What Steve Jobs’s Death Taught Me about Authentic Communication
By the time I joined Apple in mid-2010, the tech powerhouse had almost 300 global retail locations and was generating billions of dollars of sales quarterly. In February of that year, The Economist featured its founder and CEO, Steve Jobs, on its cover depicted as Jesus, decked out with a halo and wielding the newly released iPad as a religious tablet.
This portrayal didn’t surprise me. I worked in the Cupertino-adjacent flagship San Francisco location, rocking the signature blue polo and slinging iWhatevers to hundreds of customers each day. I felt Jobs’s presence each time I ran up and down the central glass staircase or walked someone to the Genius Bar. He was somehow a sovereign entity existing in every brick and panel of that store.
The 10th anniversary of his death on October 5 made me reminisce about the fallout of what was a monumental event for everyone in my orbit at that time. What I remember most about the death of Steve Jobs is: people REALLY cared.
Almost immediately after the news hit, people started layering our giant glass windows with Post-it notes (a nod to the beloved Mac reminder app Stickies) adorned with messages of love to the deceased. Apples, flowers, and photographs were left at the storefront. Employees and customers cried together. Events in our theater were put on hold to stream his funeral.
The emotional response wasn’t limited to inside our stores. Even President Obama made a heartfelt statement describing Jobs as one of “the greatest of American innovators” who exemplified the country’s ingenuity.
As I reflected on these memories, I began to wonder why this man’s death created such waves in the world. Of course, I highly respect and admire his innovation, and saw firsthand how the technology he pioneered impacted people’s lives, including my own. And while I sometimes rolled my eyes at the “Apple family” mantras obediently recited at team meetings, it felt good to be a part of something so big and revolutionary and fun.
It occurred to me that the reason people felt so connected to this person and what he created was that the company was so transparent about Jobs’s illness and death. And for a company that was notoriously private about its inner workings and product developments, this spoke to the esteem they held for its employees, customers, and fans — it treated them as a family.
From 2004, a year after he was initially diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, until 2011, when he stepped down as CEO, Jobs sent several emails to the company detailing his health journey, which was subsequently released to the public.
“I have some personal news that I need to share with you, and I wanted you to hear it directly from me,” Jobs told Apple employees in a 2004 email written from his hospital bed.
As mentioned above, Apple was famously secretive about its internal projects, and I can’t speak to the culture in its corporate offices, as I was stationed predominantly at a retail location. Obviously, Jobs had a responsibility to shareholders to keep his cards close to his chest as far as products and business priorities — which makes his transparency about his illness so significant.
Granted, being a high-profile tech-lebrity and not wanting to panic investors at the time, Jobs initially denied the severity of his illness while largely remaining the company’s figurehead, sometimes appearing visibly ill and taking multiple leaves of absence. As we know now, though, he decided not to seek treatment, trying to cure his disease with remedies like a vegan diet, acupuncture, and bowel cleansings. He admitted in a 2009 email that his “health-related issues [were] more complex than [he] originally thought,’” even revealing details about his liver transplant donor.
In the end, Jobs had both a responsibility to maintain a level of discretion as the leader of a multi-billion dollar organization, and a right to protect his and his family’s privacy. Yet, he (and ultimately, Apple) made it a point to center his communications regarding his very well publicized health journey around candidness and authenticity, which ultimately built lasting trust and loyalty.
Last week, on the 10th anniversary of Jobs’s death, Apple’s CEO Tim Cook again addressed employees celebrating the visionary co-founder’s life and legacy in an internal memo to employees. And, in keeping with the company’s mission to invite the world into the conversation, Apple shared this memo externally, created a tribute on its homepage, and published a letter from Jobs’s family.
Since my time at Apple, I’ve worked at several companies across varying industries and sizes. None of them (fortunately) had an event quite like its leader passing away, but I always felt more connected to the organizations that lifted the curtain to reveal its humanity. And as a communicator, I aim to lead with a style of authenticity that ultimately builds a sense of community.
