Bold, audacious, and controversial, Elon Musk is arguably one of the most outstanding businessmen ever. Musk’s ambitious goals and entrepreneurship have pushed him to start eight companies and run several more — including the highly successful Tesla, The Boring Company Neuralink, SpaceX, and X (formerly Twitter).

Love or hate him, Musk’s approach combines long hours, ingenuity, work ethic, and a motivating leadership and management style that inspires employees.

So, how did he get to this point, and how can you apply the same leadership qualities to your business? The answer isn’t exactly straightforward. Some people — arguably Musk — are born with the abilities and resources to become great leaders.

Even if your past or status quo doesn’t afford the same opportunities, you can still apply the same ideas to your leadership development. You may not become the next Elon Musk, but his leadership skills and management principles can propel your business and your team.

Find out how to embrace the Elon Musk leadership style and apply it to your startup with great aplomb.

What Is the Elon Musk Leadership Style?

The leadership style of Elon Musk is a hands-on approach that combines several traditional and modern styles. We can’t point to a single leadership style because that would overlook the various facets that make his style unique. At the least, it combines:

• Transformational leadership
• Visionary leadership
• Micromanagement to the point of nano-management
• Democratic leadership
• Autocratic leadership
• Laissez-faire leadership
• Cultural leadership

How Elon Musk Applies His Leadership Style

The most interesting part is that the Elon Musk leadership style seamlessly switches between multiple styles based on the situation. Musk turns to an iron-fist autocratic style — a la Apple’s Steve Jobs — when the situation requires it. When team members’ input is ideal for problem-solving, employee well-being, an improved work environment, or talent acquisition, he changes to democratic leadership. And once employees understand his vision and expectations, a hands-off, laissez-faire style takes precedence.

When you’re a manager who is overly obsessed with product quality and the constant need to improve business processes, the switch between styles may seem innate.

But a successful leader isn’t necessarily a jack-of-all-trades and instinctive leadership adaptability. You likely aren’t running Tesla Motors or developing a new line of electric cars. You just need the vision to realize your initiatives and apply a transformational leadership style. Above all, a transformational leader inspires others toward a common goal while creating new solutions to old problems.

What’s Transformational Leadership Anyway?

Musk uses numerous leadership styles, but if you have one takeaway, transformational leadership is probably the most useful form in startup companies. As the name implies, transformational leadership transforms the way people work. They share the same vision and goals as the leader, feel inspired by his vision, and work harder to achieve it.

At its core, transformational leadership is the result of four tenets — often referred to as the “4 I’s”:

• Individualized consideration and concern for each employee
• Intellectual stimulation
• Idealized influence
• Inspirational motivation

The Elon Musk leadership style embraces these four ideals, obviously with his own personal twist. Let’s take a look at each to dig deeper into the psyche and skill development of great leadership:

Individualized Consideration and Concern

“My biggest mistake is probably weighing too much on someone’s talent and not someone’s personality. I think it matters whether someone has a good heart.” — Elon Musk

Individualized consideration and concern isn’t a routine one-on-one meeting or an annual performance review. It’s how much you recognize the individual's needs, how you meet those needs, and how you provide support on a professional and personal level.

Sometimes, this means you’re acting as a mentor. Other times, you’re providing emotional support and empathy. In other situations, you instill trust while acting as a coach or guide.

The overarching idea is that you can’t treat every employee as if they were the same individual. Blanketed approaches to management and leadership are null and void in transformational leadership. Yet this leaves you with one of the most arduous but rewarding tasks of all: knowing your employees on a personal level, understanding their situations and backgrounds, and learning how to utilize their strengths.

Intellectual Stimulation

“Most people can learn a lot more than they think they can.” — Elon Musk

As Musk puts it, people’s abilities are as high as the leader can put it. Stagnation, repetitive tasks, and lack of professional development often hinder these abilities, leading the employee down the path to burnout or apathy.

You don’t have to give differential equations to your marketing department to intellectually stimulate. Perhaps counterintuitively, your role in Elon Musk style leadership is to challenge the status quo, take calculated risks, and push others to think outside the box.

Intellectual stimulation isn’t always about academics. It’s about problem-solving, expectation, and empowering employees to understand that they have the key to the problem. They just have to apply themselves.

Idealized Influence

“People work better when they know what the goal is and why.” — Elon Musk

One shared idea of both the Elon Musk leadership style and transformational leadership is that the leader acts as a role model who employees trust and respect. That’s no small order; employees’ past instances of poor management or lack of respect from managers can deride your ability to influence.

In a Forbes article from former SpaceX Head of Talent Dolly Singh, Singh discusses how a failed rocket launch actually influenced others to work harder. Musk — undeterred by the failure — told his team that failure was always a possibility and a risk, but if they stuck with him, they would eventually overcome.

Coaching employees to overcome adversity is part of this idealized influence. Beyond this aspect, you also need to develop reward systems to encourage employees to work to their best efforts while also providing constructive criticism.

Idealized influence is the hardest part of transformational leadership to master, but equally as important to embrace and apply the Elon Musk leadership style.

Inspirational Motivation

“It is important that people look forward to coming to work in the morning and enjoy working.” — Elon Musk

Inspiring and motivating employees isn’t a singular experience. It requires individualized consideration and concern; what may inspire one employee may not inspire the next. You must pivot for each person and task while retaining your visionary goal.

Your energy and enthusiasm for every task or project — no matter how big or small — have to be contagious. You need to motivate by example, set goals and expectations, and empower employees to share your passion through their own means.

How To Apply Elon Musk Style Leadership at Your Startup

Using the four tenets of transformational leadership, you can employ Elon Musk style leadership at your business. Through individual actions, you position yourself to embrace the leadership philosophies of Musk, forming a cohesive, motivated, and inspired team. We recommend these actions in each of the “4 I’s” to ease yourself into Elon Musk style leadership:

How To Implement Individualized Consideration and Concern

• Provide constructive and effective feedback.
• Use multiple communication methods.
• Help your employees move out of their comfort zone

How To Implement Intellectual Stimulation

• Question current methods and push employees to develop new solutions to old processes and problems.
• Read and read some more on trends, your industry, and anything that stimulates you. Encourage employees to do the same.
• Help employees understand that failures are a catalyst for future solutions.
• Understand what stimulates each individual and use these ideas to push your employees to do better.

How To Implement Idealized Influence

• Acknowledge risks and difficult situations. Ditch the rose-colored glasses and become a realist in situations that necessitate it.
• Always focus on the positives instead of shortcomings. Not everyone is going to have their best day — it’s human. Remember that the next day brings new possibilities.
• Be kind, be transparent, and be visible. You’re the influential force behind your startup.

How To Implement Inspirational Motivation

• The Elon Musk leadership style employs micromanagement or even nano-management. This may work for Elon, but you're not quite there yet. Instead, allow employees autonomy and the freedom to find solutions without standing over their shoulders.
• Create a recognition and reward system that helps your employees feel valued for their work.
• Build a big picture and reiterate where everyone fits into your vision.
• Continuously build on employee engagement. It’s a dynamic concept that changes with personal lives and professional goals. Dig deeper, meet with employees, and understand how their individual scenarios shape engagement and motivation.

Building Upon the Elon Musk Leadership Style

In most cases, the Elon Musk leadership style isn’t innate or natural. Musk used decades of failures and successes to mold his style and build a vision for the future.

If you’re motivated enough and yearn to become a leader, you’re already on the right path. You only need an extra push to get you to the top of the mountain.

At Unicorn Labs, we believe that leadership development is part of the natural transcendence of motivated and inspired individuals. Through our coaching, leadership programs, and retreats, you learn how to use Elon Musk leadership style tenets, how to apply them to your startup, and how to maintain an influence that inspires.

Contact us today to discover how our solutions can push your company and your team to the top of the hill. You may not be Elon Musk, but learning how to apply his leadership style to your own goals could be the catalyst to success.