Elon Musk | Tesla's CEO shows how small leadership actions have big consequences

Elon Musk, the eccentric business magnate, Mars space travel-obsessed, founder of electric car innovator Tesla and one-time richest man in the world, is not known for his balanced and measured public-facing persona.

Musk’s loose lips have gotten him into various controversial furores within the business world, such as his dark-humour and meme-driven presence on Twitter, his appearances on provocative talk shows such as Joe Rogan’s podcast, on which he was encouraged to smoke marijuana, and the often-erratic memos sent around his various companies – many of which end up making headlines.

Musk is so well-known for his excessively candid presence on Twitter that according to CNBC, in 2019, he was forced to reach a deal with the Securities and Exchange Commission stating that he needed to gain approval from a securities lawyer before tweeting any information that may have an effect on the stock market. This was necessary due to several infamous cases in which his jokes or casual musings actually caused significant fluctuations in company valuations.

In one such case, he jokingly announced that his own company had gone bankrupt – a statement that was false, and seemingly an April Fool’s jest. Unsurprisingly, Musk, for the most part, has completely ignored this agreement.