The purpose of this project is to apply the concepts and theories in the unit to the analysis of leadership of a well-known leader. Select any type of leader for whom there is sufficient information to provide a good analysis of leadership processes and outcomes. Examples include political leaders, military leaders, business executives, religious leaders, sports coaches, and leaders of social movements.

You must read at least three separate sources (biographies and articles) that provide enough detail to identify specific traits and skills, behaviours, influence processes, and relevant aspects of the situation. The most usefultype of source is a biographical account of the leader’s activities and accomplishments.

A minimum requirement of the assignment is to identify specific leadership behaviours and refer to relevant leadership theories to explain why the behaviours were appropriate or inappropriate in the situation faced by the leader. Even better is to identify reasons why the person’s leadership was (un)successful enough to make them (in)famous. Both the strengths and weaknesses of ‘your’ leader should be identified. Issues of ethics in leadership should also be considered. Eventually your analysis should result in a series of actionable recommendations for the chosen leader (assuming that would be possible).

It is helpful to use quotes and detailed descriptions of selected incidents to support conclusions about the leader’s behaviour and influence on followers. The source for any quotes or factual details should be clearly cited. It is essential to describe incidents involving effective or ineffective behaviour by the leader to support your analysis.

1. Introduction 

By definition, a leader is someone who is able to inspire others and motivate others to follow his or her vision of the future and contribute accordingly. An effective leader would be the one who bring out the best in his or her following and keep the team motivated through both Highs and Lows of the work in progress (Buechley, 2016). In many instances of teamwork, success of failure of a project or an initiative can be defined on the basis of quality of leadership. In a business organization, it is the role of a leader to not just keep the employees motivated, but also to ensure that the business is meeting its financial goals and growth estimations as per the expectations of shareholders (Mattone, 2013). In this paper, the leadership profile of Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla Inc. would be analysed for assessment of Musk as a leader.

2. Background info on the leader selected

Elon Musk is an American entrepreneur and businessman who was born in South Africa in 1971. In 1999, Musk founded a digital payment service company with the title X.com, which later became popular as PayPal, one of the leading payment service providers in the world (Gregersen, 2017). With the money made from success of PayPal, Musk founded a space exploration company SpaceX in 2002 and Tesla Motors in 2003. By the time Musk had reached 20 years of age, he was already a multimillionaire after selling his technology start-up company Zip2 (Loudenback, 2017).

Elon Musk gained mainstream attention in 2012 after SpaceX successfully launched a rocket which was designed to be the very first privately-owned and commercial vehicle to send suppliers to the ISS (international space station). In the world of technology, Musk is seen as a visionary and revolutionary persona and leader who has a strong vision for the future with resources to see his vision to reality (Gregersen, 2017). His company Tesla is at the forefront of electric cars and self-driving car systems while he has also purchased SolarCity to add to his portfolio (Markman, 2018). His fame and reputation as an innovator, leader, and visionary also secured him an advisory role in the administration of United States president Donald Trump.

(Some parts of the solution has been blurred due to privacy protection policy)