Five leadership lessons from the world’s most successful business leader: Elon Musk.

There are good reasons why South African-born serial entrepreneur Elon Musk is rarely out of the news. Firstly, he is the driving force behind not one, not two, but three of the world’s most influential businesses – rocket and satellite company SpaceX, electric car maker Tesla and social media platform X (formerly known as Twitter). He also runs tunnelling startup The Boring Company, neurotechnology company Neuralink, and AI firm xAI.

Another reason why Musk attracts a lot of media attention is that he offers direct insights into his thinking in a way that few other global leaders do. The world’s richest man uses X to share his thoughts on a variety of topics, ranging from space travel to politics and the importance of free speech. What’s more, he actively engages with his followers on the platform. On top of his business ventures and social media activities, he also happens to have a colourful personal life, having fathered 11 children by three different women.

Musk might be the world’s most successful business leader in many respects, but the court of public opinion is divided over his leadership style. Some praise him for being action-oriented, innovative, and downright transformational as a leader. Others see him as ruthless, lacking in empathy and an overly demanding taskmaster.

Management by chaos or talent magnet?

Recently, Musk has attracted a lot of criticism over some of the dramatic changes he’s made to X – including sacking 80% of the workforce. His confrontational management style has even been described as “management by chaos” by US business magazine Inc. Yet many of those who work closely with Musk have praised him for his ability to attract, motivate and inspire others.

Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, the pioneering AI company that Musk co-founded, but later distanced himself from, has admitted that the outspoken entrepreneur is a “talent magnet”. Meanwhile, Dolly Singh, formerly head of talent at SpaceX, has described him as “arguably the best leader on the face of the planet”.

In light of his towering achievements, he must be able to teach something to the rest of us. So, what leadership lessons can we learn from Musk?

1. Have a huge vision. People want to feel that what they do matters – and work for organisations that are changing the world for the better in some way. Musk, who has described himself as “congenitally optimistic”, has a vision of sending people to Mars. It’s hard to think of a vision much bigger than that. Tesla aims to help accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy. Musk’s vision for X is also ambitious – he wants it to become the ‘everything app’. While these kinds of visions might seem off-putting to potential employees because they are so difficult to achieve, they often have the opposite effect. People are highly attracted to roles that enable them to solve difficult problems and make an impact – and they want to work for leaders who can offer them these opportunities.

2. Be willing to fail. As every entrepreneur knows, failure is fundamental to success. You learn from your failures so that you can be better next time. Since founding SpaceX in 2002, Musk has watched a string of his rockets explode, but this succession of dramatic and expensive failures hasn’t deterred him from pursuing his vision. When his Starship spaceship, the world’s most powerful rocket, exploded on a test flight in April 2023, Musk’s low-key reaction on X was “Learned a lot for the next test launch.” He has been equally philosophical about his tribulations at X, since buying the struggling company last October. Writing about his vision to transform X into a new breed of social network, Musk admitted: “We may fail, as so many have predicted, but we will try our best to make there be at least one.”

3. Deliberately seek out criticism. Musk is a great believer in the power of constructive criticism, arguing that listening to others encourages us to challenge our own thinking so that we are more effective at solving problems. Constantly seek out criticism,” he has said. “A well-thought-out critique of whatever you’re doing is as valuable as gold. You should seek that from everyone you can, but particularly your friends.” Musk suggests that when seeking feedback, it can be a good idea to start out with the assumption that you’re getting things wrong. “Your goal,” he said, “is to be less wrong.”

As proof that he practises what he preaches, Musk even launched a poll on X shortly after he bought the platform, asking whether he should step down as CEO. More than 17.5 million votes were cast and over half of respondents (57.5%) voted for him to step down. Subsequently he hired US media executive Linda Yaccarino to replace him as CEO and he transitioned to the roles of executive chair and chief technology officer. Probably he had always been planning to do this, but he certainly seems to have taken on board the criticism implied in the poll results.

4. Work hard – and love what you do. Musk is known for his immense work ethic and he’s slept in the office on numerous occasions over the years. He believes that to achieve great success, it is necessary to go the extra mile. In fact, one of his most famous pronouncements on the topic of hard work is “Nobody ever changed the world on 40 hours a week.” But he also believes that if you’re going to work hard, it’s important to love what you do, saying that if you do enjoy your job then “it (mostly) doesn’t feel like work”.

5. Do the things that matter most. Musk has a huge sense of purpose and believes that he can change the world for the better through the businesses that he runs. This sense of purpose helps to keep him focused and motivated in the face of massive challenges that would be overwhelming for most people. “When something is important enough, you do it,” he has said, “even if the odds are not in your favour.” Certainly, the odds are not in Musk’s favour when it comes to achieving his dream of establishing a permanent human presence on Mars. Nevertheless, he believes that the human race needs a back-up option in case Earth ends up being destroyed by meteors – a scenario he has described as “Not a question of if, just when.”

No such thing as perfect

There is no such thing as a perfect leader. Leadership is always a work in progress – and that principle applies just as much to Musk as it does to anyone else. Nevertheless, Musk’s extraordinary talent and achievements mean that he is able to get away with things that other leaders probably wouldn’t, and he remains much admired, regardless of all the mistakes he makes.

While it would probably be a bad idea to emulate Musk’s management style in its entirety, we can still learn from things he does well and look to apply some of his leadership principles in practice. All of us can take something away from the most successful businessperson on the planet.

Sally Percy is an experienced business journalist and editor in West Sussex, UK, specialising in leadership and management. She is author of 21st Century Business Icons: The Leaders Who Are Changing our World (Kogan Page).