For example, Elon Musk uses the autocratic leadership style, labeling himself as a perfectionist and " nano-manager ." (Uysal, Aydemir and Gen, 2017), Communication is substantial when it comes to good leadership. Even those who have stayed are likely to remain distracted. Delegation of work and interactions with employees can help boost employee morale. Thereby, delegation is a necessity when it comes to this leadership. Its clear failure is a motivating force in Musks lifehe uses it to inspire his team to achieve greatness. The idea of empowerment in its employees makes it easier to be more innovative. He has a quest for continuous improvement, and hence he has to correlate his employee's productivity with their satisfaction levels directly. If its an assumption, get curious about why people formed this opinion. Elon Musk's leadership style is transformational since it focuses on innovation and achieving large scale goals. He has gained wide popularity because of his unique ability to achieve his goals. Available at: [Accessed 3 February 2021]. In a recent Forbes.com interview, Jenn Lim, CEO of Delivering Happiness and author of Beyond Happiness: How Authentic Leaders Prioritize Purpose for Growth and Impact, told me that Musk is treating people like collateral damage instead of human beings, forgetting basic human decency in the way hes handling the layoffs. Within moments, the energy of the building went from despair and defeat to a massive buzz of determination . Some people aren't used to an environment where excellence is expected.". Strengthen your comfort and motivation to start conversations and initiate opportunities that can inspire hearts and minds in your team and in your life. Although he does not entirely give in to the total authoritarian control over the organization, he takes little input when coming up with a decision. "I feel like I'm 10 times smarter now than when I first joined," a different senior-level employee added. Musk is such a confident leader that he invests his own money on his business projects. He is so passionate about his work. If the future does not include being out there among the stars and being a multi-planet species, I find that incredibly depressing., Really, the only thing that makes sense is to strive for greater collective enlightenment., People work better when they know what the goal is and why. This leadership styles strengths are innovative thinking, analysis, problem-solving, planning, and strategy execution. Elon Musk is considered one of the most influential leaders in the contemporary world. While a person can show traits in all of the leadership styles, one leadership style is usually more dominant than the others. Elon Musks tactics are diametrically opposed to what evidenced-based research findings and expert opinions recommend. In the same Business Insider article, another former team member explained that even when there were disagreements with Musk, he was right 90 percent of the time. Enjoy weekly cutting edge science backed wellbeing resources from Blisspot. Question and challenge the status quo. 2). Find out more about the way he leads and how to replicate his best leadership qualities. Its a mindset. Hannah L. Miller, MA, is the senior editor for Leaders Media. His fast-acting nature offers some benefits in terms of business growth and innovation, but they can also serve as a point of frustration for his team. CNBC, 2017. Therefore, Elon Musk used both the leadership styles that include the transformational and transactional styles (Odumeru and Ogbonna, 2013). Leaders who utilize the authoritarian style of leadership give orders, are involved in most if not all decisions, and expect absolute adherence to their directives. They expect their people to follow through. Transformational Leadership 2. Like Steve Jobs, he is highly respected and revered for his genius, but that doesnt change the fact hes still notoriously difficult to work with. Elon Musks transformational, autocratic, and transactional leadership style goes to show hes in business to produce results, not make friends. As a transformational leader, Elon Musk focuses on solving the worlds greatest problems. When you think about the defined leadership styles, Elon Musks style is best defined as transformational. He is an autocratic who doesn't ask for suggestions. Odumeru, J. and Ogbonna, I., 2013. Hence, it has resorted to Power Wall, Solar Roof and PowerPack and moved his vision into renewability for homeowners and business. Bureaucratic Leadership 7. I mean you just have to put in 80 to 100 hour weeks every week. Under his leadership, Apple . However, theres no denying that Elon Musk deserves a spot near the top of that list. If you want others to love it, you have to love it. Set challenging objectives that help push the boundaries of what people can accomplish. Efficient recruitment and talent acquisition, remote hiring, resolve team conflict, improve leadership, culture mapping. While some of his ideas are unattainable, he has the ability to get people excited about his ambitions, projects, and plans. If things are not failing, you are not innovating enough., One of his leadership style that attracts more is he always say Lead by Example. He has a vision of a world that is no longer reliant on fossil fuels, is maximizing their use of green energy, and is exploring space . However, this is limited to his being and extends to challenging his employees on an intellectual level and setting an example via his actions. Hire a project manager who coordinates with everyone on the team so work gets finished on time. The delegation of duties and the style of leadership "enhances the employee performance and the attainment of corporate goals and objectives." Experts on workplace leadership assert that so far Musks leadership style is headed in the wrong direction. These are key characteristics of an autocratic leader: Leader tells people what to do Leader is not open to inputs from other employees certain whether Twitter had informed the federal government. . You have to have all the ingredients in the right proportion. Moreover, he always insists that employees will lose their talent if they are being forced into something they are not. The unique way he thinks about challenges is what allows him to do this. What follows are actions that experts say corporate leaders must take in 2023 to restore post-pandemic stability to the workplaceall of which Musk is taking in reverse. Elon Musk. (Manzoor, 2012), Tesla's organisational structure is a functional form. There is technological excellence, and this gives Tesla a competitive edge. His work is highly personal to him which is born from the heart, nurtured into the heart and passionately loved. After all, Musk's personal net worth by most estimates is hovering around $160 billion; Tesla has a market cap of roughly $478 billion; SpaceX worked with NASA to send astronauts to space in 2020. Indeed a futuristic vision works . Awareness of your and others emotions is at the heart of influencing, reading people, impactful communication, deep relating and authentic connection at work and in life. Another word thats often used to describe Musk? Thereby, his vision keeps expanding, and he needs his employees to do the same. Strengthen these for business success. International Review of Management and Business Research, (2). Write out what you think you know about the challenge in front of you. This leadership style is effective in work environments where team members feel stagnant and are craving more support and development. If that doesnt keep him busy enough, hes also founded lesser-known companies like Neuralink (a neurotechnology company) and The Boring Company (focused on infrastructure and tunnels for transportation). Musk, who rarely sticks to a leadership script, doesn't seem intent on winning employees' trust or providing clarity about the company's future. Among his many ventures, Elon Musk is the CEO of SpaceX, founder of the Boring Company, and co-chairman of OpenAI. Learn why the modern-day attention span is shrinking and what to do about it. The success of an organisation is dependent on the leader. Bill Gates adopted an autocratic leadership style in the early years of Microsoft to ensure the company grew at the pace that he had . Here are the 11 most common leadership styles. Musk showed how to be effective & being trustworthy among the followers in times of crisis. tactics are inhumane and dangerous, plus they go against the grain of modern workplace research. It can be evaluated that the transformational leadership and transactional leadership executed by Elon musk both positively impact the performance of the employees and the organisation (Yauney, 2018). According to him, this special philosophy is maintaining unique standards of excellence and clearing predictable paths of progress. Tesla's future as a mass-market car company hinges on efficient, automated production of the Model 3. Instead, he has an autocratic or transformational way of leadership. Jeff Bezos leads Amazon and Blue Origin, the space company that wants to take you to the moon. Musk's leadership behaviors coincide with each of Bennis and Nanus' four strategies typically used by transformational leaders (1985, in Northouse, 2013). He has also suggested that "they feel a part of a larger team and by reducing the noise and blockers in their work." Nevertheless, Musk isnt a ruthless, task-oriented dictatorhes obsessed with delivering excellent results. However, warning flags are flying, and changes in leadership approaches are needed for Tesla to excel. And some of them seem happy to swing even harder than he does. Career tests dont work to determine job fitthis does. The answer is simple: Musk set his sights on the nearly impossible. Inc. Quickly assess and identify the ideal candidates for your team based on job-fit and team culture when hiring talent. Communicate the purpose of changes with your team. .. Sheryl Sandberg. (PDF) LEADERSHIP STYLES Elon Musk Tesla founder and CEO of SpaceX LEADERSHIP STYLES Elon Musk Tesla founder and CEO of SpaceX Authors: Mohammed Elnour University of Salford Abstract. 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