Okay, I’m going to be honest right up front — I admire the company Tesla and love its cars. I’m thrilled by the sleek, sexy design and quiet operation of the Tesla Model S each time I see one on the road. From the day their first car was announced to today, I believe they have done a lot of things right from both a product and corporate perspective. As of September 2014 the stock is up over 60% year to date, so the market appears to believe so too. I don’t own a Tesla yet, but I will. What’s just as interesting to me, however, is their brand — what it stands for and who carries the torch.

Every time I think about Tesla the company, the brand attributes that come to mind are bold, cutting edge, not backing down, revolutionary in both design and creating change in the world — and this is all because of CEO Elon Musk. In a TED February 2013 interview, he says what drives him is, “what are the things that need to happen to make the future an exciting and inspiring one?” And this vision rubs off on the Tesla brand. Whether by design or by chance, Elon Musk has become Tesla’s brand warrior, and like a knight defending the fair lady, he is true to his mission and never backs down. He defends, protects, and represents the brand at every turn, and does so in a way that is consistent with Tesla’s values and mission. 

According to Tesla, their goal is to accelerate the world's transition to electric mobility with a full range of increasingly affordable electric cars. It’s a big statement that requires progress on many fronts in order to come to fruition. There are technical, political, eco-system, scale, cost and adoption issues to name just a few. In a gutsy but shrewd business move that is consistent with the brand, a step toward adoption and eco-system took place in June of this year, when Tesla announced that they would not initiate patent lawsuits against anyone who, in good faith, wants to use their technology. In Musk’s blog post of June 12, 2014 he writes, “Tesla Motors was created to accelerate the advent of sustainable transport. If we clear a path to the creation of compelling electric vehicles, but then lay intellectual property landmines behind us to inhibit others, we are acting in a manner contrary to that goal.” Peter Thiel, Musk’s PayPal co-founder, has a mantra: that tech should be more ambitious and solve big problems. I would say that Elon Musk feels the same and makes this the touchstone of the Tesla brand.

In 2013 there was a good deal of negative press from automobile publications to the tech press, about the Model S sedan bursting into flames after running over debris. Without missing a beat, Musk jumped to defend the company and car, and to rectify the situation. In an October 2013 TechCrunch article, Musk quotes statistics that he says point to the fact that you are 5 times more likely to experience a fire in a gas-powered car than a Tesla. His supporting math consists of the following data —  over 150,000 car fires per year for gasoline powered vehicles, which means one vehicle fire for every 20 million miles, as opposed to one fire in over 100 million miles driven for Teslas. This equates to the “5x” figure. He refused to grovel or back down, and instead relied upon facts and stood his ground. Tesla also adjusted the air suspension so that the cars do not automatically lower themselves as much at highway speeds. Now all Teslas are outfitted with a triple underbody shield and Musk committed that Tesla would, upon request or as part of normally scheduled auto service, retrofit the shields, free of charge.

Musk is also battling hard on a few other fronts:

Distribution — There is resistance in some states to Tesla selling its cars directly to consumers through its company-owned stores rather than through independently-owned dealerships. Tesla has faced dealer issues in Georgia, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Missouri where the respective Automobile Dealers Associations have appealed to state authorities to prohibit Tesla’s initiatives to offer direct sales of new cars outside dealer networks. Musk is defending Tesla’s position with vigor to overcome this direct sales obstacle.

The Model S battery's cold-weather performance — New York Times' John Broder criticized the vehicle battery's cold-weather performance, which he said resulted in the car being towed after it ran out of juice. Once again, Musk was the public face and Tesla produced vehicle logs disputing Broder's account, which the New York Times eventually acknowledged. Broder's trip also was recreated several times without any issues.

Romney and Palin — They called Tesla a “loser” for taking a $465 million dollar loan from the Department of Energy in 2010. Musk didn’t forget the slight and Tesla paid off its DOE loan with interest last year.

Scale — In order for Tesla to fulfill the vision of “carrying the species beyond hydrocarbon reliance” they need to be able to build batteries for a large volume of cars. In a brilliant move Musk induced 5 states (CA, NV, TX, AZ, NM) to vie for the hosting of a $5 billion “Gigafactory” that will make lithium ion batteries for Tesla's all-electric automobiles. We now know that McCarran, NV is the winner. The pay-to-play opportunity expects the chosen state to absorb about 10% of the cost of building the factory, along with providing tax breaks and incentives, in return for a multi-billion dollar investment and the creation of around 6,500 manufacturing jobs. 

Musk kept the pressure on the bidding states throughout the process. In order to keep the construction timeline on target while continuing to entertain bids from CA, TX, NM and AZ, Musk quietly directed Tesla to break ground in June in three separate sites in NV. It would appear that Musk had already concluded that NV was going to be the final choice given the financial incentive package NV was offering compared to the other states.

In addition to providing scalability for Tesla’s auto manufacturing needs, the Gigafactory supports three other Musk strategies: (1) It removes dependency on overseas suppliers for a critical (indeed, probably the most critical) component for Tesla vehicles; (2) it enables Tesla to supply state-of-the-art batteries to other electric vehicle makers, breaking down a major barrier to his vision of broadening and diversifying the EV market; (3) it creates a supplementary revenue stream for Tesla, potentially subsidizing vehicle prices to increase demand for their electric vehicles. (There may also be a role for Gigafactory products and technology in offline power storage related to services provided by SolarCity, another Musk enterprise.) This kind of integration provides the Tesla brand more visibility and a broader reach.

Musk’s actions are bold, his profile grows larger every day, and his persona is intertwined with and defines the Tesla brand. In a 2012 Esquire article, Elon Musk is described as “A rich man trying to inspire a change in national consciousness. It is not enough for him to inspire Americans; he needs somehow to stand for them — to stand for more than himself — if he wants to restore this country's explorer's heart, its willingness to endure risk.” 

Elon is a man betting on and creating the future, and Tesla is coming with him. 

Most CEOs want to do what’s right for the company and themselves, but have a hard time fitting in the needs of the team most affected by their actions and decisions — their executive staff. We all have our CEO stories — the very good and the very ugly — and over the past 15 years I’ve had the opportunity to have a seat at the table working with many technology start-up CEOs to see how they either successfully, or not so successfully, manage their executive teams.

My experience indicates that tech CEOs spend most of their time on product and technology trends, and very little on the people side of the equation. In Silicon Valley, it’s all about the product. By making the mistake of not focusing on people management, they’re not empowering their team and therefore not getting the multiplier effect that would ripple throughout the organization when everyone from the top down is firing on all cylinders. Worse yet, demotivating their staff.

As a CEO, the executive team is your front line, the team managing the day-to-day operations as well as supporting you. As CEO, you should be thinking, “How can I be more effective in giving my management team what it needs so that I can get the most out of the organization?”

Jack Welch, former CEO of GE wrote, “ My main job was developing talent. I was a gardener providing water and other nourishment to our top 750 people.” Many CEOs in the start-up world will tell you that managing people in a start-up is different than a big company. I agree that there are differences in things like organizational structure, skill development and process. However, I have worked in both large companies and start-ups and the same core principles of people management apply. Good management is just good management.

It’s easy to look at other people and see their faults. It’s harder to look within and see your own. If you’re interested in how your actions affect your executive team and impact the multiplier effect within the organization, read on!

The following are my “Top Ten Rules” for executive team management for CEOs to keep in mind:

1. Communicate what you’re thinking and communicate clearly. In a recent Cult of Mac interview with Ron Johnson, former head of Apple Retail, he said, “The most misunderstood thing about Steve (Jobs) was that he was the best delegator I’ve ever met. Because he was so clear about what he believed in and what he liked, because he had such clarity of purpose, when you worked with Steve you could actually operate with a lot of freedom.” Understanding how the CEO thinks and what’s important to them facilitates the executive’s decision-making and ability to take action. It frees the executive to operate independently, act quickly and stay in line with the CEOs goals. You can’t be everywhere at once and you need to be certain that the ship is always going in the right direction whether you’re barking the orders to go left or not. Take the time to figure out your plans, goals, directives, and then communicate them. You will see a world of difference.    

I’ve also seen chief executives be so vague that the team’s ability to operate is all but shut down. A former colleague related a story about a CEO who, in preparation for a board deck, would send out the slides, accompanied by a one- or two-word email asking for content for the deck. The group was all but paralyzed until they finally figured it out. It caused a lot of frustration and a lot of looking for jobs elsewhere!  You may think everyone will know what you’re saying but take it from a long-time marketing executive — read that email twice before hitting send.

2. Respect your team. If you don’t respect someone, don’t hire him or her. I once worked for a CEO who respected his team and made mutual respect a key component of team culture, and the way that the executive team worked together was nothing short of glorious. After he left the company, the group’s cohesiveness fell apart rather quickly without the former CEOs insistence on mutual respect, and the exec team fell into the normal behaviors of politics and in-fighting. It was a good lesson that I have never forgotten.

3. Don’t bully. It’s embarrassing to you and your team. There was one instance of a COO who called his staff into a meeting to publicly humiliate one of their peers. The look of horror on everyone’s face and the embarrassment felt was palpable. Frustration gets the better of us all at times, but as the leader you need to demand better of yourself. If you have a beef, talk with the person one-on-one. If you don’t want to listen to me perhaps Napoleon Hill, author of "Think and Grow Rich", probably the best-selling business book of all time, can convince you. He wrote, "No person ever became a great leader of others until he first learned to lead himself, through self-control".

4. Make reasonable demands. Don’t send your people down a rabbit hole for the sake of the hunt. While you absolutely should set the bar high—after all, you lead a group of people who are overachievers and love a challenge—make sure their expenditure of energy is linked to an expectation of success. If you want people to jump high when you need it, be considerate of their time and they will indeed achieve new heights when it matters. A CEO I know who loved data would send his team to do obscure statistical analysis that had no relevance to the business, other than to satisfy his intellectual curiosity. People started running the other way when the requests were made in the hopes that they could avoid three days of unnecessary work.

Keep people focused on what’s important to the business and when it’s time to run the extra mile your team will be right with you.

5. Treat team members equally. It’s important to build relationships across your management team to really understand what’s going on in your company. There will always be people that you are closer to, but excluding one or some of the team does not help morale or the results of the business. When people are excluded they start retreating from you and the team, and you need everyone to work together to get the best results. In the same interview with Ron Johnson cited above, when asked about his relationship with Jobs, he said that one of the first things Jobs told him was, “I don’t want you to be an employee, I want you to be a friend.” There is a tendency to focus on a small group, but as the leader you need to treat everyone the same. At a minimum, you need to build a business relationship, get to know how the person thinks, and understand their business function. One CEO I know of extends this concept to the entire company. Each week he takes a different group of people throughout all levels of the company to lunch. He gets to know who people are, what they’re doing and any issues they’re facing. What a great way to build relationships and really know what’s going on from the ground level up. This CEO creates a feeling of being on the same team and a sense of equality by spending time with everyone and not favoring just a few.

6. Practice what you preach. CEOs often champion company values. But when a CEO doesn’t exemplify those values, it’s disruptive to a company culture and creates executive team cynicism because of the simple fact that it leads to a breakdown of trust. And trust is fundamental to leadership.

Company values are instrumental in creating a strong culture but only when everyone follows them. I have seen numerous situations where a CEO operates contrary to the values he sets forth for the rest of the company, and at the first opportunity the management team runs for the door. This is damaging, particularly when hard-won talent departs. Remember, people pay attention to your actions more than you think. From Stephen Covey, who wrote the popular The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People: “What you do has far greater impact than what you say.”

7. Always be transparent — not just when it suits your purpose. Once people discover agendas that are hidden or differ from the stated direction, it leads to distrust and a breakdown of your effectiveness. I worked for one CEO where, whether the news was good or bad, it was out in the open. The relationship with his team was an inclusive one that produced a powerful esprit de corps.

8. Put your personal issues and ego aside during work hours. CEOs can easily fall into the trap of using their position to advance their own standing among their peers and within their community.  In limited cases this can contribute a halo effect that can benefit the company; otherwise, do it on your own time and money.

9. You don’t always have to be the smartest person in the room. Everyone knows you’re smart — after all, you’re the CEO. When the CEO dominates the conversation, it stops other people from expressing their views. Let other people shine, listen to their opinions — you might even be amazed. I worked for a CEO who absolutely had to demonstrate his superiority at every turn. People hated to be in meetings with him and would do their best to eliminate him from all but the meetings where his attendance was required. Some great stuff came out of those clandestine meetings and a strong level of camaraderie developed among the team as they worked together to get things done. Too bad he missed all that. He had a great team and never really knew it.  In "Think and Grow Rich," Hill writes that it's not a coincidence that history is filled with tyrants and dictators being overthrown. The most successful leaders work in harmony with their team, not in dominion over them.

10. Be kind. Top-level managers are still people. Everyone needs a little praise or act of kindness once in a while. The C- or VP-level is not expecting accolades at every turn, nor should they. However, when a job is well done, recognition goes a long way.

No one is perfect. Your job is to lead and build an effective, vibrant organization that exceeds your goals. Getting better at working with your executive team can go a long way toward creating a company and culture where people are excited by what they do, operations run smoothly, and your team is happy to come to work.

A closing thought from one of the best basketball players and team leaders in sports history: “Earn your leadership every day.” –Michael Jordan