Elon Musk and The Leadership Grid

My interpretation of the leadership grid we to believe that the opportunism leader would be the most effective leadership style based on the grid scale. The opportunism refers to a leader that uses a combination of all five styles of management, the country club management, team management, middle-of-the-road management, impoverished management, and authority compliance management. A combination of all the styles would culminate into a leadership style that would allow the leader to not only have a well accomplished team but to also be aware of all types of physical and emotional conflicts displayed by the team members that could result in unhappy or unwilling participants of the task to be accomplished.

Although I feel that the opportunism leadership style would be the most effective leadership style I have a hard time believing that most leaders can accomplish this style. Although I think it is important for everyone to understand their strengths and weaknesses I believe those who spend more time working on their weaknesses spend less time pursuing avenues that would amplify their strengths. I believe that a leader that can amplify his or her strengths is more beneficial to the growth of their team than one that tries to work to overcome his or her weaknesses to produce a mediocre weakness amplification.

The particular leader that I chose to represent a good example for a leader was Elon Musk. Musk was the Co-founder and CEO of PayPal. An online banking system that allow users to transfer payments securely and efficiently over the Internet. The use of PayPal has significantly changed the way that we use online banking today. In 2002 he sold PayPal to eBay for $1.5 billion, 165 million of which went directly to Musk.

After the sale of PayPal Elon Musk decided to go after his passion of both electric cars (Tesla motor company) and privatizing space (SpaceX). Musk conceptualized in 2001 the “Mars oasis” project. A project that’s sole purpose would be to land a greenhouse on Mars containing crops that could grow in the Martian environment. In 2008 must assume leadership of the company Tesla motors is CEO and product architect. His goal was to create a company that would knock down the barriers that have burdened most car manufacturers from producing electric transportation. His passion for the stars and for making our planet a much more sustainable one drove him to use his own money to start ventures that others might deem as career suicide.

After doing research on Elon Musk and his companies and even after learning about the bleak in Morton’s leadership grid or managerial grid I would put Elon Musk at authority/compliance (9,1) I find this leadership style as one that might not be so effective in the long run. However, is very apparent that although Mr. Musk spends a great deal of time telling others how his company will be ran has been shown to create exponential leaps in the industries he has pursued. The idea of a leadership style that emphasizes the tasks and jobs that could be accomplished expeditiously can give way to a leadership style that imposes an authoritarian complex toward its leader. The idea that a person who is trying to accomplish an elaborate goal such as entering outer space or revolutionizing an industry such as the car manufacturing business, could do this without a strong team backing him up would be foolish. The fact is that although this authoritarian leadership style has significant drawbacks to its personnel it does have significant bearing on accomplishing goals that might seem unreachable.

I believe that the way that Elon Musk overcomes the obstacles associated with authority- compliance leadership style is that his team understands before they are even part of the tasks associated with the goal, the “WHY” associated with this particular venture. I believe that the fact remains that his team would not continue to be as successful as they are if they weren’t all committed to the “WHY.” I believe that the kind of people that would be associated with accomplishing these types of goals and following such an authoritarian figure would not do so if they were not dedicated to the outcome of such an outlandish destination. I believe that companies and leaders that can properly communicate the WHY to its followers are more likely to not only accomplish goals that are outlandish but also to endure hardship in order to reach those destinations.

I do believe that the characteristics of Elon Musk’s leadership style to somewhat coincide with paternalism/paternalism leadership style. This idea of a benevolent dictator does have the capabilities of describing Elon Musk’s leadership style. However, this idea of a father’s love in regards to his organization’s followers and regarding his team members as his family could possibly be associated with his leadership style. The problem with this outcome however is that his sole devotion to the overall outcome of these two ventures with signify that no one has more pride and the motion toward the overall outcome of his goals and less the accomplishments of his team members who supplied the overall output. Given the choice I believe that Elon Musk would try to accomplish all of his goals and ideas by himself if he had the opportunity.

My overall impression of Elon Musk in his businesses come from the utmost respect for both him and his ideas. I often wonder how far I would go with my ideas and aspirations given the unlimited supply of money. My overall opinion of Elon Musk is only based on articles and biographies that I have read over the years. I do not have any first person accounts with Mr. Musk however I do believe that my assumptions are based on sound evidence.

There is a great book called "Rich Dad and Poor Dad" By Robert Kiyosaki He has a quote. " When life is pushing you around it is saying wake up there is something I want you to learn." Although I didn't get it then I do now. See, when I signed up for My first management job out of college I was interviewed and working directly for the General manager. After a few weeks he decided to hire an assistant General manager. From then on out the roles and style of manager, one of the primary reasons for taking the job, was gone. So, lets view a few things that made managing so difficult. First, I had lost the mantra of being a leader when it was important. There had been a rule that there were to be no cell phones out during work. I made it a strong point to tell and sometimes punish those who broke this rule. However, with the primary form of communication with the company being Email. Staying on the phone was the best way to stay up to date with the company. So, there I would be telling others to stay off their phone with mine in my hand. Very hypocritical and It seemed to set the tone for how the rest of my management style was going to proceed. When I was hired to do the job the general manager made it a point that his management style was one of fairness. He spoke of a book called the Oz principle and how we should run this company by these principles. This idea intrigued me. The idea that a manager had a set of principles that he would abide by in order to be an effective manager. It management style that had nothing to do with slapping the wrists of those who did bad and patting the backs of those who did good. This old archaic way of managing that everyone of us has come to dread. So when I joined this organization I felt like we were on the proper management path or at least one that was trying to produce something different. But when the assistant general manager was hired from the beginning I felt that the old ways of managing were going to steadily creep up and bite me in the butt. With all the endless problems that I dealt with during my time there the one thing that I found extraordinarily useful was the lessons I learned about how not to manage. This blog is aimed specifically at those mistakes that I have made and how to correct them. 

“Reason and Judgment are the qualities of a good leader” Tacitus 100 AD