What would your organization be without you?
Middle leaders are everywhere, in every industry, and every organization. They have been, and continue to be world changers. And now a shout out to middle leaders everywhere. You don’t have to be at the top of the organization to spark a revolution!
You would almost have to be living in another universe not to know the names, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. They are often billed as the “creators” of Apple Computers. But who, actually, did the work of creating the Apple 1 computer? Steve Wozniak.
Steve Jobs might have been the face of the organization and the top leader in the organization, but it was Steve Wozniak, who buy designing and engineering the Apple 1 computer, essentially threw gasoline on an already flickering flame that would become the personal computer revolution.
Steve Wozniak created the Apple 1. Steve Jobs monetized it. Steve Wozniak changed the world. Steve Jobs announced it.
In one scene in the video Steve Wozniak Debunks of Apple’s Biggest Myths, Mr. Wozniak explains that he was giving away, for free, the plans for his computer. It was his passion, after all, and he wanted everyone to experience it. At point 1:38 in the video, he describes Steve Job’s part in the story.
“Steve Jobs came into town. He’d pop into town, to see what I was up to—the latest thing I designed for fun. And then he’d somehow turn them into money for both of us.”
At this point in the story, it seems like both Jobs and Wozniak were doing what they most liked to do, Wozniak made computers and Jobs made money with Wozniak’s computers. At point 4:12 in the video, Mr. Wozniak signals a change in the state of things.
“Once we had an investment, that’s when Steve’s personality changed, and he was going to be businessman. He wasn’t going to be joking anymore, he was going to be dressed in a suit on the cover of the magazines, and that was his role in life. Steve just felt like computers somehow added up to companies that could make money… I designed these machines because I wanted computers for myself, and I wanted to help, you know, revolutions happen and didn’t really want that kind of wealth.”
At point 5:07 right at the very end of the video, Mr. Wozniak says something that is quite profound and speaks to those who lead in the middle.
“Soldering things together, putting the chips together, designing them, drawing them on drafting tables, it was so much a passion of my life, and to this day I’ll go stay at the bottom of the org[anizational] chart being an engineer. Because that’s where I want to be.”
Did you hear it? It went by quickly, but it sums up not only a philosophy of life but also the expectation of position. Mr. Wozniak was intimating that he didn’t have to be at the top of the organization to make a difference in the world. I don’t want to take the inference further than that, only to repeat that YOU and I don’t have to be at the top of the organization to change the world.
Okay! Yes! I hear you! Because of Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak became absolutely and unbelievably rich! He certainly didn’t refuse the money or run from it. In fact, if all goes well, he won’t have to worry about money for the rest of his life. It’s easy for him to say he prefers to be on the bottom of the “org” chart!
Don’t get me wrong. It is more than obvious the Steve Jobs was the business genius behind the success. He was the leader at the top of the organizational chart. Not only could he announce having successes, but he had a way of monetizing those successes and see future success coming. Steve Jobs had an exceptional gift!
However, gaining that amount of wealth, in that amount to time, in a new industry is so rare that focusing only on the money aspect of this story will cause us to miss a much bigger and an important point. This story, as Mr. Wozniak tells it, is not about wealth, but about being and value.
Let me get to the point by asking three simple questions. Because Mr. Wozniak was not at the top of the organization did that make Mr. Wozniak any less valuable to the organization? No! Does it make Mr. Wozniak any less important? No! Does it make him any less of a person? No!
We tend to assign value to someone according to position—position means status. The unspoken rule: the higher the position, the more valuable the person. And yet, the fact is, some of the most valuable people in an organization are located in the middle and even, as Mr. Wozniak says, “at the bottom of the “org” chart.”
After all, what would Apple be without Steve Wozniak and engineers? What would United be without its pilots and flight attendance? What would a university be without its professors? What would a school be without its teachers? What would your organization be without you?