Elon Musk: 21st Century Transformational Leader Challenging The Status Quo

Elon Musk leads companies such as Tesla and SpaceX that are pioneers in their field and have transformational impact in the society which makes him transformational leader of twenty-first century.

One of the successful entrepreneurs and business leaders of the 21st Century, Elon Musk founded Tesla, SpaceX, and Paypal. Born on June 28, 1971 in South Africa, he sold his first software when he was 12 years old. He moved with his mother to Canada at age of 17 to pursue his education at Queen’s University. He had formal education in economics and physics from University of Pennsylvania. He became multimillionaire in his late twenties when he sold his first start-up Zip2 and added another billion dollars to his worth when he sold PayPal in October 2002. Musk made headlines when his company SpaceX launched its Falcon 9 rocket into space with an unmanned capsule. He is also the sole founder of Musk Foundation, which donates money for space exploration and renewable energies related research. Musk is also popularly known for revolutions in electric vehicles via Tesla. Elon Musk is more than an entrepreneur. He is a self-taught rocket scientist, inventor of Hyperloop, Co-Chair of artificial intelligence, investor, and philanthropist.

My Personal Admiration

Being a mechanical engineer, I am an electric vehicle enthusiast and when it comes to electric vehicles, Elon Musk is the first name that comes to my mind. I admire him as a leader and as an engineer.  Other than this, I admire him for his inventive work with the concept of space travel for non-astronauts and challenging the status quo with building electric cars which is incredibly stunning and powerful. 

Leading by action

A leader such as Musk leads people by setting an example by his actions. Clifford (2018) says that Musk was working 120 hours a week to get Tesla Model 3 vehicle in production as early as possible. It is clear that Musk not only gives orders to his employee, but he also works harder with full passion to set new standards for his employee and enable others to act.

Musk as a Credible Leader

Elon Musk is a credible leader both by his action and words. He put his 100 million dollar he has earned via selling Paypal to establish SpaceX. His first rocket exploded, and so did his second, third, and fourth which led him and his company to bankruptcy, but he didn’t give up as he believed in his vision and finally SpaceX made it first successful launch in September 2008 which got him a $1.6 billion contract from NASA and today it is one of the world’s most valuable private company. This shows that he not only believed in his vision but also made others put their trust in him. 

A credible leader believes in making interpersonal relationships with their employees and stakeholders. When Musk came to know about injuries occurring to employees, he emailed each and every employee with commitment of his personal responsibility and put employee safety to topmost priority and made other employees easily approachable. Leaders should make an environment where staff feels ownership and approachability to their manager, and Chief Executive Officer to come out with ideas, feedbacks and issues. Elon Musk has proven track of credibility and he genuinely reflects it by his actions.

Musk as transformational leader

Transformational leaders work to make a difference with their unique vision and inspire others to move towards common goals. Elon musk has unique vision and is able to inspire others. Musk is a visionary and transformational leader who has challenged the status quo via his products and service may that be low cost yet reliable rocket or elegant yet powerful electric cars. He had developed keen interest in space travel at very early age out of science fiction books which he aimed to fulfil via his entrepreneurial endeavors which gave birth to a space exploration venture called SpaceX. This shows that leaders should have strong vision which will inspire others. 

Elon Musk was resilient and persistent from an early age.  He excelled in his studies though he was the victim of bullying during his early years, which caused him to develop a resilient attitude towards hardest situation. This attitude has also made him optimistic towards bad situation when other loss their hope.  Elon Musk leads companies such as Tesla and SpaceX that are pioneers in their field and have transformational impact in the society which makes him transformational leader of twenty-first century.

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