Elon Musk is considered to be one of the living legends from Silicon Valley and a great example of a transformational leader. He is currently well known for his two revolutionary companies Tesla Motors and SpaceX, in which he both operates as CEO. However, he was only able to build these companies by having built two other companies, after dropping out of Stanford University, Zip2 and PayPal, which he both then sold – the latter one to eBay. He then used most of his earnings from these sales to build his two current powerhouse companies. He was only able to do all this because of his incredible vision and “his ability to make people believe in his vision” (Dolly Singh). Furthermore, Musk is driven not just by his vision but by his perseverance and dedication. His first engineer at SpaceX said: “Most of us can’t conceive these things working; he can’t conceive it failing.”
This means however, that engineers and certain employees might find themselves working nearly 100 hours a week, over the course of months, and all of a sudden Musk would drop the project, because he envisioned something grander. He pushes people to do things that support his ideas, his visions but never stops envisioning and thinking. Elon Musk leads his companies by example, creating a sense of excellence and perfection. His employees do not have common low-level exchanges but are drawn to the company’s main goals and visions, introduced and created by Musk himself. He is seen to be working 100 hours weeks himself, which lead to the expression at SpaceX, that “no matter how hard you work, someone else is working harder”, that someone being Musk. By creating this environment, he pushes and motivates his employees to work independently, efficiently, thoroughly and most importantly pushes them to innovate. His charismatic way of communicating with his employees pushes them to take higher risks, makes them extremely loyal and proud of their company and often identify themselves fully with the company’s beliefs, vision and position.
One might argue that Elon Musk uses his employees solely to fulfill his own ideas and visions, however he can actually be described as a socialized charismatic leader, due to the fact that he actually invites his employees to participate in developing his vision. It is as if he provides the ground work for his companies’ visions but then works closely together with his employees to further develop his vision, while keeping a keen eye on the original idea. It is that personal attachment which he combines with very democratic structures that exemplifies his entrepreneurial style. He justifies his style by saying, “I should not ask people to eat from the fruit bowl if I have not myself been willing to eat from the fruit bowl”. It further shows that he morally feels obliged to contribute his fair share, when he asks other for their time and work. As stated earlier, Musk has become sort of a legend and idol for many engineers and entrepreneurs, because of his unwavering vision and his perseverance. His company SpaceX is the best example of Elon Musk's perseverance. His rocket company SpaceX is famously known for its many failed attempts to launch a reusable booster and make it land vertically again. It took the company 9 attempts to successfully land its rocket on a drone ship, with every attempt probably costing almost $37 million. He continues to prove and convince to all the stake- and shareholders of the program that their work is “fundamental in rocketry” (Elon Musk) and can eventually make space expeditions more affordable and sustainable. In other words, Musk believes that he can fundamentally change the field of space travel. This superior cause and target can be observed at Tesla Motors as well. Regarding his intention with Tesla, Elon Musk wrote, “Tesla Motors was created to accelerate the advent of sustainable transport. […] Tesla will not initiate patent lawsuits against anyone who, in good faith, wants to use our technology”. He is willing to take high risks, even if that means making mistakes over and over again. It seems like his main objective is not necessarily to win economically but to inspire others to innovate and push the boundaries even further, to create a better future for all. This leads to Musk’s approach to innovate, which he refers to as “first principles”. Musk thinks “it’s important to reason from first principles rather than by analogy.”. It implies that instead of looking for something that has been done by others and trying to make that better, one should “boil things down to the most fundamental truths…and then reason up from there” (Elon Musk). He admits however, that this approach “takes a lot more mental energy” and physical energy due to the longer working hours. As mentioned earlier, it is not unusual for Musk and his employees to work well over 100 hours a week, due to his intense style of managing companies. This has led to employees suffering from burnout regularly in the past. His employees still know that he “walks his talk” and although having an intense level of expectations, still try to fulfil his expectations. However, this means that his employees might experience less freedom to take on projects the way they choose, since it is usually Musk who tells his employees what the objectives are and which way is the fastest, most efficient and productive way to obtain their targets. Musk is highly determined, and strongly believes in his righteousness of his work and apparently knows how to transport his passion and vision to his followers inside and outside his companies. His extreme fact orientated work ethic combined with his charisma increases “his ability to inspire and motivate the people who work for him.”. His knowledge is ultimately what his followers look up to, the knowledge of his field and the believe to make things better.
Although Elon Musk can be described as a transformative leader, one must remember that his lack of team empowerment, and micromanagement style in certain parts of operation together with the rising pressure from competitors, his leadership style has moved slightly towards a transactional leadership style. However, it is important to remember that his success is one of the key factors for this change of styles. Tesla grew from 4,500 employees to over 33,000 in just over four years. This rapid expansion caused employees to not fully understand the intense startup mentality lived by Musk and his team before. Nonetheless, he tries to combine and mix the best of both worlds; the startup world and the corporate, globalized world. In an eMail to his employees at Tesla, Musk wrote, “Tesla has to be hardcore and demanding, not for the hell of it, but because we are fighting for a good cause against giant, entrenched competitors who just want the status quo to continue. […] The only way for [Tesla] to prevail against those much larger companies is to work faster, smarter and harder.”. This exemplifies how Musk is trying to keep the “hardcore mentality”, which is often seen from startups, just implemented in a corporation with 30,000+ employees. He clearly has a strong, formulated strategy which he communicates with his employees whenever needed. It seems though, as if he got blind sighted for a moment, due to the extraordinary success of his companies, hence his slight move in leadership styles. It still becomes clear that this change is not necessarily in his interest. He wants his employees to follow him. He wants his employees to understand his vision and belief, and he wants his employees to be loyal and to live up to (at least) his expectations. Elon Musk’s personality constitutes a force which his employees cannot resist to follow. To a certain extend it seems that Musk has perfected the ability to be authoritarian, while maintaining a high level of admiration from others. Although,
he is not necessarily, physically working next to a designer at Tesla, he is in a sense omnipresent, as the majority of his companies identify themselves with not just their brand but with Elon Musk himself. His expectations and requirements towards his employees set the standards so high, through which he actively pushes them to deliver excellent work. In an eMail, he states that “the passing grade at Tesla is excellence”, which further highlights his strive for nothing but the best.
In summary, one can say that Elon Musk is a transformative leader, who pushes his employees to excellence and drives them to use their fullest potential and even beyond. He articulates his vision in a way that makes people believe it is a superior task to actualize his vision but one that is worth fighting for. Furthermore, he articulates himself in a sophisticated, yet relatable and genuine way, which further increases his acceptance with his employees and other stakeholders. His self-confidence, his strong belief and his ability to inspire others, motivates his people and pushes the boundaries in which they operate. Still, he maintains a high-level honesty, due to the fact that he lives by his words. Willing to put everything on risk, just to reach his desired target. Elon Musk is an intense, fast, self-confident, charismatic, strategic leader that still manages to keep a good amount of flexibility, while keeping his initial goals in sight. By doing so, he not only empowers his own employees but an entire industry, setting new standards and rules by which the future of his fields of interest will be shaped.