Improving Leadership for a Global Organization

Improving Leadership for a Global Organization

One notable leader of a global organization selected for analysis is Elon Musk. Elon Musk is a top leader in various companies. He is the leader of the Tesla car manufacturing company, which is a leader in electric car manufacturing. The company’s success can be attributed directly to the leadership capabilities of Elon Musk. The same can be said of Space X, another company headed by Elon Musk (Khan, 2021). The company which operates in space technology has succeeded because of Elon Musk’s leadership. Notably, this discussion focuses on analyzing the key leadership traits of Elon Musk and identifies areas where improvement can be made in leading the mentioned companies.

Elon Musk’s Leadership Style and Key Leadership Traits

To begin with, Elon Musk’s leadership style is transformational. According to Hamed (2021), transformational leadership is an approach to leadership that results in change among social systems and individuals. When working in its ideal form, transformational leadership creates valuable and positive change among followers and their work organization. When applied to Elon Musk, transformational leadership helps him to innovate and attain large-scale goals. The success of the leadership style is embedded in strategy execution, planning, problem-solving, and innovative thinking. Elon Musk has motivated employees to join him in attaining the company’s overall vision. Through leadership, Elon Musk has developed various quotes directly associated with transformational leadership. In the case of Tesla, he developed a quote by Ferrari Braun (2022) that says, “We will not stop until every car on the road is electric.” Another example of his famous quote states, “people work better when they know what the goal is and why. It is important that people look forward to coming to work in the morning and enjoy working” (Ferrari Braun, 2022).

The described leadership style has various traits that can be pointed out. First, the leadership style is characterized by openness to new thinking traits. The far that the companies led by Elon Musk have reached regarding success can be attributed to openness to new thinking. He has constantly achieved innovations and searched for opportunities by doing things differently. Elon Musk has also remained open to new ideas, a characteristic of new thinking. Second, Elon Musk’s transformational leadership has the trait of broadening minds through talent. Essentially, he focuses on shifting the views of his workers by encouraging them to see things differently from how they work. He achieves this by understanding his followers’ current minds and how to change their thinking. It is known to the followers why they need to step out of their comfort zones, which has led to the development of the Tesla Model 3 (Khan, 2021). Essentially, this has been achievable through the company leader’s ability to inspire confidence and empathy

Third, Elon Musk’s leadership style commits to active listening. He listens and keenly considers the views of other leaders in the company and responds without finality or judgment. There is a realization that it is not enough for transformational leaders to request or even motivate ideas. Other team members should be bold in sharing ideas that are right for the companies he leads. Another leadership trait that can be identified in the leadership style of Elon Musk is his tolerance for intelligent risks. He understands that no transformation happens without risks related to failure. As a result, he is always willing to consider various risks affecting the companies he leads and what future those risks present. He is one of the known individuals who take massive risks. As a result, he has managed to generate significant wealth for companies through risk tolerance. However, he is criticized for taking too much risk, which can cause significant losses.

Fourth, Elon Musk has the leadership trait of accepting responsibility willingly. Notably, this is so because most of his ventures are based on innovation, which ventures in waters on unchartered territory where anything can happen. Thus, when unexpected results occur, he accepts failure and responsibility for the ideas and decisions made. Fifth, Elon Musk maintains strong trust in team members. Essentially, this is so because people require autonomy to create and craft new ideas. Finally, Elon Musk has a leadership trait of inspiring participation among others. There is a need for innovation to be culture maintained by a team. As a transformational leader, Elon Musk expects creativity from all members following him, not one or two. He creates an expectation for everyone working in the organization and encourages them to think outside the box to come up with paradigm-shifting outcomes.

Areas in Need of Improvement

The traits discussed by Elon Musk include areas where Elon Musk can make improvements to achieve more in leading Space X and Tesla. Improvement can be made by avoiding pitfalls witnessed so far in the leadership of Elon Musk. One area that requires attention and improvement is employee micromanagement. Elon Musk has always been at the center of micro-managing employees, leading to a work environment characterized by work burnout and anxiety. According to Ichsan et al. (2021), when work environments are characterized by work burnout and anxiety, the workplaces turn toxic and sink budgets as a result of a high rate of turnover and low employee retention rates.

Four actions can be taken to improve on the identified issue. First, Elon Musk should learn to embrace the charismatic leadership style. Notably, this kind of style cannot cause anxiety and toxic workplaces. Improving on this requires learning and applying the leadership style to the workplace. Second, Elon Musk should acknowledge and recognize the efforts to see success for the organization. An example of how this can be attained is by communicating gratitude with everyone. A leadership style that embraces gratitude in communication makes employees feel appreciated and that their work is important to the company’s success.

Third, Elon Musk should consider checking what competitor firms with strong leaders do to succeed. For instance, he can consider the leadership style of Bezos, the leader of Amazon.com. Essentially, this can help him to identify areas where improvements can be made easily. For example, Amazon.com emphasizes building trust between team members and their leaders (Gradinaru et al., 2020). They collaboratively discuss what is expected of them, how to perform it, and what other roles they can undertake. Incorporating this element into Elon Musk’s leadership style could be worth it. Finally, Elon Musk should consider building a workplace culture that supports work-life balance. Essentially, this could help reduce workplace tensions, as workers will be performing roles that do not cause them distress in their social lives.

Recommended Approaches to Attaining Successful Leadership

Elon Musk can consider two practical approaches to attaining successful leadership to improve the organization’s culture and performance. The first one entails challenging the process of work and leadership. According to Alblooshi et al. (2021), leaders succeed when they undergo challenges and difficult circumstances. They should consider failure an opportunity to innovate and learn and not consider it to be caused by poor performance. For Elon Musk to implement this approach, he should not be contented to do things in the same way, every time. Instead, he should seek new challenges that could open more opportunities to innovate, change, improve, and grow personally and at an organizational level. Additionally, he should consider taking more risks through experimentation throughout the organization instead of doing it at the personal level. Notably, this can turn into a culture that will be embraced in the organization and improve performance.

The second practical approach entails inspiring a common vision. People are motivated not only by reward and fear but also by capturing their imagination (Setili, 2015). Creating a common vision for an organization is an effective way of capturing the imagination of workers. Elon Musk should pay attention to this approach and ensure effective communication of the vision. For instance, he can achieve this by enlisting others in a shared vision by appealing to their dreams, hopes, interests, and values. Also, he can achieve it by building a vision of a better and uplifting future where people feel energized to achieve the organization’s vision objectives. When workers within the organization feel their leader has a passion for their dreams, an organizational sense of shared purpose culture will be built. In conclusion, Elon Musk is a successful leader with a unique and effective leadership style. However, more improvement can be made through the suggested approaches.

References

Alblooshi, M., Shamsuzzaman, M., & Haridy, S. (2020). The relationship between leadership styles and organizational innovation: A systematic literature review and narrative synthesis. European Journal of Innovation Management.

Ferrari Braun, A. (2022). The Elon Musk experience: celebrity management in financialised capitalism. Celebrity Studies, 1-18.

Gradinaru, C., Toma, S. G., Catana, S., & Andrisán, G. (2020). A view on transformational leadership: The case of Jeff Bezos. Manager, (31), 93-100.

Hamed, M. (2021). LEADERSHIP STYLES. LEADERSHIP, 2, 7.

Ichsan, R. N., Nasution, L., Sinaga, S., & Marwan, D. (2021). The influence of leadership styles and organizational changes influence employee performance with an environment work as an intervening variable at pt. Bank sumut binjai branch. Journal of Contemporary Issues in Business and Government, 27(2).

Khan, M. R. (2021). A critical analysis of Elon Musk’s leadership in Tesla motors. Journal of Global Entrepreneurship Research, 1-10.

Setili, A. (2015). Does your leadership style destroy agility Or supercharge it? Leader to Leader, 2015(78), 56-61.

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This week, you will examine a global, diverse business environment and explore the many approaches a leader can consider depending on where, who, and how that person leads.

Improving Leadership for a Global Organization

For this task, you will prepare a research paper. First, choose a leader in a global organization and analyze the key leadership traits this leader utilizes to conduct business successfully in a global environment. Focus on theoretical and practical approaches to leadership in organizations, using this leader as an example to highlight your findings. Then, determine any areas in need of improvement for this leader. Based on theory and best practices, recommend at least two practical approaches to successful leadership this leader could implement to improve the organization’s culture and performance.