Elon Musk – Leadership Lessons: Fire or Inspire?

Image Credit: Olivier Carré-Delisle

Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter has set the social media platform on fire. How the tale unfolds is anyone’s guess. Undoubtedly, Elon Musk’s leadership at Twitter will become a classic case study. We wrote about Elon Musk as a thought leader, and with the recent Twitter saga, we’re revisiting the topic of Musk’s leadership. 

Since early Q2 of 2021, the market has seen large-scale layoffs. To date, almost 100,000 people have received pink slips, becoming casualties of an economy teetering on a recession, rocked by record-high inflation and rising interest rates, topped off with the stock market’s across-the-board correction.

While layoffs are always bad news, some CEOs, like Stripe's Patrick Collison and Meta's Mark Zuckerberg, have recently demonstrated exemplary executive leadership in communications. Their layoff announcement letters to employees underscored how these CEOs held themselves accountable for mistakes and layoffs. They addressed detailed answers to anticipated employees' questions clearly and thanked them empathetically for their dedication and service. Compare their leadership to Musk’s handling of the Twitter layoffs; there’s a lot to unpack in how Musk handled the downsizing and some learning lessons.

Over the years, Elon Musk has been a trailblazer with his bold vision of redefining the automotive market with Tesla, reinventing rockets with SpaceX, and reimagining intra-city transit systems with The Boring Company; what's not to love? Musk has become a larger-than-life figure, garnering a massive fanbase along the way with his game-changing vision and entrepreneurial successes. He’s turned off many, however, with his shoot-from-the-hip leadership. His management style and 'hardcore' demands aren't isolated to Twitter either. With his leadership on display to millions via his new megaphone, Musk has quickly become a polarizing figure.

5 Lessons to Learn From Elon Musk’s Leadership at Twitter

Demonstrate Empathy Toward Employees
Before Musk acquired 16-year-old Twitter, the company had 7,500 employees who had worked years or, in some cases, spent their entire careers there. Employees were familiar with Twitter's culture, norms, and policies. Twitter had developed a culture that encouraged open communication. Yet, within days of the acquisition completing, Musk fired 20 employees because he didn't like that they expressed their opinions publicly. Musk then mocked them on Twitter. It's bad enough for Musk to fire these employees but then to mock them publicly on a global platform takes it to another level, unbefitting a CEO of Musk's stature. 

As Musk told investors that he planned massive workforce cuts, employees were already highly stressed. What if, instead, he exhibited more transparency and empathy toward employees? He could have underscored that, even if he hadn't acquired Twitter, significant workforce cuts were inevitable under the previous management team. He could have taken the opportunity to acknowledge and thank employees for their dedication and efforts. He could have explained the company's challenges but also painted his vision of Twitter 2.0 with them. 

There are several things Musk could have done differently to recognize employees’ efforts with more grace. Instead, less than one week into the acquisition closing, Musk’s handling of the layoffs was impersonal. Employees received an initial email, not from Musk – or anyone in particular – but from "Twitter," informing them that if they received a message in their personal email address, they were essentially out of a job. Employees laid off received a subsequent letter with details about the severance package, also signed "from Twitter."

Using Social Media When Millions Follow
Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter has dinged his leadership and image. As the new CEO of Twitter, instead of walking a fine line to win over advertisers, Musk engages in bizarre ways. As Twitter’s CEO, he's shared false conspiracy theories,  fabricated news and openly chats with conspiracy theorists, election fraud deniers and other alt-right channels and trolls. Musk creates and shares offensive memes, sprinkles sexual emojis into his tweets and flaunts symbolic cartoons associated with the white supremacist movement. His casual indifference to laid-off employees and continued antics on Twitter are repelling advertisers and other stakeholders. As CEO of several respected companies, his conduct isn’t amusing or acceptable. Musk can do better.

Do What you Say
To calm nervous advertisers, Musk preemptively gave assurances that Twitter would develop a "content moderation council" before making any "major content decisions or account reinstatements," including Donald Trump’s banned account. Musk’s stance as a free speech absolutist worried advertisers and users that reinstating Trump's account would reintroduce a level of abuse that Twitter's former content moderation team had kept in check. Yet, despite Musk being one of the most vocal critics of Twitter's spam bot problem, he ran a 24-hour poll on Twitter about reinstating Trump. Bots aside, after the survey, Musk promptly reinstated Trump's account. Within hours after Musk took the helm, several organizations tracking the platform shared that hate speech and racist and anti-semitic content spiked. Musk also recently fired more employees just before Thanksgiving. These were employees who agreed to work hardcore hours. Musk's leadership style of saying one thing and then doing another is damaging Twitter’s reputation, eroding trust in Twitter and Musk, and making it challenging to attract and retain talent.

Know Your Customers
Elon Musk's personal brand is intertwined with Tesla and SpaceX's brands. Some customers purchase Tesla cars and Tesla products, while others buy Tesla stock. As Twitter’s new owner, Musk is now broadcasting his political leanings on the platform (i.e., "I recommend you vote Republican."). Proclaiming his politics will inevitably clash with many pro-environmentalists and climate change supporters, who are generally the target customers purchasing Tesla's products and also investing in Tesla's stock. By extension, the Musk backlash extends to Tesla's product line of solar roofs, solar panels and power walls. And Tesla's stock is getting hammered, hitting a two-year low in late November. With Musk continuing to share his creative memes and flippant tweets, his behavior on the platform is turning off current advertisers and other stakeholders. Contrast Musk's current leadership with other tech CEOs who recognize their leadership role to grow their company's value, maintain goodwill and inspire confidence in all stakeholders.

Inspire Instead of Fire
Elon Musk's infamous 'ultimatum' was a clear threat to Twitter employees that they either agree to commit to 'hardcore' long hours or be laid off. Musk layered onto his threat that "only exceptional performance will constitute a passing grade." His added statement left employees to interpret this vague comment. What defines exceptional performance anyway? What’s the upside if they stayed and worked hardcore, long hours? Would employees receive more pay or new equity in Twitter? What happens if they don’t get a passing grade? Musk’s ultimatum resulted in approximately 1,200 employees resigning.

Again let’s imagine if Musk had exhibited an entirely different leadership approach. Musk is among the few executives with a track record and personal brand able to attract swarms of tech talent. Musk could have elaborated on his vision of the new Twitter 2.0. Would it be like WeChat on steroids? Whatever his vision of Twitter 2.0, no one knows because he still hasn't communicated it. He could have taken the time to meet with Twitter's core teams to hear their concerns about the platform and ideas to improve it.

Here’s a man who can build and launch rockets (and a Tesla roadster) into space and reinvigorate the public's and government’s interest in missions to the moon. He is a pioneer who lit a fire under the auto industry executives to get going with electric vehicles. Musk missed the opportunity to inspire employees about his new Twitter 2.0 moonshot. Many would have gladly signed up, slept under their desks, and worked hardcore hours without additional monetary incentives. Many people hope Musk will tap experienced talent to help him navigate, move mountains and succeed in creating Twitter 2.0. 

Can Musk regain the trust he’s lost and rebuild his reputation? Repairing a tarnished reputation is possible but requires work, dedication, and a commitment to learning from one’s mistakes. Until Musk is ready to do a significant reset, take responsibility for his actions, apologize to those affected, and make amends where possible, over time, he can rebound. The Twitter acquisition is much more than the $44 billion+ currently riding on the table. The question is, does Musk care enough to do a course correction?

“Vincit qui se vincit” - He conquers who conquers himself.

How to become a visionary thought leader.

“You miss 100% of the shots you never take. I skate to where the puck is going to be, not to where it’s been. A good hockey player plays where the puck is. A great hockey player plays where the puck is going to be,” Wayne Gretzky, the world’s greatest hockey player.

In our decade and a half working with companies of all sizes, across a broad range of industries, we’ve found that most founders and CEOs need guidance navigating and learning the art of how to build their executive visibility as an industry thought leader. You may ask, what are the benefits of thought leadership and how to get started?

What is an industry thought leader?
To be a successful industry thought leader, you have to stand out. This is no easy feat when there is so much noise on the internet. Did you know that thought leadership comes in several flavors? From the get-go, you want to avoid vanilla flavor. Why? Because vanilla is safe. It’s like the khaki pants of ice cream flavors. You’ll just be one of many in a sea of executives sporting the same khaki pants. To stand out, you have to be distinct. The type of executive leader that we examine in this blog post is what we call a visionary thought leader. 

Thought leadership goes well beyond the knowledge of one’s business, product, technology, or industry landscape. The goal is to build an executive’s visibility and brand, typically within a vertical sector, so much that the person and the issue, industry, or technology often go hand-in-hand.

Visionaries thought leaders aren’t born; they’re self-made.
Visionary thought leaders are executives willing to plant a stake in the ground and share their perspective as to the future of a market sector or technology. A visionary thought leader can break down, across a myriad of ways, their long-term view of how an issue, industry, or technology will unfold. For example, they are comfortable predicting how specific trends or business factors will ultimately shift the current status quo. Or they can share their deep understanding of how a developing or highly complex technology, such as artificial intelligence or neural networks, will or won’t play out, discuss existing barriers, and what’s needed to progress. Visionary thought leaders typically have a very close finger not only on the industry’s pulse but also with their customers and partners. They have a deep understanding of their customers’ concerns and challenges to keep their businesses competitive.

Visionary thought leaders often have sharp clarity about what’s around the corner from a future perspective well ahead of the market. In a previous blog post, we shared a detailed example of a visionary thought leader and their key traits, taking a close look at industry titan, innovator and thought leader: Jeff Bezos.

3 tips on how to get started in building your executive brand

1. Instead of a bio, tell a story
Unlike a bio that lists your professional work experience and academic studies, an executive profile, on the other hand, provides an opportunity to tell a great story. What trials and tribulations did you have to go through? What monsters did you have to conquer? What voyages or quests did you take to arrive at where you are today? Who helped you along the way? How did you develop into a better leader?

2. What’s your core theme
Identify a core theme that you can confidently and passionately share your perspectives and unique point-of-view. You need to then expand this theme out on several fronts. What are the significant unaddressed facets or plausible scenarios related to which you can provide your perspective? 

Different aspects of your core theme might include imminent industry regulations, customer behavioral trends, diverging approaches on a particular technology, etc. Think about the plausible market, business or technology outcomes, and likely scenarios that will help you get started. An executive can help the market and its target audiences understand how rapid technology advancements are unfolding, what their impacts are likely to be, who stands to lose, and why. For instance, as we face today’s new normal, a broad spectrum of industries are likely to change indefinitely. What does the future hold for your industry? There is no time like the current. Now is an excellent opportunity to look forward and begin to share your unique point of view as to what that future may hold. This analysis will become part of your platform and should be rolled into your content marketing calendar. 

The global pandemic has disrupted the economy and business world into an unprecedented state of chaos. As the country now begins to ‘reopen,’ one highly relevant, forward-looking theme is about redefining work and the future of work. How do businesses move forward in these highly turbulent times with a deadly virus still running wild? How does “business as usual” resume given we are all operating in a time of “business unusual”?

3. Build your social media presence
Begin to share your unique point-of-view by developing a series of thought leadership articles. Once you have a few executive viewpoint pieces ready, start to amplify your content via social shares. It will be important to begin to grow your social media presence. There’s plenty of opportunities to share your perspective with select media about what you expect to unfold in the market. There are opportunities to secure guest post articles in business or relevant industry outlets. Go beyond written communication. You can videotape your perspective and secure a spot as a guest in a related podcast. From there, you can create a landing page and lead magnet with a short ebook and amplify some of this valuable information and content within the company’s LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook channels.

Once you’ve done these things, you can sit back and watch the results come in, right? Unfortunately, no. Building thought leadership doesn’t occur overnight. We’ve worked with clients where results can happen in under one year and some when it took longer. We would not recommend a choppy, intermittent approach, because you lose the momentum you began to build. Becoming a thought leader requires a commitment of time, input, resources and conviction. The more you do it, the more it will pay off for you in terms of market presence, personal brand, and sales opportunities.

How to build your personal brand like Elon Musk when you don’t know the first thing about rockets

"Elon Musk" by JD Lasica is licensed under CC BY 2.0

For multiple years running, startup founders rank Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk as their most admired tech leader. In fact, with 23% of the vote, he’s blows Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, with a distant 10%, right out of the water. These two admired leaders also have their fair share of critics, landing them in other executive rankings as overrated CEOs. Regardless, the truth about bold leadership is not being afraid to rock the boat with your opinions, actions and vision.

Musk is a wildly controversial guy who’s a huge risk-taker, looking to colonize Mars, send tourists around the moon, build a transportation fleet powered by solar energy, and dig a vast underground network to fight gridlock. He’s as audacious, ambitious and bold as they come, and his grandiose ideas regularly make headline news. While most C-level execs are neither in the billionaire club nor looking to build Mars-bound rockets, they can learn something from Musk’s bravado.

How to build a bold, personal brand that elevates your reputation as an industry thought leader

1. Go out on a limb
While thought leaders should be industry visionaries, there’s a tendency to “play it safe”. Everyone is saying artificial intelligence is the next big thing. If you are a player in this space, you need to do more than spout forecast numbers. What will AI do to the automotive, retail and restaurant industries? How will the technology’s advancement impact safety and jobs? According to Musk, the advance of AI will be a detriment to the U.S. workforce: “What to do about mass unemployment? This is going to be a massive social challenge. There will be fewer and fewer jobs that a robot cannot do better [than a human].”

This kind of statement is not sensationalism. It’s opinion grounded in reality and industry knowledge. Don’t be afraid to make bold predictions. Remember, you are an expert in your space, and your opinion makes you interesting and a great resource for viewpoints that go well beyond the “bits and bytes” stories.

2. Take a seat at the table
If you want to be heard, you need to take a seat at the table. It’s not always your ideal company, but – like voting –.if you don’t cast your ballot, you don’t have a voice. Lots of CEOs would prefer to keep their heads down, work on making a great product or service, avoid distractions, and stay off the radar. Earlier this year, Uber’s CEO made this choice when he stepped down from Donald Trump’s Advisory Council following backlash from consumers who took his participation as tacit endorsement of the president’s immigrant ban. Musk, on the other hand, opted to have a seat at the table to engage and discuss business policy. In that seat, he hopes to influence the new secretary of state on the carbon tax, denounce the ban on immigration, and push forward more of his own agenda. “Attending does not mean I agree with actions by the administration,” said Musk. “I believe at this time that engaging on critical issues will on balance serve the greater good.”

3. Offer solutions
Bold thought leaders don’t just forecast the future, executive leadership means offering possible solutions to real-world problems. What infrastructure improvements need to be made for fully self-driving cars to become a reality? How can we curb the downside of automation? How can we fight traffic? Musk is so sure that automation will displace millions of workers, he’s suggested a universal basic income, wherein everyone gets a certain amount of money annually. What about traffic congestion? He proposes a vast underground network containing as many as 30 levels of tunnels for cars and high-speed trains. Are these ideas far-fetched? You bet. But he’s willing to put himself out there to propose his viewpoint and ideas to solve real problems.

4. Don’t be afraid to be a nay-sayer
In the process of building their personal brand, many executives don’t want to criticize existing ideas, for fear of coming off as negative. There’s nothing wrong with having an intelligent discussion that disagrees with other ways of solving a problem. Musk’s proposal to dig thousands of miles of tunnels sounds preposterous to most, but he points out that other ideas, like Silicon Valley’s go-to traffic solution of flying cars, are equally outlandish. “Obviously I like flying things,” he says, “but it’s difficult to imagine the flying car becoming a scalable solution.”

5. Share your vision and unique point-of-view
Oftentimes companies are very “stealthy” about their product plans and roadmap, afraid to give anything away to the competition. That’s valid, but what a CEO can do is skip the near-term and intermediate details, and go straight to the company’s master plan. A CEO should be willing to spell out his vision for the company, and what success looks like. Musk has famously told his employees he plans to “die on Mars” after he helps a million people move there on his rockets at $500,000 per ticket. Leaders make bold predictions, and that’s something that Musk excels at in spades.  

In our next blog post, we’ll apply these tips and show you five key ways you can use content marketing to build your personal brand.

How to build your executive brand like Jeff Bezos

$188 billion dollars!!

Even though this sounds like a quote from Dr. Evil of Austin Powers, it’s actually Jeff Bezos’ current net worth.

Before Bezos hit the Forbes Top 5 list of billionaires and Amazon became the $1.66 trillion multi-industry powerhouse that it is today, he and the company had a multitude of naysayers.

Yet Jeff Bezos is the perfect example of a visionary thought leader. Since the early years of Amazon, he has confidently shared his opinions on ecommerce, retail, on-demand cloud computing and more, while boldly predicting what to expect in the future. Notably, Bezos is willing to discuss his forecasts and reasoning publicly, and provide context to help others connect the dots. Today, he trailblazes and actively drives the conversation about both traditional and emerging markets such as in-home smart devices, space exploration, drone delivery, news publishing and online music. Here’s a short video and great write up by Fortune’s managing editor and best-selling author Adam Lashinksy on Bezos that spotlights his [visionary leadership]1.

You’re no Jeff Bezos…

The good news is that you don’t have to be Jeff Bezos in order to begin building your executive brand! In fact, you don’t have to be a spectacular success like the founders of Amazon, Apple, Facebook or Tesla either. Does it help to have a proven track record? Absolutely. But there’s a lot you can do right now, whatever your market presence or lack thereof, to begin building your executive visibility and become recognized, as an industry thought leader.

. . . but you’re already an industry expert

There’s an endless array of talented, proven entrepreneurs and industry executives with incredible insights into their respective business and market. Because founders and CEOs operate in the trenches, such industry players have deep experience and understand of what’s going on in their market sector better than anybody else. Their unique points-of-view aren’t being heard, however, because they don’t proactively talk to their market, customers, or stakeholders. We get it and know that you're swamped wearing a bunch of hats, closing big deals, working with customers, overseeing product development, growing the company, etc. And while building your personal brand does take time, taking the first steps to get started doesn’t require having to move mountains either. Chances are that your competitors aren’t speaking to the market either. Herein lies a great opportunity for CEOs and executives to embark on a content marketing strategy to start building their executive brand and sharing their unique point-of-view with their key stakeholders and target audiences.


How to get started with your thought leadership strategy

To begin your journey toward becoming a recognized visionary thought leader, you need to asses what is happening in your industry from multiple perspectives. For example ask yourself: what are the key market drivers that are changing or likely to affect the landscape over the next year? What about the next 5 or even 10 years out?
 Next, look at key aspects of your respective market and industry such as:

• Innovation
• Regulations
• Shifting customer patterns and preferences
• Competition
• Technology advancements
• Product developments
• Supply chain
• Global factors
• Pricing


Once you’ve identified key market drivers, identify your vision for how things will unfold. It’s critical to discuss how customers will be impacted. Try to come up plausible scenarios and provide more context for your unique point-of-view even if it might be anecdotal.

• What are the opportunities?
• What are the challenges?
• How is your company addressing or planning to address these?
• How will the shifting landscape impact the status quo, customers, entrenched competition, etc.?
• What new innovations or technology advancements, regulations, or consumer habits, for example, are likely to emerge? Make sure to provide context around your unique viewpoint.
• From a market standpoint, which companies are likely winners and losers of these shifts?

• Why should customers care? How will these market forces and events impact your customers? Will it improve their lives, save them time and money, or have some other effect? What is keeping them up at night?

  “Good business leaders create a vision, articulate the vision, passionately own the vision, and relentlessly drive it to completion.” Jack Welch


Too often, we hear from executives who float out a single idea that lacks substance. Merely saying, “yes, (fill in the blank) is going to change the world,” isn’t meaningful. A compelling and unique point-of-view must have more meat on the bone in order to gain buy-in from key influencers, stakeholders and your target audience. A visionary thought leader looks at different data points, lends their own insights, inspires others with their unique perspective, and is willing to put a stake in the ground and predict what they see ahead.

A visionary thought leader must be willing to go out on a limb and make gutsy calls. While not a requirement, it helps immensely if you can back up your perspective with solid data, customer insights, market reports, or other supporting evidence. Just be sure that your efforts to prepare supporting evidence don’t interfere with the timeliness of sharing your perspective. With this in mind, plan ahead and pull any evidence together at the same time that you are putting together your key messages.


And remember, even if you get it wrong, you likely won’t be penalized for it. After all, you’re offering your opinion and no one is ever going to be right all the time. Also keep in mind that the market is especially forgiving of startup founders and small business owners. The risk when you might be called out on it is if your company is one of the big market gorillas, and you’ve been particularly adamant about a prediction that goes against the odds and doesn’t come close to unfolding as you proclaimed.



Ways to share your executive perspective

To begin a thought leadership campaign involves a well researched and planned content marketing strategy for delivering your unique point-of-view with consistency. You’ll want to consider the many options you can pursue to elevate your executive presence by talking to your stakeholders and target audiences. This should include any number of the following:

• Company blog
• Panels / presentations
• Social media marketing (Facebook page, LinkedIn, etc.)
• Video content marketing
• Podcast participation or a regular podcast
• Enewsletter to enhance inbound marketing
• Public relations campaing to secure guest blog posts
• Public relations campaign to secure media interviews
• Public relations campaign to secure industry analyst interviews

Benefits of executive branding

Over time, there are great benefits to building your executive brand as a visionary thought leader:

• The media views you as a knowledgeable go-to-source for insights.
• You build credibility for both your executive and company brands.
• You create momentum and build greater awareness of your company.
• You receive more invitations for media interviews, podcasts, panels, and presentations.
• An excellent way for link building so your company gains more organic, in-bound traffic to its website.
• You successfully capture greater market mindshare.

Note, we mention ‘over time’. It’s important to note that becoming a recognized industry leader does take time and won’t happen overnight. 
 In the words of Jeff Bezos, “attention is the scarce commodity of the late 20th century.” So why not try to capture some of this mindshare for yourself? If you sit on the sidelines, there is always the possibility that your competitors might just step up and seize the opportunity.