Don’t Be An Elon
So many managers are over-promoted either through nepotism, because they were there at the the right time or for taking credit for other people’s hard work. Remind you of anyone? So this is a suggestion to all of you: don’t be an Elon.
I’ve been full of cold so I haven’t really wanted to do a lot. In order to make myself feel better I’ve been doomscrolling through Twitter and I have to say the fallout from the “Twitter Blue Verification” debacle was hilarious to watch.
It got me thinking though: how many people are running a company that shouldn’t be? Elon Musk by all accounts was quite a terrible programmer but bluffed his way into several Dot Com startup roles, he bought his way into companies (PayPal & Tesla come to mind) and then claims he came up with the ideas taking credit from the real founder and he doesn’t listen to people who know what they’re talking about (see these public spats with Twitter devs for example – I mean, if he did he wouldn’t have paid $44 billion for a company now worth about $8 billion thanks to his antics.
So many managers are over-promoted either through nepotism, because they were there at the the right time or for taking credit for other people’s hard work. Remind you of anyone?
So this is a suggestion to all of you: don’t be an Elon.
Value other people, listen to what they have to say especially if they’ve worked at the company for longer that you have or have knowledge about a subject. Let them speak and explain rather than dismissing them outright.
Give credit it where it’s due and don’t claim other people’s ideas as your own.
Treat people with respect (like don’t sack them with no notice for example) and tell them that you value you them.
And above all, don’t just randomly announce ideas publicly. Sit down and discuss them with people first instead of throwing them around and seeing “what sticks”.
A company is built on the trust of its workers. If you lose that you are doomed to fail.
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