The "Opposable Mind" of Steve Jobs

I just read an excellent blog posting titled "Was Steve Jobs a Role Model for Leaders?" in the Harvard Business Review (HBR). In his post, Darren Overfield discusses the "polarizing" discussion about Steve Jobs as a leader. Darren summarizes this with reference to a recent Wired article by Ben Austen that aptly labeled these two camps "acolytes" and "rejecters". Acolytes see Jobs as brilliant, citing his leadership as the reason behind Apple's phenomenal results. Rejecters see him as arrogant and deeply flawed, leading Apple to meteoric success in spite of his often boorish behavior. So, which one is it?

Darren leads the reader through an interesting discussion and concludes with what I believe is a brilliant deduction -

"the best way to be an effective leader is to become a master of opposites — simultaneously developing as a "people leader" and as an innovative, strategic leader with a bias for execution."

Insightful!