Elon Musk is known for his passion in everything he works on and for being able to instill that passion in others. That passion can lead to incredible emotional highs and lows, especially when you are launching rockets into space. Early in SpaceX’s tenure, one of their rockets (a Falcon 1) exploded shortly after takeoff. Dolly Singh, a recruiter at SpaceX said, “It was so profound seeing the energy shift over the room in the course of thirty seconds . . . You don’t usually see grown-ups weeping, but there they were. We were tired and broken emotionally. Musk addressed the workers right away and encouraged them to get back to work. He said, ‘Look. We are going to do this. It’s going to be okay. Don’t freak out.’ It was like magic. Everyone chilled out immediately and started to focus on figuring out what just happened and how to fix it. It went from despair to hope and focus.” SpaceX has now completed dozens of launches successfully and has more than 50 flights planned over the next few years (totaling $5 billion in revenue). The future is bright, but will require continued improvement and a steady focus.
Musk is known for being a hands-on manager and incredibly task focused. Employees have learned not to tell Musk that what he’s asking is impossible. A SpaceX employee says, “Elon will say, ‘Fine. You’re off the project, and I am now the CEO of the project. I will do your job and be CEO of two companies at the same time. I will deliver it.’ What’s crazy is that Elon actually does it. Every time he’s fired someone and taken their job, he’s delivered on whatever the project was.” When asked about this kind of approach Musk says, “I certainly don’t try to set impossible goals. I think impossible goals are demotivating. You don’t want to tell people to go through a wall by banging their head against it. I don’t ever set intentionally impossible goals. But I’ve certainly always been optimistic on time frames.”
When SpaceX first started, Musk interviewed almost every single one of SpaceX’s first 1,000 hires—janitors and technicians included. (SpaceX now employs more than 3,500 workers). He still continues to interview the engineers. Candidates are warned before walking in that the interview could be as short as thirty seconds or as long as fifteen minutes. Once in, engineers have a range of experiences from great to torturous depending on how they handle questions. Not everyone is cut out to work at SpaceX. Singh says, “The recruiting pitch was SpaceX is special forces. If you want as hard as it gets, then great. If not, then you shouldn’t come here.” A reporter who wrote a book on Musk had this to say: “Numerous people interviewed for this book decried the work hours, Musk’s blunt style, and his sometimes ludicrous expectations. Yet almost every person—even those who had been fired—still worshipped Musk and talked about him in terms usually reserved for superheroes or deities.”
Questions:
1. Does Elon Musk sound like the kind of leader that you would like to work for? Why or why not?
2. Is there a danger to having such a strong, charismatic leader as the head of a company? Would you have reservations investing in the stock of SpaceX if it were to go public?
3. Would you consider Musk to be a transformational leader? In what ways does he fit that model and in which ways does he not?