Elon Musk, Twitter, and 'Hardcore' Leadership: A Public Masterclass on What Not to Do.

As I see the Twitter saga unfold, one thing is crystal clear: Elon Musk and I have absolutely different leadership styles. It's not that I think Musk or Twitter will be unsuccessful. I just don't subscribe to his leadership philosophies.?

I will never have his kind of wealth, and I am very comfortable with that knowledge. But I guess when you have "F*CK you money," you can do whatever the f*ck you want.

Both Elon Musk and I were born and brought up in South Africa. That, perhaps, is where our similarity ends. We grew up on opposite ends of the same city, on different sides of apartheid and privilege. Our life experiences have, perhaps unsurprisingly, translated into remarkably different leadership philosophies with contrasting styles on how to treat people.

I have never met Elon Musk, so my observations are based purely on his public behavior and profile. Here's what I have noticed and why I find his leadership style oppressive and disempowering.?

• Elon leads with the golden rule, "Treat people the way YOU want to be treated," and I believe in the platinum rule, "treat people the way THEY want to be treated."
• While Musk takes an oppressive "my way or the highway" approach, I believe in a collaborative approach that empowers others.
• Elon seems to have a "the end justifies the means" mindset, and I believe that "the how matters."
• Elon takes an "engineering only" approach to products, and I believe in a human-first approach to engineering great products.
• Elon is blindly focused on the what and why; I think the HOW matters most.?

I firmly believe that the future of work will be shaped by and measured based on how people feel.

People want to work on exciting problems. They are drawn to mission and purpose-driven initiatives. And most importantly, people want to feel a sense of belonging, being a part of a place where they're valued and included.

Throughout my career, I have tried to create work environments that provide people with psychological safety so that they can feel empowered and thrive. Every news from Twitter indicates that Elon has done the diametrically opposite. Every action he has taken thus far has eroded psychological safety.

Psychological safety is believing that one won't be punished or humiliated for speaking up with ideas, questions, concerns, or mistakes. The ability to show and be one's true self without fear of negative consequences for self-image, status, or career.??

What we have seen from Elon's first few weeks at Twitter is that he does not care about psychological safety or people in general. He is only focused on his view of the 'what' and does not care about the 'how.' It is disheartening to see how he is treating the people that built Twitter over many years. These are amazing and highly skilled people who gave up large parts of life only to now be treated like cells in an Excel spreadsheet.??

Like most companies, Twitter probably needs to pivot with agility and velocity to changing market demands. It probably does need to reimagine its ways of working. It likely does need to build interdependence between product, engineering, and design. And it assumably does need to transform. All of these can be accomplished with a human-first approach.

Perhaps Elon Musk will be successful with Twitter, but his methods definitely aren’t for me. I don't believe in abusing people and treating them like commodities. I don't think that people should be 'coin operated.'

I believe we can awaken and unleash the full potential of amazing people with brilliant processes, smart technology, and a winning culture. We can use behavioral science and neuroscience to create winning ways of working for the new world of work.

I believe in inspiring people to deliver inspiring results!

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Conversations with Myself - A Blog Series

We are the sum of our life’s experiences. Throughout my life, I have been fortunate to have learned some lessons about humanity, and I have applied those lessons to leadership. I am sharing them with the hope that it can make a positive impact on someone, somewhere—starting with my two daughters.

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