Elon Musk: Leadership Background and Style

Leadership Communication
Author’s Name
Institutional Affiliation
Course Code and Name
Professor’s Name
Date
Leadership Communication
Elon Musk is a renowned entrepreneur, innovator, investor, and founder of various American companies. He was born in 1971 in Pretoria, South Africa. Some of the firms that Musk has founded include Tesla, PayPal, SpaceX, Neuralink, and The Boring Company. Currently, Musk is the chief executive officer (CEO) of Tesla, SpaceX, and Twitter. In addition, the entrepreneur runs his philanthropic activities via Musk Foundation. He is among the richest person worldwide with an approximate net worth of about $196 billion. The paper focuses on Musk, his leadership style, and recommends systems, processes, or strategies that his organizations can implement to enhance effective communication and address numerous conflicts.
Musk is a popular American entrepreneur who has established numerous companies to solve problems that people encounter. For instance, he introduced PayPal, which he later sold to eBay, to make money transfer easy regardless of individuals’ geographical locations. The innovator came up with Tesla to make electric vehicles to facilitate human mobility and curb the emissions of greenhouse gases. In 2022, Musk acquired Twitter, which is a social networking platform. The primary thing that makes Musk successful in all his companies is his unique vision. The person is an entrepreneurial leader who stops at nothing when making decisions or determining proper competitive strategies (Khan, 2021). Musk exemplifies the constructive side of an autocratic leader. In most cases, the leader sets the path to be followed by employees and fires those he believes cannot help his companies to progress in the right direction. Although Musk is not a dictator, he is task-oriented and obsessed when it comes to delivering the best outcomes. The entrepreneur demands excellence in all his companies and motivates his workers to be creative and innovative. Some of Musk's leadership strengths include problem-solving, innovativeness, strategic planning, and strategy execution. For example, after Musk bought Twitter, he fired several employees who he thinks are not significantly contributing to the company’s growth. Musk’s innovativeness enables him to come up with the best products recognized globally, such as electric vehicles, space shuttles, and OpenAI.
When it comes to characterizing leaders, Musk can be referred to as a genuine and character-based individual with the highest integrity. He is fully committed to creating enduring companies. Musk does not compromise his company’s visions. If the project at hand requires more human capital, he authorizes his employees to work for more hours. Without understanding Musk, it can be challenging to work at Tesla. Due to the leader’s high expectations, he inspires his workers to provide the best outcomes. His commitment to the success of Tesla is not wavered by anything. Musk has set a good example at Tesla through adherence to the firm’s policies, core values, and consistent hard work (Archwell & Mason, 2021). Without applying autocracy leadership style, it can be hard for Musk to innovate and inspire his employees. The leader thinks and dreams about things that others do not see. His complexity level is high, and he does not fear trying new things even if he is not sure that they will work out. Musk is able to come up with technology designs and business models that require more confidence to implement. He is a risk-taker and focuses on everything that can transform his plans and ideas into reality (Archwell & Mason, 2021). Additionally, the leader has good interpersonal skills, making it easy for him to communicate with his employees and inspire them. On that note, he fosters organized learning, the development of trusting relationships among team members, and creativity.
In autocratic leadership, the leader makes all the decisions and accepts no or little input from workers during decision-making processes. For example, Musk uses a top-down leadership method in Tesla and his other companies. However, the entrepreneur does not create a rigid environment where others’ contributions are disregarded. Musk likes to be challenged and adopts the best strategies to ensure that his organizations achieve their visions. He focuses on excellent results, which makes him an outstanding leader. Musk makes many decisions implemented in Tesla. The most significant thing about this leader is that he creates a working environment that allows employees to make their contributions freely. In addition, Musk is a visionary leader who emphasizes coming up ...