Big Five Trait Analysis of Elon Reeve Musk

Running head: ANAYSIS 0
CRITICAL ANALYSIS

ANALYSIS 1
Big five trait of Elon Reeve Musk:
Elon Reeve Musk is the founder of the company called SpaceX. He is also the CEO of Tesla Inc.
and co-chairman of OpenAI. As the data estimated, it has been analysed that Elon Reeve Musk is
21st wealthiest man of America (Roach, 2017). Not only in America but he is amongst the
world’s’ 80 wealthiest person. It has been analysed that he is the man of his words and wants to
works for humanity. He has a long term vision of performingsustainable activities that helps in
reducing global warming and also supports the human life by creating colony on Mars. He is big
tech serial entrepreneur. He is a great transformer and transformed many industry by his
innovative nature. He shows his innovative skills at paypal, Tesla, spaceX and now he is doing it
with acquiring SolarCity and merging it with Tesla. The innovation of these companies is not
only the efforts of the companyand its employees but it is also the efforts of the leaders who are
leading these companies (Northouse, 2015). One of them is Elon Reeve Musk. Study of big five
trait model of Elon Reeve Musk helps in analysing his leadership skills.
Big fie trait model helps in analysing the characteristics of the person based on which it can be
identified that whether the concerned person is an effective leader or not.
Agreeableness:
It is the trait that related with social behaviour of an individual. It is the characteristic to get
along with the people. The person who does not agree may not have the capability to develop
social relations with each other. As far as Elon Reeve Musk is considered, it has been analysed
that the people who follows his vision can only work with him and the one who do not want to
follow his vision have to leave his partnership (Kessler, 2015). It has been seen in past in the
case of Tesla that the co-founders not following his gaols left and he also fired some who are on
different tangent.
Extraversion: It is the trait that is described as the people with talkative nature and loves to speak
in public, they are found to be influencing and have the capacity to express their views in front of
large audience (Judge & Zapata, 2015). Elon Reeve Musk has found to be very extravert. He
does not afraid going on the public platform instead use these platforms to connect with
stakeholders and customers so that he can take their opinion on the new products sought to be
launched.

ANALYSIS 2
Consciousness: It is the term that describes the individual as self-discipline, hardworking,
reliable etc. Elon Reeve Musk scores high in this context. This is because he is the person who
can be relied upon. He is much organised in nature. This can be observed by the fact that he is
leading many businesses simultaneously and working successfully in all of them.
Emotional stability: It can be linked to the concept of emotional intelligence. It has been
analysed that the people who are emotionally stable are aware of their own emotions and they
also have the capability to regulate the same (Wille & De Fruyt, 2014). They have the ability to
think going into other’s shoes and take decisions. As far as Elon Reeve Musk is considered, he
has followed Steve Jobs in this. He sometimes becomes very harsh with his employees when it
comes to work. This is because he is very particular with his guidelines and principles. Someone
who breaches the same have to handle the harsh behaviour of Elon Reeve Musk.
Openness to experience: It is the trait that is directly related to risk taking behaviour of the
leaders. Musk is very familiar with this word. In the case of Tesla, it has been analysed that the
company only claimed that affordable electric car is not possible but realize the same under the
leadership of Musk. At the time when the company was at the verge of bankruptcy, he was the
one who put in his own money to keep it running. Having the visions of setting up the colony on
Mars is itself a thought of taking risk. Thus, all the above discussion suggests that Elon Reeve
Musk is a person who is very open to different experiences in professional life.
Required trait for technical and automobile field:
As per the industry, it has been observed that most of the traits that Elon Reeve Musk possess are
required to be the successful businessman in the industry of technology and automobile, this is
because these industries are very much changing and experiencing great advancement. Being an
innovator, he can make innovation in the products and services he work on and serve the
customers with new products now and then (Leutner, Ahmetoglu, Akhtar & Chamorro-Premuzic,
2014). Some of the skills that are required to be the effective leader in these fields are:
Innovator: It is the characteristic that are possessed by Elon Reeve Musk. Having an innovative
leader helps the company to be innovative as a whole. The leaders like to provide chance to the
employees to show their creativity at the workplace.