What Can You Learn From Elon Musk About Productivity?

What Can You Learn From Elon Musk About Productivity?

You’ve likely heard the name Elon Musk muttered in conversations about innovation. He’s the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, but perhaps you’ll know him better for his outspoken views on conventional approaches to leadership and business. He’s stirred the pot and in doing so, he’s found a few ways to improve productivity across the board. Here are three lessons you can learn and implement from Musk about your employee’s productivity.

Listen to the Customer

Have you ever had a situation where your team was working toward a goal that went against what the customer wanted from your business? Musk did recently and he handled it quickly and effectively.

A customer tweeted about a bad experience with a pushy salesman at a Tesla dealership, to which Musk quickly replied, “Def not ok. Just sent a reminder to Tesla stores that we just want people to look forward to their next visit. That’s what really matters.”

When you listen to your customers, you’re able to put an end to unproductive behavior. This agile approach can save you time and money by not chasing an objective down a hole that won’t give you any kind of return. By keeping your eyes on your social media accounts and listening closely to what the social sphere is saying about your business, you can keep your company’s ship on course.

Stop, Then Put the Pedal to the Metal

Many managers hear the need to beef up productivity and then immediately start pushing their team to work faster and longer hours. Not Musk.

Recently, Musk saw his Tesla line fall behind schedule in manufacturing. His response was to stop production entirely for three days and evaluate the process. When they worked out the bottlenecks, production started back up again but this time the manufacturer increased the number from 2,000 units per week to 6,000 units with around-the-clock work. Without that temporary pause to evaluate, they would’ve continued down an unhealthy path and failed to produce what the market demanded of them

Get Picky With Scheduling Meetings

Musk recently said, “Excessive meetings are the blight of big companies and almost always get worse over time.” In making it emphatically clear how much he disliked meetings, Musk was able to minimize how many meetings made it on the schedule.

He’s not the first to determine that meetings are a waste. Other studies have shown that it takes 25 minutes to fully re-engage in a task after being interrupted. By getting picky with when and how often you meet, as well as the agenda for your meeting, you’ll be more productive with everyone’s time.

Don’t Be Afraid to Switch Things Up

Musk certainly doesn’t conform to the status quo, and neither should you. Hit pause on your business and look carefully at what you’re doing. Does it please the customer? Is it efficient? As you reevaluate your company’s productivity culture, look to Musk for ideas on how to adapt and improve.

Author Profile Jon Forknell is the Vice President and General Manager of Atlas Business Solutions, Inc., a software marketing company specializing in employee scheduling software, including ScheduleBase employee scheduling software, and other business software solutions. In the past, Jon has been recognized by the U.S. Small Business Administration as a SBA Young Entrepreneur of the Year. Atlas Business Solutions was named as one of Software Magazine’s Top 500 Software Companies in 2004 through 2007, and 2010, 2013, 2014, 2016 and 2017.