Profile of a Leader: Why I admire Elon Musk

Case study - Profile of a Leader Institution Course Code: Date: Elon Musk 1.Why I admire Elon Musk Elon Musk has become one of the most influential people of the 21st century in the world. Born and raised in South Africa, he moved to Canada and later to the United States where he has started successful and innovative companies. His first breakthrough came when he co-founded PayPal which is an e-commerce company that facilitates payments between parties through online funds transfers. This technology or financial feature was revolutionary and today is the backbone of many online companies. He continued pushing the envelope and created an electric car company for the masses. It was a ridiculous idea given the limitation of batteries to store energy compared to fossil fuels which have higher energy density. He navigated the automotive industry and eventually provided a practical car for the masses which has pushed other automotive companies to invest in designing and building electric cars. As a child, he was fascinated by astronomy and after realizing that space exploration is expensive and unsustainable, he set out to create reusable rockets. After failing many times, he managed to create first reusable rockets that have significantly brought down the cost of space exploration especially the transportation part. He envisions space tourism and enabling humans to establish a colony on mars. Additionally, Musk also noticed the limitation of humans to use only four main modes of transport; water, road, rail, and air. He has hinted on creating a new form of travel which would enable humans to reach any corner of the planet in less than an hour from any origin CITATION Mul17 \l 1033 (Mullen, 2017). He plans to use space to achieve this goal but he hasn’t realized it yet. He also fronted the idea of creating a new transportation system known as hyperloop which would be faster than any current mode of transport. He is also involved in technology that would see roofs being replaced by solar panels to harness the energy from the sun and store it and even add the surplus to the grid. He has also established a company to develop implantable brain-machine interfaces that would enable humans to interface with robots and control them by brain activity (thinking). 2.Examine the approach to leading Musk is a transformational leader and he leads by example. He has been reported on sleeping on the factory floor to ensure he works out issues in his company CITATION Cat18 \l 1033 (Clifford, 2018). This is leadership by example and he motivates the other employees to give their very best. Many other employees under Musk in the respective companies he heads also have come to adopt his commitment to their jobs they have reported having over 90-hour workweeks. Secondly, Musk empowers his employees to make decisions. He is a keen listener and empowers his employees to make weighty decisions even when he is not around. That is the reason why he is able to lead several multibillion companies even when he is not present. He has been on record saying that he is not very knowledgeable in some areas but his engineers are. Therefore, he trusts them to execute his vision. Therefore, the key attributes that make Musk a great leader is his ability to lead by example and empowering his workforce to make pivotal decisions and backing them up. Style of Leadership Elon Musk is known to many as a dreamer. A majority of his ideas can best be described as dreams because often, the majority cannot bring themselves to understand or wrap their heads around the idea that they can be achieved. However, Musk has launched and contin...