CEO Survey Ranks Elon Musk as Most Overrated for Second Year

• Elon Musk was voted most overrated CEO for the second straight year in a Fortune survey of executives.
• His brash style was seen as out of sync with leadership demands.
• The Twitter takeover and overpromising changes likely drove negative perceptions.

Elon Musk has again claimed the title of America’s most overrated CEO according to an annual survey of hundreds of top business executives conducted by Fortune.

Elon Musk secures 399 votes

Musk received 399 votes, ahead of Disney’s Bob Iger with 302.

The repeated designation comes despite Musk’s high-profile leadership of companies like Tesla and SpaceX that have undeniably disrupted entire industries.

But he draws criticism for overpromising – like repeatedly pushing back SpaceX Mars mission timelines since first touting a 2024 target in 2017.

Nadella clinches eighth straight year

Meanwhile, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella was ranked most underrated for the eighth straight year – affirming his steadier approach scaling the tech giant into cloud services and AI.

Musk’s leadership concerns

The Fortune survey signals many top executives view Musk’s brash, self-aggrandizing style as out of sync with the demands of CEO leadership today.

His $44 billion Twitter takeover also consumed bandwidth last year amid mass layoffs and platform instability, likely further shaping peer perceptions.