Elon Musk has often been called a micromanager and he is not a fan of that any longer. Pushing back against the term, he said that the best employees actually need little management. In an interview with Nicolai Tangen, the Chief Executive of Norway’s wealth fund, Tesla CEO said, “I wouldn’t call it micro management, it’s just insisting on attention to detail. If you’re trying to make a perfect product, then attention to detail is essential.”
In a biography on Elon Musk written by Walter Isaacson, the billionaire is depicted as someone who obsesses over the most minute of decisions from which springs to use in the Cybertruck and even where to put Twitter’s servers. But Elon Musk said that he has not read the book even though he had given permission to the author to be around him and his work in six companies over two years.
Yes, Elon Musk is not known. Former Apple CEO Steve Jobs and former Microsoft CEO Bill Gates have often been talked about as managers who were worried about every little detail.
Elon Musk said, “Smart people, they manage themselves” as they can go and work anywhere because of which the way to keep them them happy is to set out goals and let them figure out how to achieve them. He added, “So I say, ‘look this is the goal we’re after and this is what we’re trying to achieve. If you agree with that goal, then let’s try to get it done’.” But he also weighs in sometimes, he said, explaining, “Once in a while, you have to say ‘guys, you have to trust me on this one.”