Is there Balance in Greatness?

January 18, 2012 in Leadership,Life,Mission with 9 Comments

I finished the Steve Jobs biography by Walter Isaacson a few months ago.  Not only is it one of the few books I actually wished was thousands of pages longer than it actually was (I LOVED it), it offered fascinating insight into Job’s character and management style.

Job’s style was everything they tell you in business school and leadership courses not to be. Impulsive, volatile, eccentric, extreme and driven are just a few of the words that would seem to describe Job’s style. He was, by most accounts, almost impossible to work with. He was deeply immature at times, even abusive.

In so many ways, he’s like a study in how not to manage and lead than anything.

Except that it worked. Except that he was also brilliant and exceptionally successful.

Had I worked with Jobs, my advice would likely have been for him to take the edges off his personality. Many tried that and failed.

But here’s the key question:  were his eccentricities a good thing in the end?  Was it in fact the edges of his personality that made Jobs the leader that he was and made Apple the company it became?

Please don’t get me wrong…I don’t think reading an account of Steve Job’s life is any justification to show up Monday morning to berate your staff and or create a 90 hour a week work culture (both of which were characteristic of Apple). Nor is it a licence to unleash the lesser elements of your character on the people closest to you.

Jobs was anything but a balanced leader. He was extreme in his personality.  And as I reflect on the great leaders I know and admire, I respect, I realize that only a few of them are actually what we call ‘balanced’ people.  Their personalities have edges. Edges that impact the people around them. They can be impulsive. They can work too much (or selectively). They stand out because they are different – often quite different – than most other people. It’s what makes them who they are.

Which leads me to a bigger question: Does greatness ever really involve balance?

Few great leaders we study were balanced.  From Lincoln, to John A. MacDonald, to Churchill to Kennedy to Edison to Billy Graham, few leaders lead a very balanced life.  Neither did Jesus. He was so extreme in his ethic and life that he alienated many who tried to follow him. Paul was hardly everybody’s best friend in the early church. Moses didn’t exactly clock out at four every day and settle down to watch TV with his family every Tuesday. I can’t think of a single biblical character who lives a balanced life.  In fact, most of them are strange enough that we might keep our distance.

So why think about this at all? Here’s why: just about everyone around you is going to try to take the edges off of your personality. And for sure, you should stop sinning.   You should never use a life story like Steve Jobs’ to justify outrageous behaviour.  You should listen to counsel and even cherish rebukes. But maybe you shouldn’t let it kill who you are.  Do you always have to ‘work on your weaknesses’ like every management review suggests you need to?

If you polished all the strange edges off your personality, do you kill what God created?  Maybe the things that drive you and some of the very people around you nuts are the things that God will use to help accomplish his purposes.

What do you think? Does greatness arise from balance? Or sometimes does it also legitimately arise from the edges of our personality that sometimes we wish weren’t there?

About Carey Nieuwhof: Carey Nieuwhof is lead pastor of Connexus Community Church and author of the best selling books, Leading Change Without Losing It and Parenting Beyond Your Capacity. Carey speaks to North American and global church leaders about change, leadership, and parenting.

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  • AJ

    I work for a leader who would not be considered “balanced”, but you can’t argue against the success of his business. In fact, I’d say (like Jobs) his imbalances are what makes the business successful.

    Funny to read words like volatile, extreme, impulsive and driven. I’d use the same words to describe the leader of our company.

  • http://drgrcevich.wordpress.com Dr. G.

    Thought-provoking post. I’m involved in research in child and adolescent psychiatry-there’s lots of interest these days in identifying genes that may be viewed as “high-risk, high-reward.” For example, carriers of certain genes may be more prone to anger, impulsiveness or mood issues, but are also more likely to reach the highest levels of accomplishment in their fields. I’ve thought the same thing as you looking at the Bible…John the Baptist (for one) and select prophets would probably be diagnosed today with high-functioning forms of autism.

    A question for you…In my experience, the church does a very poor job of tapping into the gifts and talents of the type of people you describe, unless they’re serving as a senior pastor or a worship leader/artist. If we can assume that God was intentional in creating people with these unique strengths and weaknesses, how can the church do a better job of helping them develop their gifts or potential for greatness for Kingdom purposes?

  • Carey

    AJ…thanks for the reflection. I definitely have some edges to my personality too.

    Dr. G. What a great insight and a great question. One of my thoughts is that people with extreme tendencies tend to rise to the top of organizations because there is no other easy place for them elsewhere. They either rise up or end up out entirely. I’m not sure there’s an easy answer to your question.

  • Casey Graham

    Carey, this is a great post. I honestly feel like its a great question to ask. I feel like I’m not well rounded. My edge really affects people and I need to sin less :-). But in reality, I can’t not lead with an edge. This is a struggle for me. I feel like I should be more conventional. Sometimes I work from 10pm to 1am and its the best work I do. Then sometimes I take off a few weeks and am really unproductive. I don’t know if I’m the only one but I work like an artist more than a traditional worker. Is this sin or is it weird or is it just me?

  • Carey

    Case, thanks for weighing in on this. You are not alone. I wonder if there’s a set of questions we could develop that would help gauge whether our edges are helpful or otherwise. Two questions that spring to mind: Are my edges helping advance our cause or mission? Are they helping the people around me bring out their best? There were long seasons where Jobs would have failed both tests. Apple in the late 80s and Next in the 90s produced almost nothing. But if you take the long view, Apple succeeded and some of Jobs’ closest colleagues say they accomplished things under him that no one else would have helped them achieve. I think when you throw our faith into the mix it provides a greater check than Jobs had. And wise counsel can help us discern we’re we need to take action and where we don’t. What do you think?

  • http://www.mypcc.ca Shawn Vandop

    Great post Carey,

    It’s interesting to me that so many leaders have it as their goal to become ‘well rounded and balanced people.’ We want to raise “well rounded balanced” kids and as leaders we strive for “well rounded balanced” staff. “Well rounded” and “balanced” are way overrated. Sadly, many leaders have successfully achieved there goal? The truth is – balanced = boring.

    A “well rounded and balanced life” means you would never have read the biography of Steve Jobs or typed your article (I’m assuming) on an Apple product.

    I think we need more ‘unbalanced’ leaders in the Church today. People who are cut from a different cloth and who embrace the unique way God has wired them. The challenge is to create environments where all the ‘balanced’ people have their boxes tipped over so that they can see the world from a new perspective.

    As you said, as long as it not a sin issue – then be who God made you to be, even if it makes the people around you uncomfortable. I for one believe we need more ‘unbalance’ in leadership.

    One more thing. How would this kind of thinking impact how we disciple people? Are our methods to one dimensional when it comes to equipping people to follow Jesus? Could this approach to being ‘unbalanced’ be a catalyst for raising up more effective leaders? Just some thoughts.

    Thanks again for the challenging post.

  • Carey

    Shawn – some helpful thoughts. And I love your question about how we disciple people. I think we would have put some of the characters in the bible into juvenile detention if it was up to us. Even Jesus’ choice of key disciples was a strange one. He built the future of the church on the ever impulsive Peter. Great point.

  • http://www.learnhowtolaunch.com/ Michelle

    Hi Carey,

    I really enjoyed this article because I am on chapter 3 of the “Steve Jobs” book. Steve Jobs reminds me of my engineering and CEO big business Uncle Ed. I learned a long time ago not to drink the kool aid that people dish out. So many people hear something and then get stuck because they believe the hype. No one every taught them to think different. What I discovered in working with a creative force I call Uncle Ed is how many things he dreamed up. We went to a meeting and he was telling us about a product that we were going to manufacture. We were all very excited. About have way through the meeting, the son said, “wait a minute” has this every been done before?” and my uncle replied…”No but we are going to be the first” ah you should have seen the joy in the room. Steve Jobs was like that. He dreamed things up all the time and so I really appreciated it when the author said that people labeled Steve with having a “Reality Distorted” field. I sometimes feel like that and I think many creative folks do. My favorite statement my mother said to me was…”God Can’t do what….ha hahaha” We all need to polish up on how we treat others. For every idea is dreamed up there is a lot of resistence. I think Steve experienced that over and over in his life and refused to be made fun of to the point that his push back could be extreme. I miss Steve Jobs. We need more possibility people in the world and less negaholics.

  • Carey

    Yes. Yes. Yes!