How one woman stood up to Steve Jobs and got promoted

Donna Dubinsky. Image captured from YouTube video.

It’s said that Apple succeeded because of Steve Jobs. But it’s also true that Apple succeeded in spite of him.

Apple’s ascension to the top is not one man’s doing. It was the result of Steve assembling an A-team that dared challenge him before he might lead the company down the wrong path.

Joanna Hoffman, who was Apple’s international marketing manager, was a woman who famously defied him. Kate Winslet portrayed her in the movie Steve Jobs. There were many others like her.

In the book Originals: How non-conformists move the world, author Adam Grant recounted the experiences of Donna Dubinsky, who was Apple’s distribution and sales manager in 1985. Her account serves as a blueprint for how one can incite change within an organization.

Steve had proposed killing all of Apple’s American warehouses and moving to a just-in-time production model where computers would be assembled upon order and shipped out.

Donna thought it was a massive mistake. After all, there were few complaints from customers, and Apple had just hit a new high in sales.

She was put on a committee to evaluate Steve’s proposal. Donna was in the minority who opposed it. She had a choice to make: either she would defy Steve, or she would go along with the change.

Donna resisted in the end. She met the boss who ran the committee, and declared she’d leave Apple unless she got a month to deliver an alternative solution.

The move paid off. She suggested combining customer service centers instead of shifting to just-in-time production. This gave Apple some of the gains of the original plan without the risks.

Her idea was embraced, and Donna was promoted as a result.

People are penalized for speaking up

Donna’s maneuver of challenging Steve and threatening to quit was risky to say the least. Adam, the author, cites studies which show that women are penalized more than men for speaking up and voicing new ideas.

Another study found that in manufacturing, service, retail, and nonprofit industries, the more employees speak up to their bosses, the less likely they are to receive raises and promotions.

Why are people penalized for taking initiative? Research shows that people who try to exercise power without status are viewed negatively.

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