BossLady: Amanda Rose says Elon Musk’s leadership style is ‘like a 5yo having a tantrum’

The Twitter boss’s public tit-for-tat spat with an employee is a lesson for all leaders to think before they speak — or tweet.

Every leader needs to think before they speak. Or tweet.

Twitter boss Elon Musk learned this the hard way last week after his very public spat on the social media platform with an employee.

Haraldur Thorleifsson, who has a form of muscular dystrophy called Dysferlinopathy and uses a wheelchair, tweeted at the Twitter CEO to say access to his work computer had been cut off.

“Your head of HR is not able to confirm if I am an employee or not. You’ve not answered my emails,” Thorleifsson wrote. “Maybe if enough people retweet you’ll answer me here?”

In a series of return tweets, Musk scoffed that Thorleifsson “did no actual work” and used his disability as an excuse.

Elon Musk eventually apologised to the employee.

Musk eventually apologised as the world watched on stating he had misunderstood the situation.

“It was based on things I was told that were untrue or, in some cases, true, but not meaningful,” Musk said.

Musk’s kneejerk reaction was like a five year old having a tantrum. It showed a lack of emotional intelligence and self-control which are two qualities every good leader needs.

Without them, leaders will fluctuate with popularity which can polarise them.

Whatever the reason for an employee’s gripe, it is how you respond to it that speaks volumes about your leadership and sets the tone for how you can defuse things.

Part of Elon Musk’s exchange with Haraldur Thorleifsson.

Responding in a tit for tat public spat is just fuelling the fire.

In this day and age of social media, emotional responses are a real danger because there’s no buffer between our heads and our hands.

Leaders need to be the grown up in the room in situations like this. Musk clearly needs a HR lesson or two because he’s a high-profile leader that is teaching the next generation how to behave — and he’s setting a very bad example.

The minute both sides get emotional and air grievances in public, you are both playing in mud.

Musk should have taken the higher ground, done his homework on the situation before opening his mouth and dealt with the matter privately.

Hopefully the next generation will recognise this and refuse to follow this leader’s style.

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* Amanda Rose is the founder of Small Business Women Australia, a key mentor and career advisor. Visitamandarose.com.au