{"id":65785,"date":"2022-04-29T17:32:00","date_gmt":"2022-04-29T21:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=65785"},"modified":"2022-05-04T09:01:03","modified_gmt":"2022-05-04T13:01:03","slug":"accountable-employees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/accountable-employees\/","title":{"rendered":"Accountable Employees: Elon Musk&#8217;s #1 Hiring Criteria"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Why does Elon Musk focus on hiring accountable employees? What tactics does he use to force employees to take accountability for their actions? <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Elon musk focuses on hiring accountable employees because it eliminates workflow inefficiencies and gets the job done faster. He uses multiple tactics to ensure accountability such as asking certain questions and following up. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Keep reading to learn how Elon Musk manages his accountable employees. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-managing-accountable-employees\">Managing <strong>Accountable Employees&nbsp;<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Musk expects employees to be accountable for their work by taking complete ownership of their specialty and project as well as the process required to complete it\u2014Vance, the author of <em>Elon Musk<\/em>, contends he wants each employee to be the CEO of her own project. Musk hires accountable employees who work as an independent unit, completing their work fully and to the best of their ability.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When every employee takes accountability for their work, it eliminates inefficiencies like asking for permission, filling out forms, or waiting for requests to be processed or approved. At <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/spacex-and-tesla\/\">SpaceX and Tesla<\/a>, this approach allows employees to act independently and in the best interest of the company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Vance explains how Musk often talks to employees about a project and asks them, \u201cCan you do it?\u201d This forces employees to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/accepting-responsibility\/\">take responsibility<\/a> for their work because they willingly agree to do it, rather than <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-to-complete-a-task-successfully\/\">completing tasks<\/a> they were ordered to do.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If an employee is developing a rearview mirror or coding a new command, Musk expects her to put her full attention and effort into the task. And whenever developments are delayed, Musk is known to ask for regular updates about the status of the hold-up, why the task is taking longer than anticipated, and what\u2019s required for the employee to complete the project. Employees eventually realized that they should come to Musk with potential solutions to problems, rather than coming to him with problems. This is a more <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-to-streamline-a-process\/\">efficient process<\/a>, and it allows Musk to focus on other tasks, rather than walking employees through problems they\u2019re qualified to solve.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table><tbody><tr><td><strong>Lack of Behavioral Accountability<\/strong><br><br>While Musk encourages his employees to be accountable for their actions, this accountability seems only to extend to work-related tasks, not to good workplace behavior. Musk\u2019s companies have allegations of sexist and racist work environments, indicating employees are not held accountable for disrespectful and harmful comments and actions.<br><br>SpaceX employees have reported <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/22831380\/spacex-employees-harassment-workplace-misconduct-elon-musk\">instances of sexual harassment at work<\/a> and note that the company hasn\u2019t done anything about the problem. Some employees felt SpaceX\u2019s lack of action was motivated by management\u2019s desire to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/avoiding-work\/\">avoid work<\/a> disruptions.<br>Additionally, reports reveal instances of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2022\/02\/10\/technology\/tesla-racial-discrimination-california-suit.html\">discrimination, racist graffiti, and Tesla employees\u2014including supervisors\u2014using racial slurs<\/a>. An investigation into Tesla\u2019s work environment also found that black workers are given more physically demanding jobs.<br><br>But research has shown that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencedaily.com\/releases\/2017\/02\/170213131343.htm\">discrimination in the workplace actually makes employees<em> less<\/em> productive<\/a>, indicating all kinds of accountability\u2014both task- and behavior-based\u2014are important.<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Why does Elon Musk focus on hiring accountable employees? What tactics does he use to force employees to take accountability for their actions? Elon musk focuses on hiring accountable employees because it eliminates workflow inefficiencies and gets the job done faster. He uses multiple tactics to ensure accountability such as asking certain questions and following up. Keep reading to learn how Elon Musk manages his accountable employees.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":65796,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[45,14,33],"tags":[612],"class_list":["post-65785","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-management","category-people","tag-elon-musk","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Accountable Employees: Elon Musk&#039;s #1 Hiring Criteria - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Elon Musk hires accountable employees and uses certain tactics to hold them accountable for their actions. Here&#039;s how he does it.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/accountable-employees\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Accountable Employees: Elon Musk&#039;s #1 Hiring Criteria\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Elon Musk hires accountable employees and uses certain tactics to hold them accountable for their actions. 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