People sometimes assume that a term such as leadership is intended to last for centuries. However, nothing could be further from the facts. Leadership is similar to societal traditions in terms of how they evolve over time.

Today's leadership is nothing like it was ten years ago. Much has changed, and the only way to thrive as a leader today is to understand and embrace all of these changes. Here's a look at how leadership has evolved over the last ten years.

1. Autocratic rule was common among leaders. Managers have the final say in many workplaces, making decisions based on their own personal beliefs and experiences.

Now…. Leadership has become synonymous with inclusiveness.

2. For previous generations of leaders, figuring out what to do and then asking people what, where, where, and how to do it was a huge challenge.

Now…. Everything is becoming a lot simpler thanks to technological advancements.

3. In most organisations not long ago, the traditional command and control approach was also the rule.

Now…. Employees, especially millennials, prefer leaders who inspire them rather than order them.

4. Taking names and kicking butt used to be a winning strategy for leaders. They were unaffected by their team's growth; all they cared about were the numbers.

Now…. The new generation of leaders is guided by a desire to leave a legacy for future generations to follow.

5. The fact that leaders had so many obligations never bothered them. They kept a stiff upper lip at work and managed to juggle all of their duties effectively.

Now…. Some things, after all, do not alter.

Elon Musk's Leadership

Elon Musk is one of the most innovative—and infamous—visionaries of our time, and he is as controversial as he is influential. Due to his public persona, trigger-happy Twitter finger, and a legendary podcast appearance, the CEO of SpaceX and Tesla, who also has The Boring Company, Neuralink, and X.com (basically the first version of PayPal) under his belt, he may have gained widespread fame.

When it comes to the most prominent CEOs of the twenty-first century, Elon Musk is frequently compared to Steve Jobs and Jeff Bezos, and, like the respective founders of Apple and Amazon, is credited with possessing a "transformational leadership" style.The idea is part of the Full Range Leadership Model, which proposes three distinct leadership styles based on one's level of interaction with the people he or she leads. A transformational leader, unlike those who favour "laissez-faire" or "transactional" leadership styles, is defined by their ability to encourage, empower, and collaborate closely with their teams to achieve exceptional results. Some bosses employ staff to do tedious jobs. Transformational leaders associate with people who want to make a difference in the world.

Acting with a genius who has big dreams and high aspirations isn't always straightforward. According to Fast Company, a former Tesla employee said, "It was amazing," but also, "I'd never work there again." “We were in the presence of brilliance,” another individual who worked under Musk, this time at SpaceX, said of the maker, adding, “It frightened me.”

Clearly, becoming a positive and charismatic innovator entails being "complicated." Regardless of what his employees and the general public think of Musk, no one can argue that he is helping to shape the future, one project at a time. Here are the tactics Musk is known to use on a regular basis at all of his businesses, from confronting challenges head-on and accepting defeat to avoiding meetings wherever possible.

1. He Motivates His Colleagues

Having a vision is one of the core tenets of transformational leadership, as is convincing others to not only believe in it, but to be motivated enough to help make it a reality. Musk has said, "You have to have a very compelling goal for the venture."

“He's all ambition,” says the narrator. He's three or four steps ahead of the game... The majority of us can't imagine these things working; he can't imagine them failing. SpaceX's first engineer, Jim Cantrell, has said of Musk, "Period." His team is motivated by his self-assurance and sense of mission.

2. He establishes "stretch goals"

Creating brain chips to revolutionise neuroscience or discovering a way to colonise Mars are both part of Musk's "stretch target" plan, which is wildly optimistic and thus still inspiring. Stretch targets, according to the Harvard Business Review, "involve radical aspirations that go beyond current capabilities and results," as well as a high level of novelty.

“When Elon says something, you have to pause and not blurt out 'Oh, that's impossible,'” Gwynne Shotwell, President and Chief Operating Officer of SpaceX, said at the 2018 TED Conference. You zip it, think about it, and figure out a way to finish it. I've always felt like it was my responsibility to turn these thoughts into company goals and make them attainable."

3. He is an outspoken critic of the status quo.

Musk is a true believer in paving his own path in order to set the bar in whatever industry he works in. Obviously, if you want to do something that has never been done before, you must do something that has never been done before. “Another piece of advice I would send is to avoid following patterns blindly,” the entrepreneur and engineer said. “Challenge and question the status quo.”

Let me offer you an example of his own advice in reality. The construction of a rocket by SpaceX "a fresh piece of paper.” According to Shotwell, the scientists and engineers working under Musk's direction were not required to use any pre-designed technology, but instead had to look at the evolution of the rocket industry to determine which technologies to use "best ideas and put them to good use... without having to build around legacy components that we do not need.

4. He is a control freak.

Musk is well-known for being a workaholic, which is both a benefit and a liability for his staff. On the one hand, he sets a precedent by being involved in any aspect of his projects: “As a co-founder or CEO, you have to do a lot of things you don't want to do... The business will fail if you do not complete your responsibilities... “There is no such thing as a trivial task.”

His infamous micromanaging, on the other hand, has caused some discord within his companies' ranks. He's very hands-on and "obsessive about the specifics," in addition to working over 100 hours a week himself.

5. He Makes Wise Hiring Decisions

While some former Tesla employees claim that "there is only one decision-maker at Tesla, and that is Elon Musk," there's no doubt that the CEO recognises the importance of assembling a strong team. “The importance of talent cannot be overstated. It's like a sports team: the team with the best individual player will always win, but how those players work together and the approach they employ has a multiplier effect.”

6. He Accepts Failure

What's the one thing that all good leaders have in common? They aren't scared of failing. Let's just say Musk has had his fair share of it (who can forget the time his "unbreakable" Tesla Cybertruck's windows broke—twice?).

Failure, on the other hand, does not derail his plans. Instead, he sees it as an opportunity to show that his team is truly disruptive: "Here, failure is a choice. You are not innovating if things aren't failing "'He's said,' he's said.

7. He seeks out feedback in order to find solutions.

As failure is used as a learning tool, it encourages people to confront challenges head-on in order to find answers and ultimately achieve their goals. Continuous input is Musk's self-proclaimed "single piece of advice" for both himself and his team in this regard.

“I believe it's important to have a feedback loop in which you're always considering what you've done and how you might improve. That, I believe, is the single best piece of advice: always challenge yourself and think about how you might be doing things differently."

8. He is a communicator.

Communication is at the heart of the aforementioned "feedback loop," which Musk encourages his staff to do as effectively as possible.

Tesla's founder and CEO, Elon Musk, encouraged his team to communicate as easily and directly as possible in an internal letter sent to Tesla employees in 2018, and to always disregard some kind of "chain of command."

9. He Despises Meetings

The same productivity model is extended to everything, including the least-favorite activity in any workplace: meetings. Musk also waived the need for pointless meetings that waste time and produce no actionable outcomes in an internal Tesla email.

“Excessive meetings are a plague on large corporations, and they almost always worsen over time. Please cancel all large meetings unless you're sure they'll benefit the whole audience, in which case keep them brief,” he wrote.

10. He's able to adapt

Musk's ability to adjust and change direction at the drop of a hat is perhaps one of his greatest strengths - and flaws. The billionaire has a history of changing his mind depending on what he thinks is important at the time or changing direction on projects quickly.

Shotwell has explained how he has gotten SpaceX to catch up to his standards just to have him throw something new at them, holding the team on their toes.

Nonetheless, his one-of-a-kind management style and commitment to creating a challenging work atmosphere have clearly resulted in multibillion-dollar success.

How, and why, have desirable leadership traits changed over the last century? Choose a contemporary business leader and analyse their leadership style and achievements using theory to support your discussion. 2000 words essay

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