All in, Elon Musk took bold and dras­tic mea­sures to reshape Twit­ter dur­ing a peri­od of sig­nif­i­cant upheaval between Novem­ber 10 and 18, 2022. Faced with chal­lenges such as the sus­pen­sion of Twit­ter Blue’s roll­out and a con­sis­tent decline in ad sales, Musk quick­ly real­ized that the company’s tra­di­tion­al struc­ture need­ed a fun­da­men­tal trans­for­ma­tion. His solu­tion was a strat­e­gy that called for a reduc­tion in the work­force, with a clear empha­sis on build­ing a lean, high­ly skilled team rather than main­tain­ing a larg­er, less moti­vat­ed group of employ­ees. This was part of Musk’s broad­er vision for Twit­ter, where excel­lence, effi­cien­cy, and inno­va­tion would be pri­or­i­tized above all else, aim­ing to posi­tion the com­pa­ny as a leader in a high­ly com­pet­i­tive dig­i­tal land­scape.

Musk’s approach to lead­er­ship dur­ing this crit­i­cal time was intense­ly hands-on. To set the tone for the trans­for­ma­tion he envi­sioned, Musk made a con­scious deci­sion to immerse him­self ful­ly in the day-to-day oper­a­tions, often stay­ing late into the night at Twit­ter’s head­quar­ters. This was a tac­tic Musk had already employed suc­cess­ful­ly at his oth­er ven­tures, such as Tes­la and SpaceX, where his pres­ence was key in dri­ving sig­nif­i­cant changes. By being phys­i­cal­ly present, Musk hoped to demon­strate his com­mit­ment to Twit­ter’s turn­around and to instill a “hard­core” work eth­ic among the remain­ing employ­ees. This wasn’t just about work­ing late—Musk want­ed to cre­ate a cul­ture where every­one was ful­ly ded­i­cat­ed to the company’s suc­cess, where each indi­vid­ual would be expect­ed to oper­ate at their high­est capac­i­ty, push­ing the bound­aries of what Twit­ter could achieve.

Musk’s lead­er­ship style extend­ed beyond mere pres­ence; it was deeply embed­ded in the eval­u­a­tion process he set up to scru­ti­nize the remain­ing work­force. He, along with trust­ed team mem­bers such as his cousins James and Andrew, and key fig­ures like Ross Nordeen and Steve Davis, worked togeth­er to iden­ti­fy those with­in Twit­ter’s engi­neer­ing team who demon­strat­ed the skills, loy­al­ty, and dri­ve need­ed to suc­ceed in Musk’s vision for the com­pa­ny. The eval­u­a­tion process was rig­or­ous, involv­ing a review of inter­nal com­mu­ni­ca­tions, such as pub­lic Slack mes­sages and social media posts, to assess whether employ­ees tru­ly aligned with Musk’s prin­ci­ples. The focus wasn’t just on tech­ni­cal abil­i­ties; it was also about find­ing indi­vid­u­als who were will­ing to go above and beyond to meet the high stan­dards Musk demand­ed. This eval­u­a­tion ulti­mate­ly iden­ti­fied those employ­ees who would thrive in a more demand­ing and per­for­mance-dri­ven envi­ron­ment, while weed­ing out those who were per­ceived as not ful­ly com­mit­ted to the mis­sion.

The dras­tic reduc­tions in Twitter’s work­force were a direct result of Musk’s eval­u­a­tion process. The remain­ing employ­ees faced a stark deci­sion: embrace the “hard­core” cul­ture Musk envi­sioned or leave the com­pa­ny with a sev­er­ance pack­age. This deci­sion was emblem­at­ic of Musk’s lead­er­ship style, where the stakes were high, and those unwill­ing to ful­ly ded­i­cate them­selves to the cause were no longer part of the team. By pro­vid­ing this choice, Musk ensured that only the most com­mit­ted indi­vid­u­als remained, rein­forc­ing his vision for a more agile, high-per­for­mance Twit­ter. The cul­mi­na­tion of this peri­od was an opt-in form, where employ­ees were asked to for­mal­ly declare their will­ing­ness to embrace Musk’s demand­ing work cul­ture. This opt-in process was not just a sym­bol­ic ges­ture; it was a crit­i­cal step in align­ing the remain­ing staff with Musk’s ulti­mate goal: build­ing a lean­er, more ded­i­cat­ed team capa­ble of dri­ving Twit­ter to new heights in the com­pet­i­tive dig­i­tal space.

Musk’s all-in approach to Twitter’s trans­for­ma­tion reflect­ed his belief that a small­er, but more capa­ble and moti­vat­ed work­force would lead to bet­ter out­comes. His lead­er­ship demand­ed a high lev­el of per­son­al com­mit­ment and pro­fes­sion­al excel­lence, which Musk believed was essen­tial for the com­pa­ny to thrive. In a rapid­ly chang­ing tech land­scape, where com­pe­ti­tion and inno­va­tion were key, Musk felt that a large, com­pla­cent work­force would be a hin­drance rather than an asset. Instead, he pushed for a cul­ture that was not only focused on results but was dri­ven by a sense of pur­pose and a desire to push the lim­its of what was pos­si­ble. His actions spoke to a larg­er phi­los­o­phy that had dri­ven his suc­cess in oth­er industries—creating envi­ron­ments that fos­tered inno­va­tion, ded­i­ca­tion, and an unre­lent­ing pur­suit of excel­lence.

By focus­ing on a lean, high­ly skilled team, Musk’s vision for Twit­ter wasn’t just about min­i­miz­ing headcount—it was about set­ting a new stan­dard for what a tech com­pa­ny could achieve. The intense pres­sure and expec­ta­tions Musk placed on his staff were not with­out their crit­ics, but for Musk, it was about ensur­ing that those who remained were ful­ly aligned with his long-term goals for Twit­ter. The trans­for­ma­tion he sought wasn’t only about reshap­ing the company’s work­force but about redefin­ing Twitter’s cul­ture to one that val­ued per­for­mance and loy­al­ty above all. In the end, this all-in strat­e­gy was Musk’s way of build­ing a Twit­ter that could com­pete with the best in the busi­ness, one that would be nim­ble, inno­v­a­tive, and dri­ven by a team that was tru­ly com­mit­ted to the company’s suc­cess. As the com­pa­ny faced its most crit­i­cal moments, Musk’s rad­i­cal changes served as a tes­ta­ment to his belief in the pow­er of a high­ly ded­i­cat­ed and moti­vat­ed team, show­ing how far he was will­ing to go to turn Twit­ter into a more pow­er­ful, com­pet­i­tive plat­form.