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With a sprawling empire spanning electric vehicles, rockets, artificial intelligence, and social media, Elon Musk has built a reputation as one of the most influential\u2014and unconventional business leaders of the modern era. And as SpaceX eyes a potentially record-setting public offering, the billionaire\u2019s path to potentially becoming the world\u2019s first trillionaire is once again fueling fascination with how he built his success.<\/p>\n
But few people have witnessed how Musk operates up close quite like Jon McNeill.\u00a0<\/p>\n
As Tesla\u2019s president from 2015 to 2018, he worked alongside Musk during one of the company\u2019s most pivotal stretches, helping oversee the rollout of the Model X and the turbulent production ramp-up of the Model 3\u2014a period when Tesla came perilously close to bankruptcy.<\/p>\n
However, the success of Musk, and subsequently Tesla, wasn\u2019t necessarily driven by charisma, luck, or even raw intelligence alone, according to McNeill. Instead, it came from an obsessive willingness to challenge assumptions.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s a pretty uniquely-wired individual, obviously,\u201d McNeill told Fortune, reflecting on his former boss. \u201cHe\u2019s thinking about stuff at a depth, constantly, and he frees up time in his day to think about these big challenges, and then figures out a way to go after them.\u201d<\/p>\n
While Musk\u2019s leadership style can often appear chaotic from the outside, McNeill said there was a repeatable logic behind it. In his book, The Algorithm, he distilled Musk\u2019s operating philosophy into a five-step framework:<\/p>\n
Question every requirement,<\/p>\n
Delete every possible step in the process,<\/p>\n
Simplify and optimize,<\/p>\n
Accelerate cycle time,\u00a0<\/p>\n
Automate last.<\/p>\n
The framework proved integral during Tesla\u2019s growth years, McNeill recalled, helping solve manufacturing bottlenecks tied to the Model X and scale the company from roughly $2 billion in revenue to $20 billion. <\/p>\n
And since leaving Tesla, McNeill has carried the philosophy throughout the rest of his career\u2014from serving as chief operating officer at Lyft to joining the boards of General Motors and Lululemon, while also leading his venture capital firm DVx Ventures.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel that The Algorithm is a framework that anybody can apply,\u201d McNeill added. \u201cYou don\u2019t have to be Elon Musk to do this.\u201d<\/p>\n
How Musk determines who\u2019s fit to work at his companies, according to Tesla\u2019s former president<\/p>\n
For all of Elon Musk\u2019s outsized influence, the billionaire\u2019s companies are designed to thrive even when he isn\u2019t in the room.<\/p>\n
During McNeill\u2019s time at Tesla, Musk was juggling multiple ventures, meaning Tuesday was often the only day fully dedicated to the electric vehicle maker. The rest of the week, the company relied on teams empowered to move quickly and solve problems on their own.<\/p>\n
According to McNeill\u2019s book, much of the genius in Musk\u2019s companies was due to his smart employees using the five-step process, which enabled them to question everything and innovate\u2014all without Musk. <\/p>\n
Still, not everyone is cut out to work inside Musk\u2019s high-pressure ecosystem.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe demands to only work with world-class talent,\u201d McNeill told Fortune, describing the type of employees Musk values as \u201c10Xers\u201d\u2014people who, when handed a challenge, often deliver 10 times the output of an average worker.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe made so much forward progress because the capabilities of our people were so high,\u201d McNeill added.\u2029\u201dIt was like asking an army of completely special horses, and you asked them to go see these objectives, and they just do it. And then come back hungry for more.\u201d<\/p>\n
The employees who thrived most under Musk tended to share an unusual mix of four traits: humility, capability, confidence, and curiosity, according to McNeill. <\/p>\n
Faced with one of Musk\u2019s seemingly impossible mandates, those strong employees rarely pretended to already know the solution. Instead, McNeill said, their instinct was often: I don\u2019t know how to do that. What separated them was what came next:<\/p>\n
\u201c\u2018Challenge accepted, we\u2019ll figure it out.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Beyond Tesla, executives agree the right attitude can make a world of difference<\/p>\n
The framework for identifying top performers at Tesla echoed a message increasingly shared by other executives: raw talent matters, but mindset may matter even more.<\/p>\n
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy, for example, has argued that attitude can have an outsized impact on long-term career success\u2014particularly for young people just beginning their professional lives.<\/p>\n
\u201cAn embarrassing amount of how well you do, particularly in your twenties, has to do with attitude,\u201d Jassy said in a conversation with LinkedIn in 2024.<\/p>\n
For former Workday CEO Carl Eschenbach, the importance of attitude stems from lessons learned well before the C-suite, beginning during his time as a competitive wrestler.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe attitude that you bring to the office\u2014and to your employees, your peers, and the people you serve alongside every day\u2014is what ultimately will determine a lot of your success,\u201d Eschenbach said on McKinsey\u2019s Inside the Strategy Room podcast last year.<\/p>\n
\u201cI often say your altitude in life is completely determined by your attitude in life.\u201d<\/p>\n
The message extends well beyond Silicon Valley. Kurt Alexander, president of Omni Hotels & Resorts, previously told Fortune that one of the most important traits he looks for in job candidates is a willingness to work hard and serve others.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can teach you the hospitality business,\u201d he said. \u201cBut do you have an attitude and a willingness to serve people? Because that\u2019s the business we\u2019re in, and it\u2019s hard work, and it\u2019s not sexy in many respects, but it\u2019s good work and there\u2019s a lot of dignity in it.\u201d<\/p>\n
#Tesla #president #shares #Elon #Musks #secret #success #work #worldclass #talent<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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