MGT3LWM: Elon Musk's Leadership Style, Challenges, and Analysis

This essay provides a comprehensive analysis of Elon Musk's leadership, examining his background, leadership style, and the challenges he has faced. It begins with an overview of Musk's life and career, highlighting his role as the founder of SpaceX and co-founder of Tesla. The essay then delves into his leadership style, identifying it as transformational and ethical, emphasizing his focus on innovation, teamwork, and employee motivation. The analysis incorporates relevant leadership theories and provides evidence to support the claims. Furthermore, the essay discusses several challenges Musk has encountered, including those related to company management, financial constraints, and personal hardships, and how he has addressed them. The essay concludes with suggestions for improving his leadership and reflecting on lessons learned from studying Musk's approach to leadership.

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Leadership

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Elon Musk and his life
Elon musk is the technology investor and entrepreneur who is born in 1971 in South Africa. He
is the founder of SpaceX and is also the co-founder of the Tesla company. He was always a
dreamer for the innovations and developed the interest in the computer at the age of 10. He was
innovated and created as software of his own at the age of 12 which is identified as the Blastar.
He had gone to the Queen’s University at the age of 17 in 1989. The Canadian citizenship has
been gained by him in the same year and by that he obtained the American citizenship (Kessler,
2015). He further went to the University of Pennsylvania in 1992 where he studied physics and
business.
After this, he went to pursue Ph.D. at Stanford University in California. In 1995 he launched his
first company which is Zip2 Corporation. In May 2012 there was a history created by the
SpaceX and Musk as they launched their Falcon 9 rocket in the space. There are various
successful projects which have been carried by him and they made the company even more
successful (Setili, 2015). He has carried various innovations which have made him famous in this
field and gained the trust of everyone.
Leadership style
As a leader also Elon musk has gained the success and is operating various companies. He is
leading all of them at the same time and this shows that he is a great leader. In the leadership
process, there are various elements which need to be focused and out of all of them there is the
need for the motivation at the upmost level (Cunha et al., 2017). There are various features
which are required to be possessed by a leader and in the most important are personality
development, emotional intelligence, and group behavior. He is of the view that all of them have
the same potential and they will be working in the same manner as he is working. He follows the
ethical leadership and in that he considers the interest of all in undertaking of any decision. He
has emphasized on the renewable energy which is a good thought as it will be saving the future
in effective manner (Groysberg et al., 2018). In all of his companies there is an ethical
framework which is established and they are required to work in accordance with the same. All
of the rules and procedures which are required to be followed are specified in the same and that

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gives them with the best of the rest and that too without harming anyone.
He believes in the teamwork and for that has the ability to manage the teams in an effective
manner. In his company there are various teams which are made and they are managed by him in
appropriate manner (Rubens, Leah, and Schoenfeld, 2016). The products which are included in
the company are highly complex and so they require the team to work in the combined manner
by which the best of the results will be attained. He was a hard worker from the childhood and
that represented in his leadership also. He carries all of the operations with the perfection and
does not consider the avoidance of any aspect in his projects. Being a leader he always inspires
his employees to work in the positive direction. In order to get the work done by them he himself
does it first so that he can set the example for all and this way all will be following their leader.
In all the businesses there is a certain mission which is involved and in same manner there were
mission statements which were made by him for all of his employees. With the help of that the
direction and focus are provided to the employees (Marques, 2017). He always used to follow
the transformational leadership and in that inspiration was provided to all to perform in best
manner and attain the goals which have been set by the company. He was always happy to share
his vision with his employees and by that the recruitment of the most talented people was made
in the company. There was creativity in the work of musk and due to that most of the people
wanted to work for him.
Being a leader he has worked in the most successful manner and this was by including all of the
employees in the processes which are carried. He used to share his thoughts with all and by that
there was increased motivation among all as they were well aware of the goals which are to be
achieved and also as they are the part of the process so they consider the same to be their
responsibility also. This gives Musk the additional advantage as all of the employees are keen on
working with him as he includes the innovative ideas in businesses which are liked by all. There
is the inspiration which is involved by seeing their leader working that hard (Neider and
Schriesheim, 2014). They are willing to follow the path of their leader and this provides the
musk with the required results and success. The leader should be such that is able to take the
complete team together will be able to provide all with the same level of the growth. Elon has
done the same and he treated all of the employees with equality and there was no difference

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which was made on the basis of any aspects. This made him a great leader and all used to respect
him.
Challenges faced
In the process of the attainment of the success, there are various challenges which are faced and
same is the case with Elon Musk. He also faced various challenges in the setting up of his
companies. The main challenge faced by him was the refusal for becoming the CEO of the
company which was created by him (Heemsbergen, 2015). The board members are of the view
that Elon did not have the required skills in operations and will not be able to fulfill the
responsibilities for the same. They have appointed another person as the CEO of the company.
SpaceX is the main company which was made for the launching of the rocket and it died without
making any of the launches. The company was having the funds to perform three launches but it
was not able to make them successful. Even after this failure musk did not lose the hope and
arranged the money for another launch and to his hard work success was attained in the same.
There was another challenge which is faced in relation to the Tesla as the launch has been
delayed by four years. Various comments have been made by all in this respect and there were
various negative remarks which have been made by reporters. Rusk faced this challenge with
dedication and launched the Tesla Roadster which was an electric sports car (Szocik et al., 2016).
There were many challenges which came in his path but he was motivated towards his goal and
due to that worked very hard and did not compromise on any condition. There were many such
people who were against his dreams but he proved himself by making them true. In addition to
the professional challenges there were personal challenges also which were faced in his life.
Major among them was when he lost his first baby of 10 weeks due to some disease.
There was a shortage of the funds which was faced by him and there was time when he was
having the limited funds which he could use in any of his ventures. There was a need for the
money in all and he had to split the same among all of them to make them continue in some
manner. He was also undergoing the divorce proceedings at the same time which proved to be all
the more difficult (Scherer, 2015). There was the emotional burden and in that situation also he
dealt with the circumstances and took the measures by which he can save his company. There
was overall growth which was made and that helped him in attaining the success in the coming

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period and made him a successful leader.

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References
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