Should CEOs Be More Like Elon Musk or Less? Experts Weigh In

Elon-by-Daniel Oberhaus

When Elon Musk took over Twitter in late 2022, he fired half the staff by email, rebranded the company “X,” and tweeted, “The bird is freed.” Investors blinked. The public watched. And somewhere between earnings calls and exit interviews, other CEOs began to quietly ask: is this leadership—or theatre?

Musk’s methods divide opinion, but they provoke a question that many business leaders now find unavoidable:

Should today’s CEOs be more like him, or do the opposite?

There is, to some, plenty to admire. “His leadership is bold and visionary,” says Ketan Dattani, CEO of the UK-based recruitment firm Buckingham Futures. “He has an uncanny ability to anticipate future trends and position his companies ahead of the curve.” Dattani believes Musk’s decisiveness—particularly in challenging conventional wisdom—is a quality in short supply among corporate leaders more afraid of mistakes than mediocrity.

Yet boldness can come at a cost. “His intensity can be inspiring,” Dattani adds, “but it often comes at the expense of employee well-being and organizational stability.” Indeed, Musk’s tenure at X (formerly Twitter) has been marked by mass layoffs, reports of overwork, and cultural volatility. Visionary leadership is one thing; sustained chaos is another.

Stacy Brookman, a U.S.-based leadership and resilience coach, calls Musk “a walking contradiction.” His achievements are difficult to dismiss—electric vehicles, reusable rockets, private satellites—but so is his volatility. “He lacks the emotional intelligence and empathy that are crucial in today’s collaborative work environments,” she says. And that, she argues, undermines the very innovation he promotes.

Brookman isn’t alone. In an age where trust in institutions is low and workplace burnout is high, leadership styles rooted in control and charisma are falling out of favour. A 2024 Gallup poll found that employees who trust their managers are 70% less likely to experience burnout. Musk may build rockets, but he also burns bridges.

Even so, not everyone rejects his style outright. Some advocate for a selective reading of the Musk playbook.

Jonathan Barfield, founder of Inspired Athletes, points to Musk’s “5-minute rule”—the idea that meetings should be short, tight, and focused. “It’s a simple discipline that forces clarity,” Barfield says. “Most leaders waste hours talking in circles. Musk doesn’t have time for that.” In companies where agility matters more than hierarchy, that kind of time management can be an edge.

Musk’s obsession with speed and iteration also draws cautious praise. “The ‘try and try again until you get it to work’ mindset he promotes has merit,” says Julia Stock, Director at UK consultancy Be Astute. But, she adds, it’s not a silver bullet. “That mentality must be grounded in strategic thinking. Trying without direction isn’t innovation—it’s chaos.” Stock’s point is clear: failure is a powerful teacher, but only if it’s part of a curriculum.

The line between boldness and recklessness is blurry—and Musk treads it often. Russell Raath, Principal at The Ambition Company in New York, puts it bluntly: “There’s no questioning that Elon Musk is a divisive leader.” While Raath acknowledges Musk’s vision, he sees his erratic behaviour and impulsive communication as a liability. “In most organizations, leaders are expected to build trust and credibility. Musk often does the opposite.”

This is where the Musk model begins to fracture. His style is hard to replicate, not only because of its extremes, but because of the context in which it succeeds. Musk operates in industries where speed matters more than polish—where shipping a flawed prototype is better than delivering a perfect nothing. In aerospace or AI, audacity is rewarded. In banking, healthcare, or retail? Probably not.

Still, that hasn’t stopped his influence from seeping into management workshops and startup Slack channels. One reason is that Musk, for all his unpredictability, gets things done. “He reminds us that the role of a CEO is not to maintain the status quo,” says Dr. Terryel Hu, founder of Insight Bay. “It’s to challenge it.”

Hu praises Musk’s willingness to take calculated risks and push through resistance. “His execution is relentless,” she adds. But she stops short of advocating imitation. The real lesson, Hu implies, is not to be like Musk—it’s to understand when that approach works, and when it doesn’t.

And that, perhaps, is the emerging consensus. The best leaders today are not Musk clones. They are curators. They study what works, discard what doesn’t, and adapt the rest to their own context. Musk’s speed, decisiveness, and comfort with ambiguity? All useful. His online rants, emotional volatility, and disregard for employee sentiment? Best left behind.

This selective adoption is already happening. CEOs are being told to think more like product managers—shipping fast, listening to data, correcting course. But they’re also under pressure to embody stability, empathy, and trust. Especially as younger workers value psychological safety over heroic vision.

In the end, Musk may be less a model than a mirror. He reflects what leadership can look like when unconstrained by corporate norms. But for most CEOs, especially those not running companies with sky-high valuations and cultish fanbases, copying him wholesale would be a mistake.

Better, perhaps, to learn from his strengths—and leave the rest to the tabloids.