WHAT STEVE JOBS COULD TEACH ARISTOTLE
(THE 3-PART STRATEGY USED TO PERSUADE)
(THE 3-PART STRATEGY USED TO PERSUADE)
by Andrew Cave
When it comes to
business guru status, the late Steve Jobs arguably stands head and shoulders
above other contenders of his generation.
His name produces
266 million references when typed into Google, while doing the same
on Amazon.com results in 18,213 items to buy, with book titles
ranging from “The Genius Who Changed Our World” to “How to Think Like Steve
Jobs” and even the “Steve Jobs Book For Kids”.
Now two academics
at a British business school have gone even further by eyeing the Apple co-founder through the wisdom of ancient Greek philosophy. Where will
all this end?
The latest
research is by Loizos Heracleous and Laura Klaering of Britain’s Warwick
Business School and claims that, as well as being a creative genius who
revolutionised four industries, Jobs can provide business leaders with a
“perfect template of how to deliver expertly-tailored rhetoric”.
They argue that
studying him in action can teach other executives much about how to employ
various strategies to adapt to differing scenarios and situations, while still
delivering a constant message.
Their paper:
“Charismatic Leadership and Rhetorical Competence: An Analysis of Steve Jobs’
Rhetoric,” published in the journal Group & Organization Management,
examines how Jobs used Aristotle’s classic tools of persuasion – ethos, pathos
and logos – in different situations, from the courtroom, to a TV interview and
a conference on digital technology.
The academics
examined Jobs as a defender of his company and actions as chief executive in a
deposition by the US Securities and Exchange Commission in March 2008 relating
to allegations of backdating stock options.
Then they looked
at how Jobs dealt with aggressive questioning in a TV interview with CNBC in
June 2005 over Apple moving from IBM to Intel as a supplier.
Finally, they
explored Jobs skills as an orator in an on-stage discussion at the D8 All
Things Digital Conference in June 2010.
In each scenario
they looked at Jobs’ credibility in the situation (ethos), how he appealed to
his audience’s emotions; and logos (pathos) and the extent to which he used
logical arguments (logos).
Says Heracleous:
“We found that the driving factor in Jobs’ rhetoric was his perceived ethos,
which significantly influenced how he used logos and pathos.
“When ethos was
low, high levels of pathos were employed by Jobs and low levels of logos, such
as in the pre-trial interview with the SEC.
“When ethos was
high, lower levels of pathos were used and higher logos, which is what happened
at the digital conference, where he already had an admiring audience.”
The research
explores how Jobs was able to deliver a constant set of messages or themes
across the different scenarios, about his company’s products, future journey
and exceptional people.
It finds that, in
addition to his mix of ethos, pathos and logos, he employed rhetorical
strategies such as amplification, repetition, or re-framing the discussion in a
way that suited his goals, such as moving the tone of the CNBC interview from
“businesses at war” to “business on a journey”.
Adds
Heracleous: “We found Jobs exhibited
high proficiency in customising his rhetorical style to the broader contextual
situation.
“But simultaneously
there were constant features in his rhetoric, in terms of central themes and
root metaphors, indicating that an important skill of leadership may be the
integration of continuity and customisation in leadership rhetoric.”
Heracleous, who has
advised executives from corporations including IBM, Total, Rolls-Royce, KPMG,
Standard Chartered, O2, and Bank of China and previously authored a case study
entitled “Strategic Leadership And Innovation At Apple Inc,” believes that Jobs
is a case study in a leader’s belief in his own charisma.
“Our findings suggest
that charisma is not an ineffable, magical quality as classically understood,
but can rather be seen as a consequence of the relationships among leader,
audience and context,” he says.
“Leaders can follow
Jobs’ example and try to understand the level of their perceived ethos, how
credible they are with that audience.
“Then they can gauge
the appropriate mix of pathos and logos in their rhetoric; and the extent to
which they should employ rich, figurative language”
“Jobs did not exhibit
a single rhetorical style, but rather altered it depending on the situation,
and yet still managed to deliver a constant message to support his company’s
strategy.
“Further, Jobs’
rhetoric drew from figurative language, using stories and metaphors to
emphasise his messages. Stories and metaphors are more memorable than
statistics, which accounts for his effectiveness in delivering memorable
messages.
“Jobs was brilliant
at choosing the right mix of persuasive strategies. This combined with the
stability of his central messages was his great rhetorical skill.”
Do business leaders
just need a different kind of rhetoric or is it Steve Jobs’ creative and
technological genius that they should be trying to emulate?
Do let me know what
you think.
Fuente: Forbes
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