Leadership is dead: why Elon Musk explains the revival of leadership and how these entrepreneurs are reversing the trend.Not everyone who talks about leadership knows a lot about it. People searching for precise definitions, contextual applications, and looking up for types and models of leadership has been a strong indicator that now leadership has just cloaked in a nutshell; company’s now prioritized leadership development programs get to crack it open and ‘leaders’ do nothing but munch on it. Talking of that, in a nutshell, statistics show that in spite of more money being spent on leadership development than any other area of corporate learning, 71% of companies do not feel their leaders are able to lead their organizations into the future.
The entrepreneurs around the world are still fighting their quest to bring out the best leader in them while there is still a debate going on whether the company’s PR agent come under this category or not. A company’s PR agent is the one who must possess very different styles required to lead the company’s external and internal affairs with the media and communicate throughout. One quality is that they must carry strategic decision-making capability to fulfill the most important dimension of their leadership.
For many years now, people have followed the conventional way of understanding the art of leadership which has formulated itself through some evolutionary models and theories about leadership but believing the practicalities and demands of the position, a leader should never stick to these leadership styles because every workplace calls for a different approach. The dark time in the evolution of leadership seems to be approaching with already visible deaths of good leadership qualities.
But we are still fortunate enough to be living in an era where great entrepreneur and more importantly, a great leader like Elon Musk exists. A visionary, ideologues risk taker who is the co-founder of Tesla and SpaceX has managed not to miss anyone’s attention on his extraordinary abilities to redefine the future of the world. He is hugely appreciated for his ideas for a better world, what else makes the billionaire tech icon loved by all of his employees is his assorted leadership styles and an extensive approach to deal with situations.
Former HR head at SpaceX, Dolly Singh says that “The thing that makes Elon Elon is his ability to make people believe in his vision.” A prominent engineer at SpaceX adds, “…Most of us can’t conceive these things working; he can’t conceive it failing.” Elon’s leadership can be understood by the fact that he leads his team with examples, drives them towards excellence through his own aspiration for the same and pushes them to their maximum potential.
Here is what Musk believes at following to lead:
Hiring is the most crucial part to determine whether your company’s outputs are going to be great or the same. Give jobs to the ones who you think is ever smarter than you; they challenge the leader to become even better and therefore, making the company better each time.
“Hire great people…this is 90 percent of the solution, as hiring wrong can cost you so much,” says Musk.
SpaceX is a well-renowned example of Elon’s fictive yet technically supported dream of colonizing on mars. Isn’t that emblematic of his thought process that one must never go with what’s going on around and should care to not go with the flow, rather make a new way for himself. He simply advises to not go with the trends rather be a trendsetter for others.
Your followers may question your vision but as long as you are firm that it’s possible to turn it into reality and you know how then others will always tag along.
“As we show that this is possible and that this dream is real — it is not just a dream, it is something that can be made real — the support will snowball over time.”, he says.
As long as you know what you’re doing or what you want to pursue, you’ll find a direction. But, the moment you lose track with your foundations, your basic ideas, you may produce something else, less desirable.
“Make sure you understand the fundamental principles of what you’re trying to do before you get into the details,” he says.
You can only lead a team nicely when you are clear about your ideas and methods.
You can never convince someone to work towards something with their full potential unless you are doing the same. And that can only be done if you are passionate enough about the goal.
‘I should not ask people to eat from the fruit bowl if I have not myself been willing to eat from the fruit bowl’, he says.
You are appointed as a leader and you must learn the responsibility. Find ways to inspire, motivate them at every step and remember that your team is not there to serve you rather, you are the one to serve them with everything they need, they need a good leader and that’s you!
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