Opinion | America is learning the wrong lesson from Elon Musk’s success

Last December, I asked my students to Wharton to appoint and vote on topics for our final class. The first choice was the leadership lessons of Elon Musk. It has also become a hot topic between the corporate elite. In a recent conference on leadership, the founder of a profitable start-up said Mr. Musk was making the dictators fresh again. The CEO of a great company said that Mr. Musk was returning to people like him their power. A great investor concluded that Mr. Musk’s success is proof that it is better to be feared than loved.

They do not speak metaphorically. Mr. Musk was known To shout and swear against employees who deliver work, he considered a scarce. Does everything to smear people, like when publicly accused A former Twitter manager of “discuss in favor of children able to access adult internet services”. In his new role that supervises the Department of Efficiency of the Government of the Trump Administration, he expresses contempt for the work done by many federal employees and random mass champions. The current and future corporate leaders are looking at the richest man in the world in action and many of them are learning the wrong lesson on leadership.

As an organizational psychologist, I have long admired the audacity of the vision of Mr. Musk, the intensity of his push and the impact of his innovations in cars and rockets. But the way he deals with people would fail the leadership class that I teach his Alma Mater. For more than a century, my field has studied how leaders get great things. The evidence is clear: the leadership for intimidation and insult is a bad strategy. Diminish people does not increase their productivity; Decreases it.

You can see it with elite athletes. In a study Of almost 700 NBA players, those who had a violent coach behaved worse for the rest of their career. Six years later, after changing the teams, they were still adding less value in the field. They were also more likely to unleash and be accused of technical fouls.

The lack of respect is not limited to demotivating. Also interrupt Concentrate, causing expensive errors. In a medical simulationThe professionals of the Neonatal Intensive Care Teams had to diagnose a potentially potentially lethal condition and therefore respond quickly with correct procedures. Previously, some of them were randomly assigned to listen to an expert on a visit to denigrate their work, saying that they would not last a week in his department. In a short time, doctors and nurses were sufficient to reduce the accuracy of their diagnosis of almost 17 percent and the effectiveness of their 15 percent procedures.

Take it from a review of Over 400 studies In 36 countries with almost 150,000 people: in the face of aggression in the workplace, people are less productive, less collaborative and more inclined to subtract their responsibilities. Violent leaders break trust and raise resentment. And ruthless and random reduction can cause the highest artists – those who have the best opportunities elsewhere – a Jump the ship. Denigning people is not a path to achieve significant goals. It reflect A lack of self -control and a lack of emotional intelligence.

Now comes the inevitable question: how do you explain the success of Mr. Musk? With Tesla and Spacex, he built two wildly prospera companies, interrupting one sector and swallowing another. But these results have arrived despite the way people treat, not for this.

Why is it so easy to lose that point? The answer comes to a greater truth about the way in which human beings think. Psychologists call it Credit idiosyncrasia: As people accumulate status, we allow them greater permission to deviate from social norms. So when we see the leaders to be uncivilized, we often get the cause and effect backwards. We assume that being rude to the success of success. In truth, however, success can give them to them license be rude. The engineers of Tesla and Spacex tolerate the abuse by Mr. Hyde because they admire the vision of Dr. Jekyll.

A common excuse for the hardness of Mr. Musk is that he is in demon mode. But there is a big difference between demonizing people and asking them a lot.

Treating people into consideration actually makes them more open to difficult feedback. The students are more receptive To construction criticisms if their teacher prefigures it: “I am giving you these comments because I have very high expectations and I know you can reach them”. Working and sports teams Answer better to negative emotions by leaders if they establish respect first.

Mr. Musk is aware of the impression he does. He once tweeted“If I am a narcissist (who could be true), at least I’m useful.” It also recognizes that its intense emotions can create a climate of fear. When I met him for the first time years ago, I asked him how he makes sure that Spacex employees speak of problems with the rockets. He said: “I try to make it dangerous not to do it.” This is an admirable affirmation.

By promising to cut at least $ 1 trillion from the federal budget, Musk used the same instrument kit that has applied in the corporate sector: quickly taking a chain saw to the systems he believes are broken e shoot Many people simultaneously, sometimes without any declared reason. Works?

If he is trying to build a more efficient and transparent federal government, not so much. His team carried out most of his work in secret, with little responsibility and few dissidents around him to challenge his ideas – not to mention the rivals of the opposing party such as those Lincoln met In his cabinet to promote the diversity of thought and earn the trust of the public. Musk has made too many mistakes, from the unaware elimination of the ABO prevention programs to the dismissal of employees doing critical work on nuclear weapons and scientists who work to prevent a bird’s influence pandemic. And it is Difficult to see The way to shoot the people who collect revenue is a good strategy to tame the budget or how to eliminate supervision could help fight budget waste. But if its goal is to discredit the government and demoralize workers, then its strategy could work.

Before Mr. Musk came, the patron saint of humiliating leadership was Steve Jobs. Jony Ive, who worked with him for decades, he said That when Mr. Jobs frustrated, “his way of reaching the catharsis is to hurt someone. And I think he feels he has a freedom and a license to do it”.

After being forced to leave his company in 1985, Mr. Jobs discovered that he was burning too many idiosyncrase credits. Thanks to brutally honest feedback, he came to see that showing a little compassion, he would have gained a lot of loyalty. “It was a medicine of the terrible flavor, but I guess the patient needed it”, he later he said. The Steve Jobs who returned to Apple a dozen years later was a more decent person and made him a better leader. Mr. Jobs “crossed a quite dramatic change, and became kinder and empathic”, his long -standing Pixar collaborator and Catmull he told me. “It was the changed person who had those skills to have this incredible impact in the world.”

It is a model that I have seen several times in mine research: Donors add more value than buyers. Studies show that technological companies are more profitable When leader of the servants I’m at the helm. The competitive advantage Comes from Treating people better than they expect and earn their trust, which makes it easier to attract, motivate and retain talents. This does not mean being soft on people. The leaders of the servants are not shy in defining Hard love. But they put their mission above their ego and care about people as much as the performance.

While Mr. Musk does the waves, I often think of the fact that he once studied where he teachs now. I want my students to learn from his healthy lack of respect for the status quo. But I hope they refuse his unhealthy habit of showing lack of respect for people. The purpose of studying role models is not to idolize them. It is to emulate their strengths and transcend their weak points.