CEOs and Presidents

Influence Practices of Elon Musk and Jeff Skilling
CEOs and Presidents
Abstract
This paper looks at the influence processes of three CEOs: Elon Musk of Tesla, Alex Gorsky of Johnson & Johnson, and Jeff Skilling of Enron. These leaders have various strengths and faults and their leadership approaches are all different and to some extent based on their own personalities and styles of management. Some have met with more success than others, and some have met with more failure. Gorsky has succeeded at leading Johnson & Johnson for the past 8 years. Skilling failed in his leadership role at Enron and was jailed for fraud. Musk has seen a string of successes and failures during the course of his tenure as head of Tesla. This paper discusses their various influence processes, analyzes their strengths and weaknesses and summarizes their key attributes that effect positive organizational change and improved performance.
Introduction to the Concept of Influence Processes
The concept of influence processes is that it is an action a leader takes to have an impact on followers immediately and the organization overall. Lunenburg (2012) states that leadership itself is an influence process, and by this he means that what are often called leadership styles—such as transformational leadership, servant leadership, democratic leadership, or authoritarian leadership—are really influence processes that leaders engage in to affect their teams and workplaces. Singh-Sengupta (1997) has also argued that leadership styles are really influence processes that use interpersonal influence to motivate and communicate with others so that they can self-actualize. Self-actualizing in turn creates a level of self-influence wherein self-leadership becomes the manner in which the potential of the workers and the organization is achieved (Prussia, Anderson & Manz, 1998).
Leadership styles are not the only influence processes. Others include direct decision-making, allocating resources, implementing a reward system, identifying and promoting leaders from within, and role modeling (Brown & Trevino, 2014; Kameda, Ohtsubo & Takezawa, 1997). Building trust, establishing credibility, and utilizing expert power or referent/charismatic power are other ways (De Vries, 1998). Elon Musk is a leader who combines expert power and charismatic power to influence those around him, particularly stakeholders with whom he engages on Twitter, where he communicates to the public at large. Leveraging Twitter is a way to influence stakeholders (Malhotra & Malhotra, 2016).
Role of Influence in Contemporary Leadership
Influence is highly important when it comes to contemporary leadership because it impacts the way leaders motivate workers, empower them and get them to achieve their potential. Leadership is about having the ability to motivate people and guide them to the well-defined goals that have been set before them. Unless goals and objectives are clearly identified and a pathway to achieve them is laid out, it is very difficult for workers to feel like they know what they are doing or what they are working towards. So it is vital that leaders not only be able to motivate and guide but that they be able to communicate the vision of the end goal. This is the essence of effective influence in contemporary leadership. Indeed, communicating a vision is one of the central skills of transformational leadership (Bromley, 2007). For example, in an organization, a CEO will focus his team on a goal like increasing profitability. The vision is laid out—this is where the organization wants to go, and then it is explained how the organization can get there. That is step one. Step two is motivating the people, which requires an intimate understanding of them, how they think, what they need, and how to reach them. As Maslow (1943) points out in his hierarchy of needs and theory of human motivation, the pinnacle of the needs hierarchy is self-actualization, but to get there people need their lower levels needs satisfied first, such as shelter, food, a sense of belonging, love, esteem, self-respect and so on. Once those needs have been satisfied the individual will be self-motivated. Most leaders want to be surrounded with self-motivated workers, but this is not always possible so a great leader is able to find out what each worker needs and then support them so that they can reach their full potential.
Various Types of Influence Processes and the Factors That Can Affect Them
The four main types of influence processes are negative, neutral, positive and life changing. The latter two are the most important to use while the former two should be avoided. Positive influence leads to positive growth within workers and helps them to change in a way that is for their own personal and professional good. Life changing influence is even better because this is the kind of influence that helps to create leaders who can then pass on what they have learned to others. When this type of change occurs, it creates disciples—true believers in the message and method that they have received from the leaders who have impacted them.
The factors that affect these influence processes include characteristics of the leader, the follower, the situation and the culture in which the leader-follower relationship transpires. Stressful environments will have a different impact on the influence process as opposed to calm, stress-free environments. Followers who are facing a change and are resisting it will have an impact on the influence process of the leader. A leader who is stern and authoritative, like Alex Gorsky of J&J, will rub some followers the wrong way but will be appreciated by others for being a decision maker. Influence is a highly personal exchange, and no two relationships will be alike.
Methodology Used to Identify and Research the Leaders Selected
There is no one definition of leadership that is one size fits all. For instance, various definitions of leadership have arisen in the past. According to Chamers (2014), leadership is “a process by which a person directs, guides and influences the behavior and work of others towards accomplishment of specific goals in a given situation” (69).  One can do this by being a servant leader, a transformational leader, a charismatic leader, an authoritarian leader, a democratic leader, or any other type that works for the people involved in their particular environment. To identify leaders for this paper, the methodology employed was to select a leader who embodied different leadership styles. Immediately, the CEO of Johnson and Johnson came to mind as he has a military background and is known for being tough, firm and for “getting things done” (Healthcare Technology Report, 2019). Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, also came to mind as he has an innovative and charismatic leadership style that is beloved by some but others find him to be a micromanager who does not know to leave well enough alone (Kolodny, 2018). To contrast these two successful leaders with a failed leader was also important so as to have contrast as to what works and what does not, and so the famed failed CEO of Enron, Jeff Skilling came to mind. To research these leaders, Google and Google Scholar were used as primary search engines and keyword searches were conducted using the leader’s name combined with terms such as “influence process,” “leadership style,” “strengths and weaknesses” and so on.
Analysis of the Influence Processes Used by the Three Leaders
Alex Gorsky
Gorsky notes that his personal leadership style has adapted over the years to the various situations and settings in which he has been. This shows awareness on his part as a leader and the need to have a flexible nature when it comes to influencing others. It is not always a matter of acting a certain way but rather a matter of discerning what is needed and then providing it. However, Gorsky does have a reputation for being direct, firm and decisive. He sees the objective and goes about accomplishing it like a military man on a mission. Gorsky makes everything about the mission and does not relent until the mission is ended. His influence process thus follows this approach: 1) define the mission for workers, 2) show the pathway to accomplishment, 3) provide them with the tools and means for success, and 4) unleash them to do their work and provide support as needed. It is a basic approach to influencing others that has served him well in his tenure as CEO at Johnson & Johnson. The adaptability of his approach to influencing others comes primarily in terms of how he is with individuals. He uses his social and emotional intelligence to discern what is needed in any given situation. At the same time, he is there to move everyone to get on board with his vision and to apply themselves to the mission. He is not a servant leader but rather an authoritarian leader who has learned to catch his commands in the language and nuance needed for a sensitive world and workplace environment (Healthcare Technology Report, 2019).
Elon Musk
Elon Musk’s approach to leadership is to inspire with a vision that is communicated to stakeholders and then to invite them to be part of that mission to bring that vision to life. He is regularly touted as a visionary and as an innovative genius. However, his critics call him a micromanager and a faux-expert on subjects that he really does not understand at a deep level. Musk is a charismatic personality, whose charisma has greatly influenced his leadership style. He enjoys ruffling feathers and being spontaneous, and it is partly his spontaneity that got him in trouble with the SEC when he told stakeholders that he was taking the company public. Musk is currently facing several lawsuits for misleading shareholders and for stock market manipulation as well as for misleading consumers of his Tesla brand cars. However, his appeal remains strong and he is unparalleled in terms of his ability to build a brand via social media. When it comes to Twitter, his only rival of similar stature is President Trump. Musk has been able to promote his brand by linking it to the corporate social responsibility mission of green energy and saving the environment—causes that appeal to many people.
Jeff Skilling
Jeff Skilling took over as CEO of Enron because he was viewed as the innovative genius who transformed the company from an energy firm to a finance firm. The problem with his visionary and innovative leadership style was that it lacked an ethical framework. His influence approach was to get workers to think outside the box no matter how far outside the box they went. Accounting tricks were not off limits and eventually it led to the CFO cooking the books. Skilling used reward power to influence his workers and so all they saw was the reward and they did not ask whether what they were doing was right on not. Underlying all of this was a form of Ethical Egoism, which essentially dictated that the ends justify the means. Skilling thus created a toxic culture of leadership through his reward power influence.
Strengths and Weaknesses of the Influence Processes Relative to Current and Future Challenges Facing Leaders in Global Organizations
The strengths of Gorsky’s influence processes are that they are rooted in communication. Gorsky gets in touch with those who are in on the mission and he informs them of the vision, the plan, and what needs to be done. That is a strength of influence in current and future challenges facing leaders in global organizations because communication is the biggest factor in strengthening relationships. Relationships are essential in global organizations as they are based on people coming together from diverse backgrounds. Without communication, solutions to culture clashes cannot be overcome.
The strength of Musk’s influence processes are that they too include communication but also a sense of fun, innovation and vision. People want to do good in their work at a fundamental level and they want to contribute to the world in a meaningful way. Musk uses this type of satisfying influence to bring people to the table, to get innovative ideas going forward, and to solve problems.
The strengths of Skilling’s influence was that it showed how motivational a reward can be. To get people to work in a globalized environment, sometimes a reward can make all the difference. Rewards transcend boundaries because there is something universal about them that appeals to human nature.
The weaknesses of these processes are that global organizations have to be very mindful of the importance of cultural sensitivity, and none of these influence processes are grounded in cultural competence. Cultural competence is important for building relationships between managers and workers. It allows one to improve one’s leadership by helping one to understand one’s workers and to empathize with them and their cultural attitudes, beliefs, values and needs. The more empathetic a leader, the more likely the workplace will be able to leverage diversity and create an environment of inclusivity wherein all opinions matter and ideas can become solutions to big problems that seemed unsolvable before.
Another weakness of the three is that they all to some degree engage in Ethical Egoism. This happened with Gorsky at Johnson & Johnson, Musk at Tesla, and Skilling at Enron. Gorsky for example allowed a drug to go to market that he knew had adverse side effects for customers. He weighed the pros and cons in profit/loss terms and saw that the company would likely be fined but that the profits would vastly outweigh the fine, so he authorized the sale of the faulty product. Musk has acted similarly by promoting his cars as self-driving even though they are not fully autonomous and some deadly crashes have occurred because people think their cars will drive themselves. Musk promoted the brand and the car in this way but it was not exactly honest and while it helped put Tesla on the map it did lead to loss of life. Skillilng engaged in this type of behavior too by pushing his managers to do whatever it took to make the company look good—and that led to fake numbers in the accounting.
In short, the big weakness among their influence practices was a lack of ethics. Ethics refers to the principles that help to clarify what is right and wrong in terms of how people or organizations behave (Holmes, 2007). A good ethical system or framework is important for an organization to do well because if a bad ethical framework is used, the decision makers will find that they can justify their actions by giving bad reasons for why they are doing bad things, which is what happened at Enron. An Ethical Egoism framework, for instance, would allow strategic decision makers to justify behaving badly if they thought it would benefit themselves in some way. Leaders must make an effort to implement an ethical framework such as the deontological system of ethics or virtue ethics. This is the type of outlook that will keep the organization on the right track to a truly integrative and positive mission. Gorsky’s Ethical Egoism is a big issue that has to be addressed and leaders should focus on strengthening personalities that have a more ethical approach to leadership. Otherwise the implications for allowing Egoistic personalities to lead the company are that the needs of stakeholders who are not shareholders are dismissed because the leader gets the most immediate feedback from shareholders and feeds on their approval as a means of stroking his own ego. This is putting the self first instead of the organization and its stakeholders first. Leaders have to put others first because that is why they are there.
Summary of Key Attributes of the Influence Processes Employed by the Leaders to Effect Positive Organizational Change or Improved Performance
The key attributes of the influence processes employed by the leaders Gorsky, Musk and Skilling to effect positive organizational change or improved performance were 1) an ability to communicate, 2) an ability to motivate, and 3) an ability to reward. Each of these three attributes are crucial to creating an effective organizational change as they all get to the heart of what makes Kotter’s (2012) 8 step model for change management so effective. The model is about identifying the issue that needs to change, communicating in rational and logical ways why the change is needed so that people understand it; showing empathy and sympathy for their needs and accepting feedback from them so that they feel they are part of the change process, and creating a team of workers who can facilitate the change by being part of the solution. They focus on celebrating minor victories and creating an environment in which good things happen because everyone feels invested in the organization and in the desire to find the solution to the problem and implement the change.
Conclusion
Influence practices are essential for creating an environment in which workers want to be there, in which people are motivated to succeed, in which leaders can empower others to want to be self-actualizing, and in which a vision can be communicated that everyone can buy into. There are many different types of influence practices. Three that have been highlighted here are the practice of communicating, motivating and rewarding. Each of these influence practices can help leaders to connect with their workers and inspire them to want to achieve the goals that have been set out for them. However, there are downside risks to influence that have to be mitigated and one way to do that is to implement a system of ethics that will prevent egos from running amok and causing problems for stakeholders and consumers. The more that leaders reflect on the importance of acting ethically the more likely they will be to succeed. Also, in a global organization there is a need for cultural competence so that all voices can be heard and a truly inclusive environment can be created in the workplace. Workplace equitability is a situation that is pleasing to all and that helps workers from feeling that they are being pushed aside for others. Demonstrating fairness is a good step towards exercising positive influence.
References
Bromley, H. R. (2007). Are you a transformational leader?. Physician Executive, 33(6), 54.
Brown, M. E., & Treviño, L. K. (2014). Do role models matter? An investigation of role modeling as an antecedent of perceived ethical leadership. Journal of Business Ethics, 122(4), 587-598.
Chamers, M.M. (2014). An Integrative Theory of Leadership (4thed.). New York, NY: Psychology Press.
De Vries, M.F.K. (1998). Charisma in action: The transformational abilities of Virgin's Richard Branson and ABB's Percy Barnevik. Organizational Dynamics, 26(3), 7-21.
Healthcare Technology Report. (2019). Alex Gorsky is the all-American CEO. Retrieved from https://thehealthcaretechnologyreport.com/alex-gorsky-is-the-all-american-ceo/
Holmes, A. (2007). Ethics: Approaching moral decisions. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
Kameda, T., Ohtsubo, Y., & Takezawa, M. (1997). Centrality in sociocognitive networks and social influence: An illustration in a group decision-making context. Journal of personality and social psychology, 73(2), 296.
Kolodny, L. (2018). Elon Musk’s extreme micromanagement has wasted time and money at Tesla, insiders say. Retrieved from https://www.cnbc.com/2018/10/19/tesla-ceo-elon-musk-extreme-micro-manager.html
Lunenburg, F. C. (2012). Power and leadership: An influence process. International Journal of Management, Business, and Administration, 15(1), 1-9.
Malhotra, C. K., & Malhotra, A. (2016). How CEOs can leverage twitter. MIT Sloan Management Review, 57(2), 73.
Maslow, A. H. (1943). A theory of human motivation. Psychological Review, 50(4), 370.
Prussia, G. E., Anderson, J. S., & Manz, C. C. (1998). Self?leadership and performance outcomes: the mediating influence of self?efficacy. Journal of Organizational Behavior: The International Journal of Industrial, Occupational and Organizational Psychology and Behavior, 19(5), 523-538.
Singh-Sengupta, S. (1997). Leadership: A Style or an Influence Process. Indian Journal of Industrial Relations, 265-286.