Is Elon Musk a Management Nightmare?

Several decades in the past, I wrote an post below entitled “Why Steve Employment is a Management Nightmare.” I wrote it with my college pupils in intellect for the reason that, at the time, Jobs, Apple’s CEO, was a single of the most well-liked and prosperous leaders in the globe. As this sort of, a lot of of my pupils admired him. That was the difficulty, since as successful as Steve Employment was, he could from time to time be a tyrant—throwing tantrums, belittling workers, displaying vanity, and allegedly using credit history for others’ strategies. The information was: it’s alright to behave improperly towards many others as long as you are profitable. The finishes justify the signifies.

But that is lifeless erroneous.

It is not sufficient for a chief to be successful. Outside of results, a great chief requirements to produce followers, enhance their self esteem and perception of efficacy, and handle them with regard. The really ideal leaders are good function products for their followers—demonstrating beneficial and moral behavior, and supplying credit where by credit history is due.

So, what about Elon Musk—CEO of Tesla, SpaceX, and, far more lately, Twitter?

Just one of my visitors wrote to me not long ago following looking at my Steve Careers put up and claimed, “I get the job done in the tech sector and in tech it is unattainable to overstate the stage of impact Elon Musk is obtaining. To some of my younger buddies, he is like a God.” He went on to say that even his leaders admire Musk and find to emulate his conduct.

Let’s be straight: Elon Musk has been particularly prosperous with his corporations (even though we will have to see about Twitter). Nonetheless, Musk’s actions is dictatorial: laying off scores of Twitter staff members, taking credit rating for the accomplishments of other individuals, and a lot more not long ago, belittling a disabled worker (between other misdeeds). Once more, as in the circumstance of Work, it is not adequate to be productive. A correct, great chief requires to also really encourage and establish followers, behave in an exemplary and moral fashion (due to the fact, following all, significant-amount leaders are job products), and address men and women with dignity and respect.

But you really do not have to just take my term for it. This past weekend we hosted a conference on superior and poor leadership. Experts from about the planet arrived to focus on the entire “spectrum” of management, from virtuous to destructive. Elon Musk was mentioned quite a few moments as one of the lousy illustrations for the very reasons outlined higher than.

So, why do I say that enterprise leaders like Elon Musk and Steve Work are “nightmares”? Because their results on your own leads folks to believe that they are “good” leaders—role versions to be emulated. But good results on your own does not make a very good leader. As somebody who teaches management to young grown ups, the believed that my pupils would idolize and (God forbid) observe in the footsteps of leaders like Elon Musk is what retains me up at night.

So, who are leaders that had been or are hugely effective, but who also had excellent character and developed followers? How about Walt Disney, Warren Buffet, Reshma Saujani, Indra Nooyi, Charles Clinton Spaulding, or Oprah Winfrey? There are numerous productive and moral business enterprise leaders who are much better position designs than Work opportunities or Musk.