Apple released its financial resultsthis week for the quarter ending in December 2022, and the news was mostly bad. Revenue was down 5 percent from the previous quarter, the biggest quarterly drop since 2016. Profits were down 13 percent. iPhone sales were down 8 percent compared to the same quarter last year.

Experts say Apple is being hit with a double whammy. First, there are the same inflation and recession concerns that are affecting the entire tech industry. And then, there's China. A Covid shutdown there forced Apple to close its biggest factory in November, limiting its ability to produce its products. That same shutdown also decreased sales in China, which fell 7 percent during the quarter. Analysts predict that overall sales will fall another 4 percent during the current quarter.

Nevertheless, one word was conspicuously absent from Apple's quarterly report and Tim Cook's comments about it--layoffs. Bucking an industry-wide trend--there have reportedly been a total of 200,000 tech layoffs since the beginning of last year--Apple so far remains the only tech giant not to announce layoffs. In fact, layoffs just aren't Apple's style. The company hasn't had big headline-making layoffs since 1997, when Steve Jobs returned as Apple CEO and famously increased focus and decreased costs by slashing the company's product line.

Of course, none of this means that Apple will be able to avoid layoffs forever. If the company continues to struggle with supply chain issues and revenues continue to fall, it could find it has no choice. But the fact that Cook has not mentioned the L-word so far, and that it's been a quarter century since Apple's last big layoffs speaks volumes about both Cook's leadership and Jobs' before him. Here's what every leader can learn from Apple's example.

1. Lead for the long term.

2. Don't follow the crowd.