If the world situation weren’t so desolate, one could have really laughed again about the pig that Elon Musk is driving through the Internet. In a typical communicative interplay between attention and rabid attack, the “Trump of Silicon Valley” has now secured the takeover of the short message service Twitter – for the price of 54.20 dollars per share.
There’s an inside joke in there: 4:20, that’s the code for “weed o’clock” in the USA, the afternoon when people like Elon Musk like to smoke a joint. He will soon be able to talk about this without restrictions on Twitter once he has privatized the company again.
What is observed in the USA as a chamber play of controversial but original leadership behavior would be unimaginable here. There are no guys like Musk here. At least not in this form. Musk represents one end of the spectrum for a return of the authoritarian leader who doesn’t hesitate. He’s camouflaged in this role as a libertarian tech billionaire who even spends billions just to be able to say shit on the internet.
At the other end of this spectrum is the conventional authoritarian manager, who ultimately always knows best on his own, but acts in a much more appropriate manner. In the crisis, both models are booming. This is bad news for team play, diversity and modern, forward-looking corporate development.
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The crisis is shaking the geopolitical world again, and of course the economy is immensely affected by it: supply bottlenecks, rising energy prices, and the fear that globalization could have been brought to a standstill for the foreseeable future. If gas from Russia is stopped, the Deutsche Bundesbank predicts a minus of 165 billion euros for this year and a recession. All of this poses enormous challenges for companies. Especially the people at the top.
In such a crisis, some room for maneuver shrinks like a puddle in the desert. The rest of the refreshing water is often no more than a mirage. In a crisis like this, everything goes back to business as usual, no risk, no fuss – unless your name is Elon Musk and you can afford it.
It is the return of the strongman that we are witnessing in world politics. Putin in Russia, Trump in the US. Erdogan in Turkey, Xi Jinping in China, Modi in India and Bolsonaro in Brazil all have something in common: the belief that they alone can show the right way.
And that always leads back to their own interests. Kraftmeier at the top of states are ultra-conservative, wallow in a nostalgic nationalism, cultivate a personality cult of infallibility and fight all tendencies towards diversity, transparency and democratization. There is always one good reason for their unscrupulousness: the country is deep in crisis and when it comes to saving it, liberal ideals or the legal system cannot be taken into account.
Pandemic causes less diversity in boardrooms of German companies
In a crisis-ridden economy, some of these “leadership principles” rub off on the top decision-makers there. This is psychologically understandable and yet problematic. War in Ukraine, energy crisis, destabilized world trade are not fires that can be extinguished. However quickly this war ends, it will have long-term consequences. Managers who rely solely on technical emergency management solutions have no plan to make their company resilient in the long term.
They behave like unrepentant patients after a heart attack: You take the medication, but you continue to smoke and there is no time for sport. The new world and economic situation is an adaptive problem that cannot be solved with technical solutions alone. The normal state of today is always from yesterday.
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Companies with a diverse leadership team are better at developing and executing adaptive strategies. It is all the more difficult that the boardrooms of German companies have become more uniform again during the pandemic. Thomas and Andreas tend to agree more quickly on practical technical solutions. So Susanne and Jennifer will be disposed of at short notice. It’s the same with authoritarian leaders. Male-dominated hierarchies and top-down protection of one’s own position are the norm.
We know from political research that women on the front line successfully manage social upheavals. Because they are capable of negotiation and compromise. Significant participation by women and diverse actors also increases the social, moral and financial capital that a movement can use to undermine the opponent’s support system. When it comes to the big picture, women have to go to the front – in politics and business. When it comes to the moment and individual power, they tend to be disruptive.
Elon Musk: Do it or die
The crisis we are now experiencing threatens to undo a lot of the achievements of adaptive and transformative leadership: back to solitary and technical decisions, less diversity, less team play and investments in lasting change. That’s such a pity. Because the next wave is coming. It is being ridden by those who have not lost sight of the big picture in dealing with the crisis.
Especially in times of crisis, it is important to question your own leadership skills and style and to adapt them again and again. This is the only way an organization can be controlled in the long term through the challenges of ever new crises, ever more demanding demands on the working world and through the integration of new technologies such as artificial intelligence.
Elon Musk can do that? Well… “I don’t play back-and-forth games,” Musk said of his takeover bid on Twitter. “I jumped straight to the finish.” Translated, this means: do it or die! The leitmotif of authoritarian leadership.
In this column, Miriam Meckel writes fortnightly about ideas, innovations and interpretations that make progress and a better life possible. Because what the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the rest of the world calls a butterfly. ada-magazin.com
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