> Do you think it would be possible to build electric cars and rockets _without_ this brand of leadership?
Absolutely yes. The sort of high performing people who join places like SpaceX and Tesla need very very little pressure to get them to work at full speed. Usually it just takes a nudge here and there, and they'll work themselves like crazy. The extra pressure on top is pure stress, and causes people to narrow their thinking and make mistakes.
The most important thing that good leadership brings is clear direction and high standards. Elon has these qualities for sure, and he could do away with the overstressing of his employees and would still be just as successful. Happy employees are productive. This was obvious in the early days of many startups, with Google as the prime example, but now the copycats will think that treating people as disposable is how to be successful like Elon.
As far as I can tell, the context here is that Elon is firing lots of people who are apparently not productive despite being in their position for years.
You are making it sound like Elon is the type of person who always pesters people and attempts to micromanage them to squeeze every ounce of "productivity" juice he can get out of the forcefully.
But obviously if that was his style, Tesla and SpaceX would never take off.
> The most important thing that good leadership brings is clear direction and high standards.
Isn't that exactly what he brings? And isn't that what's bringing him under fire in this HN thread? People acting all horrofied because he's actually enforcing the high standards that you say he should have.
> You are making it sound like Elon is the type of person who always pesters people and attempts to micromanage them to squeeze every ounce of "productivity" juice he can get out of the forcefully.
This is exactly what I hear 2nd hand. His workplaces are miserable to be in because of extreme micromanagement, and expectations of long hours despite the personal and health cost to his employees.
>> The most important thing that good leadership brings is clear direction and high standards.
>
> Isn't that exactly what he brings? And isn't that what's bringing him under fire in this HN thread? People acting all horrofied because he's actually enforcing the high standards that you say he should have.
Yes, but he mixes these good leadership qualities with pointlessly bad leadership qualities. He has high standards for the quality of the work (good), but he combines it with high standards for how unhappy you have to be while doing it (not good).
I'm not debating that Elon is successful and effective--it's obvious that he is. However, on top of being effective he just chooses to treat people like shit.
Absolutely yes. The sort of high performing people who join places like SpaceX and Tesla need very very little pressure to get them to work at full speed. Usually it just takes a nudge here and there, and they'll work themselves like crazy. The extra pressure on top is pure stress, and causes people to narrow their thinking and make mistakes.
The most important thing that good leadership brings is clear direction and high standards. Elon has these qualities for sure, and he could do away with the overstressing of his employees and would still be just as successful. Happy employees are productive. This was obvious in the early days of many startups, with Google as the prime example, but now the copycats will think that treating people as disposable is how to be successful like Elon.