Apple under Jobs routinely assigned hardly anybody to "major" projects.  Example, two (!) people implemented Safari on the iPad.

Jobs was an narcissistic, design obsessed, idea-thief, and control freak but he was a competent, narcissistic, design obsessed, idea-thief, and control freak putting him light years ahead of 99% of the upper management dickweeds infesting Silicon Valley.  And part of his competence was understanding how to motivate engineers.  

She believed in nothing; only her skepticism kept her from being an atheist. -- Jean-Paul Sartre