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<\/figure>\n\n\n\nWalter Isaacson\u2019s near-700-page biography of Elon Musk covers a lot of ground. We get many stories of the remarkable innovator, how he revolutionized at least two industries, automobiles and rockets, and his controversial purchase and overhaul of Twitter. Great reading \u2013 but what can a leader learn from Isaacson\u2019s account?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That\u2019s a key question because, in the end, the author concludes that Musk \u2013 a larger-than-life entrepreneur, a freak of nature in his willingness to accept, even seek out, extraordinary risk \u2013 is a complete package: you can\u2019t get the relentless, brilliant innovation without the unfiltered, insensitive, and sometimes plain awful treatment of people around him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yet, although there is much to learn from Musk\u2019s innovation record, his abrasive personality is not a necessary condition for success. When my team and I researched the factors for perpetual innovation from 2006 to 2022<\/a>, Tesla was indeed among the best, but other firms had elements of what Tesla did.\u00a0 You don\u2019t have to emulate Musk\u2019s abrasiveness to reap the benefits of his example: a move of 20 to 30% in his direction can accomplish a great amount.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Existential Purpose<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Isaacson effectively describes Musk\u2019s maniacal commitment to saving civilization through electrification, space travel, and other technologies and how these emerged from his childhood fascination with science fiction and video games. Trumping love of money or status this commitment enables him to embrace extraordinary risk, even suing his primary customer at one point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But omitted from the book are the crucial second-order effects of his commitments, notably the galvanizing effects on people around him. For all his divisiveness on social media, Musk has successfully won over talented people to his goals, creating innovative, profitable companies along the way. The bold pursuit of significant challenges also helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Even if most managers are less obsessional than Musk, they can learn from his pursuit of an existential purpose that clarifies strategic decisions and attracts highly engaged colleagues to the cause.\u00a0 Most corporate purpose statements are vague or feel-good window dressing, with little actual traction in the organization. Either find something with an edge, or don\u2019t bother.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Startup Mindset<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Isaacson notes Musk\u2019s need for drama, especially after success in overcoming an obstacle. He would \u201cyank the alarm bells and force a fire drill,\u2026find something to turn into a crisis.\u201d It\u2019s suggested that that\u2019s a problem, but it\u2019s actually common in serial entrepreneurs, which is why they move on once they succeed (or fail) with a startup. Leaders aren\u2019t usually entrepreneurs but can still gain a lot from a startup mindset.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Contrary to popular belief, startups rarely depend on testing and succeeding with a specific product. Instead, they attack a market segment with an idea and quickly pivot as they learn about both. As Isaacson shows, Musk didn\u2019t set out to build a rocket company \u2013 he just wanted to get NASA and the existing industry moving toward Mars. Tesla\u2019s founders didn\u2019t target mainstream passenger automobiles until Musk arrived and made the crucial decision to pursue the luxury market. That willingness to pivot is vital, but all too rare.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Big companies can do something similar, not just with Agile\u2019s minimum viable product approach, but by showing openness and flexibility toward the market. It just takes effort and focus. As Amazon\u2019s Jeff Bezos told shareholders in 2016, \u201cWe can have the scope and capabilities of a large company and the spirit and heart of a small one. But we must choose it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Managing Tempo<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Where can ordinary leaders get that effort and focus? Here\u2019s an element missing from the biography and probably from Musk\u2019s own career. Amid the constant innovation and crises, it\u2019s easy to forget that even at Tesla and SpaceX, a moderate amount of the work is straightforward. Engineers and designers must make the innovations practical and commercial with all the little adjustments that customers only notice when they\u2019re not there. The slower pace is also a good time to begin deliberating big changes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For most humans and organizations, such work is restorative, allowing normal office hours and work-life balance. Musk prefers \u201chard-core\u201d dedication that squeezes out non-work ties, epitomized by the pillow he keeps under his desk for all-nighters. In recent years, his companies have lost many talented people who can\u2019t keep up with his extraordinary stamina and willingness to forgo ordinary human relationships, only partially offset by new recruits attracted by his charismatic commitments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Instead of continual hard-core, other organizations can adjust their tempo to save up energy for the tough periods. The corporate default is for everything to move at the same pace, but perpetual innovators alternate between periods of frenetic activity and quiet times of supportive work. During the latter they also do something different: they stay alert, looking for opportunities and threats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To do all that, managers must fight relentlessly against creeping bureaucracy that focuses people\u2019s attention internally during slow periods and limits their freedom to maneuver in the fast ones. Microsoft took off in the late 2010s only after CEO Satya Nadella removed many bureaucratic structures that had built up over time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Radical Collaboration<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Isaacson mentions Musk\u2019s systematic willingness to challenge requirements but neglects how that plays out within organizations. His companies operate with a different sense of hierarchy<\/a>. To solve tough problems, Musk tells employees to ask for help from anyone with the crucial expertise, irrespective of rank. No matter how outlandish the request, dismissing someone with what Musk calls an \u201cunproductive no\u201d can be a firing offense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ordinary leaders can similarly loosen hierarchies by resisting the pull of rank and focusing on solving the problem, not structures and status to be respected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Besides these four areas, Isaacson\u2019s engaging story falls short in showing the broader effects of Musk\u2019s potent mix of generosity, ferocity, and courage. It\u2019s not just that he combines enormous energy, engineering brilliance, and a high tolerance of risk \u2013 he puts those gifts to highly productive use through effective leadership.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There is no reason why ordinary leaders can\u2019t learn from his examples to make their organizations more innovative. They might not revolutionize industries, but they\u2019ll do themselves and society a favor by creating value in these disruptive times. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Elon Musk<\/strong> by Walter Isaacson Simon & Schuster, 688 pages<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n About the Author:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Behnam Tabrizi<\/em><\/strong><\/a>\u00a0has taught \u201cLeading Organizational Transformation\u201d at Stanford University and its executive programs for over 25 years and consulted on innovative transformational initiatives with thousands of CEOs and leaders. His latest WSJ bestseller book is Going on Offense<\/em><\/a>: A Leader\u2019s Playbook for Perpetual Innovation<\/em>\u00a0(IdeaPress Publishing).\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Walter Isaacson\u2019s near-700-page biography of Elon Musk covers a lot of ground. We get many stories of the remarkable innovator, how he revolutionized at least two industries, automobiles and rockets, and his controversial purchase and overhaul of Twitter. Great reading \u2013 but what can a leader learn from Isaacson\u2019s account? [\u2026]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":4413,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":""},"categories":[328],"tags":[329,343],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.druckerforum.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4409"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.druckerforum.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.druckerforum.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.druckerforum.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.druckerforum.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4409"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.druckerforum.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4409\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4414,"href":"https:\/\/www.druckerforum.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4409\/revisions\/4414"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.druckerforum.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4413"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.druckerforum.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4409"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.druckerforum.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4409"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.druckerforum.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}