Elon Musk's leadership style: Two emails illustrate what makes the Tesla boss tick

With a feel-good atmosphere and crisp messages to success: E-mails published by Elon Musk to his workforce show what matters to the Tesla CEO.

Austin / Munich - Elon Musk has made tremendous fortune with Tesla *.

Instead of resting on his laurels, the bustling entrepreneur is pushing ahead with other projects such as SpaceX * - and is apparently thinking about how he can further optimize the work processes of his empire.

Two emails from Musk to his employees are circulating in the American media, suggesting that the South African-born American acts on the “carrot and stick” principle.

First of all, an email sent on October 3rd deals with the topic of music in the workplace.

The electronic mail addressed to the workforce was published on the

portal

Tesla: Elon Musk sends emails - It's about music in the workplace

When asked by an employee, the man with three nationalities said that he would be very supportive of listening to music while on the job at Tesla - as well as “other little things that make work more pleasant”.

However, it is a compromise solution: the proposal is only “acceptable” if the second ear remains free to perceive important information.

Sprinkling over loudspeakers is also not a problem for Elon Musk, as long as you don't blame a colleague.

The Tesla CEO concludes, "If there's anything else that you think will make your day better, please let me know." So it seems like the 50-year-old cares about the wellbeing of his employees - and the best possible working atmosphere.

Tesla boss Musk formulates what he expects from his managers

In another email from October 4, Musk * explicitly addresses the executives of his booming company - and strikes a harder tone for this.

The Tesla boss explains how managers should react when the top manager sends an email with specific instructions.

Musk then takes three actions that he only tolerates:

• Reply to my email to explain why what I said was wrong.

  Sometimes I'm just wrong!

• Ask for further clarification if what I said was ambiguous.

• Follow the instructions.

If the recipients at Tesla do not use any of the three procedures outlined above, this is tantamount to being asked to quit the job at the electric car giant immediately.

Meanwhile, Tesla wants to revolutionize the production of car bodies in Grünheide.

The competition trembles *.