Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Bob Keiller: Elon Musk is making a common leadership mistake by pretending he isn’t human

Elon Musk's takeover of social media platform Twitter has been tempestuous so far, to say the least (Image: Adrien Fillon/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock)
Elon Musk's takeover of social media platform Twitter has been tempestuous so far, to say the least (Image: Adrien Fillon/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock)

Few leaders acknowledge their weaknesses, yet we are all human. Admitting that could help Elon Musk with his Twitter takeover, writes business advisor Bob Keiller.

I remember walking into a large function room in a hotel in Calgary in 2008, to meet my new team.

The company where I was CEO had just bought a fantastic Canadian company called Tartan Engineering, and the staff, who were in the room, had just been told.

They were shocked. I imagined that they were asking themselves: “Who is this Scottish company?” and: “Why are we an exciting part of their future growth story?”

In reality, they probably had some more basic questions. “Will I keep my job, will I still get paid the same, and will I keep my employment benefits?”

My job was to answer the important questions first – the ones that mattered to the audience. I told them: “No one will lose their job or see any reduction in pay or benefits. We bought the company because of your great work and how the customers feel about you. You are a first-class outfit, and we will learn from you and benefit from you being part of the team.”

I then explained about our core values, and shared a few stories to try to demonstrate that they were real. If I remember rightly, I was carrying a banana as a prop, to explain why the core values were like the DNA of the business.

Contrast that with Elon Musk’s recent acquisition of Twitter. He started by firing a large part of the workforce, then picked off any who made any critical comments, either publicly or privately.

Musk is a visionary, but also a thin-skinned bully

We saw the size of Mr Musk’s ego during the dramatic rescue of 12 boys and their football coach from a flooded cave in Thailand in 2018.

Mr Musk can’t handle criticism, and he is a bully

Musk had suggested that his company, Tesla, could provide a submarine to help the rescue mission. British cave rescue diver, Vernon Unsworth – who was on site and was taking part in the rescue – dismissed the suggestion as having no chance of working, as a “PR stunt”.

Maybe that was a bit ungracious, but it certainly did not warrant being branded “pedo guy” by Musk on social media. Mr Unsworth and a colleague found the boys in the flooded cave and were a key part of their successful rescue.

Elon Musk also owns electric car company, Tesla (Image: AP)

Musk later deleted his posts, apologised to Mr Unsworth and claimed he “did not accuse Mr Unsworth of being a paedophile”.

Which leads me to a couple of conclusions: Mr Musk can’t handle criticism, and he is a bully. I am no psychologist, so I won’t speculate why he might behave as he does.

There is no doubt he is a true visionary and has achieved some amazing successes – if only he could show a bit of humility with it. And that is a problem I increasingly see in politics and business.

Leaders who can admit their flaws are a breath of fresh air

Leaders won’t admit that they made a mistake; they won’t acknowledge their failings or vulnerabilities. Politics has become so divided that anyone who admits to even the slightest misstep is hounded out of office by their opponents.

If Boris Johnson had admitted that he made mistakes and was sorry for what happened during lockdown – as soon as he knew of the problems – then he might not have lost his job. By denying and delaying, he lost our trust.

Admitting wrongdoing and apologising earlier could have helped Boris Johnson (Image: Xinhua/Shutterstock)

In 2013, a conference was held to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Piper Alpha tragedy. I was asked to speak at the subsequent dinner, and it took me many drafts to decide what I wanted to say.

The talking points most people remembered were three examples of serious safety leadership mistakes I had made – one where I was too slow to make a key decision around driving safety, one where I assumed some rope-access operations would be safe without testing, and one where I wrongly thought people in my team would understand and share my priorities.

Few business leaders are willing to acknowledge their weaknesses, yet we are all human, we are all flawed, and we all make mistakes – pretending that we don’t err makes us less relatable and harder to trust.


Bob Keiller is business advisor and chair of Aberdeen and Grampian Chamber of Commerce, among other roles

Conversation