Apple's Board Must Take Charge of Communications NOW

Enough is enough. Steve Jobs may be a legend, Steve Jobs may be personally responsible for virtually all the value that has ever been created by Apple, and Steve Jobs may run the company with an iron fist.

But enough is enough. If the men and women who are the independent directors of Apple Inc. do not immediately move to take the reins of communications regarding the severity of Steve Jobs' illness, the likelihood of his return to the company, and the company's plans for succession should he be unable to return, then each and every one of them should resign. Immediately.

I'm talking to you, Al Gore. And to you, Mickey Drexler. And to you, Eric Schmidt.

Steve Jobs seems to live in an alternate reality, where CEOs aren't the least bit responsible to investors, partners, customers, or anyone but, apparently, employees. At least, that's the only rational explanation for his announcement last week, in a letter to Apple employees, that his medical problems have forced him to take a leave until June.

In the letter, Jobs wrote that he was communicating about his decision because,

the curiosity over my personal health continues to be a distraction not only for me and my family, but everyone else at Apple as well.

The rest of us, it would appear, are not worth communicating with. It was left to Apple's PR/IR department to issue a press release containing the letter and to file it with the SEC, without further elaboration.

Then, in a brief phone interview with Bloomberg News last Friday, Jobs complained about the increased attention he was receiving:

“Why don’t you guys leave me alone -- why is this important?” Jobs said.

One could look the other way and assume Jobs is quite ill and not in complete control of his faculties. That alone would be reason enough for Apple's board to step up. But Jobs has acted this way his entire career -- imperious, sanctimonious and dismissive of anyone he, and he alone, deems unimportant. That abrasive personality is one of the things that got him kicked out of Apple by John Sculley back in the 1980s, a move that appeared to make a lot of sense at the time.

Now, however, he needs to act like the full-grown man he is, and so do the members of Apple's board. They need to give him a hug and tell him to get well, and that in the meantime, they will keep an eye on things, including what to communicate and when. He's still a member of the board, and his voice should be heard when they deliberate.

But his shouldn't be the only voice.