundamental skills like listening, trusting yourself hence others, overcoming insecurities, is what make the daily boost for those wandering uncertain paths.

Who can help us navigating through stormy waters? Leaders.

The leaders of tomorrow are those very real people whose ego isn't served on a silver platter to belittle us; on the contrary, leaders of today, in my view, have two key characteristics. They are attentive listeners and they're driven by clarity and willingness to teach. One doesn't compensate for the other. Elon Musk, for instance, has a clear vision, is perceived as a good listener. Does he teach others? Richard Branson says: "always listen more than you talk".

Does that make them great leaders? If so, who decides that? Business results or the feedback of their employees?

Across my journey in the tech industry, I realised how rare is to find these qualities combined. Alas, the most common type of "bad" leadership seems to be "absentee leadership", the one that "avoids meaningful involvement with their teams", according to Harvard Business Review. I'd be lying if I say I never experienced a lack of clear alignment or clear explanation as to what needed to be done on a task when things didn't go as planned. Employees and junior resources aren't always the ones to blame. Do leaders consider their role in their requests?

During my biweekly session, my mentor mentioned the "couple of options" approach, saying how providing different scenarios and letting your senior leadership team member chose the best option, is a great way to empower decision making at the right level, while showing an open minded approach to the selection of an appropriate option. Something as easy as that. How come nobody, in 10 years, ever told me that? I presume many of us receive confused requests by leaders because often they don't even have clarity themselves.

Leadership is reflected by strategy: without a clear one, there's no clear communication of what's expected.

How can leaders be perceived as one when they don't empower their reports to "gain freedom" and "do what they want"?

Normally, what defines a good leader is a mix of buzz words thrown on a career plans. "Empathy", "authority", "leadership". Where is the quality check? Does anybody ever qualify how good is a manger in listening to their reports' ideas? What is the turning measurement to appreciate how much egos affect quality of work? Finally, what about insecurities?

What's the impact of "leaders" insecurity when it comes to clearly identifying expectations?

In my 10 years experience in the tech industry, I noticed a lot of ego drives a lot of key conversations, but a lot of insecurities become the obstacles in translating expectations into clear tasks.

According to leadership expert Steve Covey, leadership is communicating to people their worth and potential so clearly that they are inspired to see it in themselves.

Identify clearly what you need, translating clearly and communicate openly and directly to a direct report, while stating clearly the outcome expected, seems to be a starting point. Sometimes appreciating the dependencies and variables affecting results and outcomes, to me, is the closest thing to empowering others to reach their full potential and see for themselves what trust and clarity can do to self realisation.

Ultimately, letting go of the idea the "perfect execution". There isn't one good way to reach a solution. Sometimes, control is nothing if there isn't trust. Trust comes from listening to the experts hired to perform a specific job in the first place.

Paola Matacchioni is an Italian marketer. After studying her Master's degree at Leeds University business School, she worked across fashion, FMCG, gaming and tech industries. She's now freelancing and reflecting her experience across leadership, recruitment, future of work, collaborations and marketing related topics.