Leadership characteristics of elon musk

Effective Leadership Practices

Effective leaders realize that employees should be recognized for a job well done. While some people prefer public praise and others prefer personal recognition, most employees want to be recognized in some way. Kouzes and Posner (2017) state that effective leaders begin their leadership development by first learning to lead themselves. Effective leadership begins from within and expands outward to affect others. This development cascades into effective leadership.

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By successfully completing this assessment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the following course competencies and assessment criteria:

Competency 1: Evaluate the purpose and relevance of leadership.
Analyze how a leader reflects the definition of leadership.
Evaluate leadership style, characteristics, or themes in relation to the purpose and relevance of effective leadership.
Competency 2: Evaluate how leadership strengths apply in the workplace and within the community.
Analyze how a leader models leadership.
Analyze how a leader inspires a shared vision.
Analyze how a leader looks for new opportunities that may require experimentation or taking risks.
Analyze how a leader empowers and recognizes the contributions of others.
Reference
Kouzes, J. M., & Posner, B. Z. (2017). The leadership challenge: How to make extraordinary things happen in organizations (6th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.

Effective Leadership Practices I have chosen to evaluate Elon Musk’s leadership practice in this paper because I admire his powerful will and visionary thinking. Musk is an American business tycoon who runs several organizations such as SpaceX (founder, CEO, lead designer), Tesla (co-founder, CEO), The Boring Company (CEO), and Neuralink (CEO; “Elon’s empire,” 2017; SpaceX, n.d.-b). In this paper, I will be studying SpaceX and Tesla because Musk’s involvement in these two companies is widely talked about.

Founded in 2002 and headquartered in Hawthorne, California, SpaceX is an aerospace manufacturer. The company also launches advanced spacecraft and rockets and aims to enable people to inhabit other planets. SpaceX is currently working on building fully reusable launch vehicles for space transportation (SpaceX, n.d.-a).

Tesla was founded in 2003 with a mission to create a future that thrives on sustainable energy. Apart from electric cars, the company also manufactures energy storage products. It is known to have developed the world’s first premium all-electric sedan, Model S. Tesla also became the world’s first vertically integrated sustainable energy company after acquiring a solar energy services company, SolarCity, in 2016 (Tesla, n.d.-a, n.d.-b).

Leading the Way

According to Kouzes and Posner (2017), leaders can lead the way by setting an example and taking responsibility personally. Musk is an exemplary leader because he believes in leading by example. He also feels that leaders should be industrious enough to empower and cater to the needs of their employees (Clifford, 2017).

Musk believes in recruiting people who are better than the leaders who hired them because this will ensure that the company improves with each hire (Clifford, 2017). Kouzes and posner (2017) believe that leaders should have clear values. This will help them stay committed to their chosen path. It will also enable employees to adopt their leaders’ values and path. As Musk’s example illustrates, leaders will be able to model the way for their employees by having clear goals and values.

Inspiring Shared Vision

In 2008, when SpaceX’s Falcon 1 rocket had a launch failure, Musk delivered a riveting speech to his employees about relaunching the rocket. He expressed optimism about the future and said that he will never give up. His speech inspired his employees to look beyond the failure and work toward the relaunch (Feloni, 2014). According to Kouzes and Posner (2017), effective leaders enlist others to a shared vision by communicating a deep sense of purpose and by tapping into their emotions. It is important for leaders to visualize the future because this can motivate followers and improve the productivity of an organization. Leaders who are able to look beyond the difficulties and challenges in the present and share an optimistic vision of the future are able to enlist followers in a shared vision effectively.

Seeking New Opportunities

According to Kouzes and Posner (2017), there are bound to be failures when leaders challenge an existing system. Leaders should understand that experimenting with any new concept or practice involves trial and error. There are several risks Musk has taken for the growth of his companies. One of the most significant of these is his decision to forgo his salary at Tesla until the company reaches a valuation of $650 billion, which is currently at $52 billion (Rushe, 2018). Another example of Musk’s risk-taking nature is his decision to re-attempt the launch of the Falcon 1 rocket despite failing the first time. In the second attempt, Falcon 1 was launched into space successfully and became the first private rocket to orbit Earth (Feloni, 2014). This scenario shows that Musk understood that failures are a part of experiments

Empowering Others

Leaders can empower employees by collaborating with them. To collaborate with their team, leaders need to trust employees and develop a strong and lasting relationship with them (Kouzes & Posner, 2017). After the launch failure of the Falcon 1 rocket, Musk first spoke to his employees instead of the press (Feloni, 2014). This example illustrates the fact that he values his relationship with his employees above everything else.

Musk’s speech also demonstrates his trust in his employees. Instead of expressing disappointment for the launch failure, he highlighted the fact that his employees had outdone several countries who had failed to execute even a first-stage flight (Feloni, 2014). In my opinion, this is a good example of empowering behavior. Recognizing employees contribution to the organization plays a crucial role in empowering them (Kouzes & Posner, 2017).

Recognizing Contributions

In the first week of June 2018, Musk announced that Tesla would manufacture 5,000 Model 3 cars by the end of the month. When the team achieved this target, Musk sent out an e- mail to his employees expressing how proud and honored he felt to work with them. He also acknowledged their dedication and creativity in finding solutions under all circumstances (“Here’s what Elon,” 2018). In my opinion, his effectiveness at recognizing the contribution of his employees made him a good leader. According to Kouzes and Posner (2017), leaders should be spontaneous in recognizing employees’ contributions and efforts and reward them creatively.

Building Team Spirit

According to Josh Boehm, a former employee of SpaceX, Musk rewards hard work with perks such as free coffee, dinners, and in-house massages (Quora, 2017). Leaders can create a sense of community and team spirit through corporate celebrations. Such activities help in developing a sense of unity, establishing a support system, and keeping the workforce motivated. Corporate celebrations can also facilitate team building and provide leaders with a platform to reinforce goal-oriented team behavior (Kouzes & Posner, 2017). Boehm mentioned that SpaceX would buy tickets for sci-fi movies for all its employees so that they could watch these movies together. The company has also organized motivational talks with prominent personalities such as George Takei (actor, director, author) for its employees (Quora, 2017).

The Effective Leader

Leadership refers to an individual’s ability to lead an organization or people. Effective leaders should be able to develop relationships and foster collaboration as well as create value congruence in the organization (Kouzes & Posner, 2017). Musk is an effective leader because he can lead his organization and people even under uncertain circumstances. According to Kouzes and Posner (2017), effective leaders create positive change in their employees. Musk is a good leader because he reinforced optimism in his employees with his speech after the launch failure of Falcon 1.

According to Bass, transformational leaders can enable their followers to perform beyond minimum expectation (as cited in Chou, Lin, Chang, & Chuang, 2013). Musk is a transformational leader because he challenges his people to perform beyond their capacity and rewards them for their achievements creatively. Musk demonstrates several leadership characteristics such as passion, focus, commitment, and clarity. He keeps a sleeping bag at the Tesla factory in Fermont so that he can put in more hours at work (Thompson, 2016). This displays a passion for the work he is doing and his commitment to the company. For Musk, the future of mankind is more important than money. He aims to make humans multi-planetary beings (Davies, 2013). This scenario shows that he has clear goals and objectives.

Conclusion

Musk is an excellent example of an effective leader because he knows how to develop shared values and inspire people to achieve their goals. He is courageous and does not evade challenges and tricky situations. His dreams are not limited to his personal life but are aimed at serving humanity.