Evaluation of the leadership of Elon Musk

Document Type:Case Study

Subject Area:Business

Document 1

Leadership skills 4 1. Leadership and change theories 5 1. Musk’s Characteristics and skills 6 1. Taking Elson Musk’s Style too far 8 1. Musk’s fate in Telsa, the electric car company 9 1. Introduction This case study intends to evaluate the key leadership strategies incorporated by Elon Musk in his entrepreneurial and leadership roles. The applicability of his leadership strategy and its weakness would be outlined. The skills that drive his successful operations would as well be analyzed. Various leadership and change theory would be incorporated in the analysis of Musk’s leadership strategy. Musk is more of a leader than a manager is. Musk also leads with a purpose. He designs specific and realistic goals for the companies. He understands that setting goals are very productive in a company.

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By so doing, he is able to delegate specific activities to the workers. He as well tracks whether such activities are in line with the accomplishment of these goals. He ensures that the teams are cohesive and success-oriented. According to him, the success of the teams is driven and motivated by the leadership. He does this by leading by example, thus showing other workers the success ways. He as well motivates the workers by “doing” more than “telling”. Musk also delegate the right roles to the right people. Conversely, Musk displays various management skills in his operation (Wheelen 2017, 10). For instance, he is able to manage the operations of the companies successfully even under his control. This includes making effective decisions concerning the businesses, managing the resources of the companies, manage the employees and decide on the various investments.

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He is as well able to direct and control the operations of the workers and emphasizes on teamwork. Moreover, he as well applies creativity, insightfulness, and innovation in the course of his managing tasks. He as well incorporates changes in his leadership, like the electric car advancement (Fenwick, Hisatake and Vermeulen 2016, 13). This qualifies the transformational leadership theory. In his leadership, he allows rooms for changes and adapts to the surroundings. He forms teams to incorporate such changes. Musk’s Characteristics and skills The behavioral leadership theory outlines the various behaviors other than the traits of such leaders (Bhardwaj 2017, 1). His first three SpaceX rocket launch attempts failed. However, he was determined that it would once function. Instead of giving up, he started working on the modifications to make the rocket work.

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At a point, the Telsa Motors failed to accomplish the projected production deadline for its Telsa Roadster (Fenwick, Hisatake and Vermeulen 2016, 21). The company was almost in bankruptcy and one of its directors withdrew his funding. While ordinary people apply 40 hours a week in the work, he emphasized on spending at least 100 hours. This enables him to achieve in less than four months what people target to accomplish in a year. To maximize the productivity of his operations, he manages time effectively and avoids its wastage. He sets clear targets and goals to achieve, and is ever busy and determined to actualize them. Musk also aims bigger. He dedicates his heart, time, resources and skills in accomplishing these high profile targets. Moreover, Elon Musk possesses various skills as aforementioned.

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For instance, possesses effective communication skills. This enables him to outline and describe his intentions and strategies to the workers. He also applies it in convincing people to believe in his ideas and thoughts. He also possesses the various leadership and management skills mentioned above, that enables success in his businesses. He is also a quick decision maker and adapts to the environment easily. More so, Musk is innovative, creative and endorses teamwork in his companies. He as well takes big risks. Taking Elson Musk’s Style too far Adopting Musk’s strategy and styles would enable one’s business operations to improve. When always directed on what to do, when and how to do it, workers become less productive and efficient.

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For a better performance in businesses, managers need to involve workers in the decision making process. This makes them feel motivated and worthy of the business. Musk thereby denies the workers an opportunity to choose the projects they feel better and more appropriate. Therefore, fully adopting his style is disastrous to one's company, as it would demoralize the workers, lowering their job satisfaction and performance. This makes the manager lack control over the workers and the activities they engage in. In addition to the aforementioned risks of fully adopting the Musk’s strategy, the setting of very high standards and targets may demoralize the employees. The employees may find these standards and targets being too high and complex to achieve. Such thoughts and concerns may cause them to perform poorly.

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Hereby, managers need to be keen on the levels of the strategies they are willing to implement. This shows that under his management, the company is in the right hands. Moreover, the car company requires a person ready to take risks. In this case, Musk is the right person as he takes risks for the company. Once he established his target, he never gives up no matter the circumstances or the condition. This was the reason behind the successive manufacture of the electric car (Fenwick, Hisatake and Vermeulen 2016, 19). Moreover, the company sometimes needs the try and era methods of testing. He is thereby relevant for the task as he has experience in the motor industry. Moreover, he is concerned about the environment, thus being surroundings-friendly.

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Conclusion In conclusion, Musk’s leadership strategy has been analyzed effectively. Based on the information analyzed above, it would be worth to conclude that Elon Musk is an effective and appropriate leader. P. Lewis, M. Rego, A. and Smith, W. K. html https://www. linkedin. com/pulse/elon-behind-iron-mans-mask-analysing-leadership-style- roman-gromov https://www. nytimes. com/interactive/2016/07/25/business/elon-musks-companies-spacex- telsa-solarcity.  Elon Musk: How the billionaire CEO of SpaceX and Tesla is shaping our future. Random House: 34-38 Wheelen, T. L. et al.  Strategic management and business policy.

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