Elon Musk
Elon Musk has frequently been lauded for his leadership skills, in particular due to the fact that his businesses are generally successful despite operating in incredibly challenging industries where the odds of failure substantially outweigh the odds of success. This paper will examine some of the traits of Musk as a leader, and how he has built successful organizations, in particular through policies, communications and training.
Communications appear to be Musk's strongest leadership attribute. Mejia (2018) notes that transparency and humor are two of his strongest traits. The transparency aspect is what allows Musk to have his employees believe in him and his mission – being honest about both the good and the bad establishes a high degree of trust between the leader and the followers. Followers feel respected, and are therefore more willing to buy into other aspects of the leader once this respect and trust have been established.
Musk actively encourages negative feedback, in order to create a feedback loop that allows him to learn and improve, and for the members of his team to learn and improve. That degree of openness, especially about things that are not working, also serves to create a higher level of trust within leadership team (Schwantes, 2018).
Musk's communication style portrays him as energetic and engaged, two other traits that can help to motivate a team. That he has multiple businesses and seems to be engaged with all of them, at least...
References
Korosec, K. (2017). Why Tesla CEO Elon Musk is among the world's great leaders. Fortune. Retrieved August 9, 2018 from http://fortune.com/2017/03/24/tesla-elon-musk-worlds-greatest-leaders/
Mejia, Z. (2018) Ex-Google exec: 3 traits that make Elon Musk an exceptional leader – and one major flaw. CNBC. Retrieved August 9, 2018 from https://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/03/ex-google-exec-kim-scott-top-leadership-traits-of-tesla-ceo-elon-musk.html
Musk, E. (2013) Elon Musk: On team building, Warren Buffett and Mars (transcript). Fresh Dialogues. Retrieved August 9, 2018 from http://www.freshdialogues.com/2013/02/09/transcript-of-elon-musk-interview-with-alison-van-diggelen-on-team-building-warren-buffett-and-mars/
Orton-Jones, C. (2018). Hire like Elon Musk…and 14 other ways to attract future leaders. Managers.org. Retrieved August 9, 2018 from https://www.managers.org.uk/insights/news/2018/may/hire-like-elon-musk-and-14-other-ways-to-attract-future-leaders
Schwantes, M. (2018). Elon Musk shows how to be a great leader with what he calls his single best piece of advice. Inc Magazine. Retrieved August 9, 2018 from https://www.inc.com/marcel-schwantes/elon-musk-shows-how-to-be-a-great-leader-with-what-he-calls-his-single-best-piece-of-advice.html
Umoh, R. (2017). The tactics self-made billionaire Elon Musk uses to motivate his teams. CNBC. Retrieved August 9, 2018 from https://www.cnbc.com/2017/07/05/2-major-ways-executives-like-elon-musk-are-trying-to-stop-you-from-quitting.html
Influence Practices of Elon Musk and Jeff Skilling CEOs and Presidents Abstract This paper looks at the influence processes of three CEOs: Elon Musk of Tesla, Alex Gorsky of Johnson & Johnson, and Jeff Skilling of Enron. These leaders have various strengths and faults and their leadership approaches are all different and to some extent based on their own personalities and styles of management. Some have met with more success than others, and
Mission The mission of Money Bag Apparel can be best understood in the company’s tag line: “Clothing you like Royalty.” The idea is to make every customer feel like a million dollars when he or she is wearing Money Bag Apparel without the customer having to spend a million dollars. Vision The vision of the company is to be making others smile while wearing affordable yet good quality clothing. Money Bag Apparel wants
Self-Marketing PlanExecutive SummaryThis self-marketing plan is a demonstration of marketing concepts as applied to creating employment opportunities for myself in the field of MIS. It begins with an environmental scan and SWOT analysis, with a self-analysis (talents and goals) offered in place of a traditional product analysis. Included in this section are a career market analysis and competitive analysis, which identifies the nature of the career that I will be
Exploiting Innovation Elon Musk's companies rely heavily on innovation for their success. They take industries that are struggling to evolve, such as electric cars and space travel, and seek to enter those businesses with innovative strategies to bring fresh products to market. Because of this, these companies have significant competitive advantages. Tesla has introduced several major innovations that are transforming the automotive industry. At a high level, Musk overpromises, but supports this
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