Elon Musk asked Twitter users whether he should stay on as CEO, but he'd already made up his mind to go

• Elon Musk ran a poll asking Twitter users if he should step down as CEO and the majority said yes.
• The poll allows Musk to portray himself as a democratic leader.
• But in reality, he's spinning a narrative to suit his own plans and desires to return to Tesla.

The people of Twitter have spoken and they want Elon Musk out.

For those trying to tune out the billionaire CEO's latest antics, Musk ran a poll on Sunday night asking Twitter users whether he should step down as head of the social media company and the majority, 57.5%, voted yes. Musk said that he'd abide by the results of the poll, though he's so far not commented on the outcome.

Speculation about the referendum is rampant — Why on earth did he run the poll? And will he, in fact, leave? — but the fact is, Musk knew exactly what the results would be, and he intends to use the vote as a justification for a decision he'd made long ago.

By posing the stay-or-go question in an online poll, Musk is able to to portray himself as a magnanimous chief who listens to his constituents. But in reality, he's spinning a narrative about his forthcoming resignation to suit his desires to return to Tesla.

"Given all the flack he's gotten over the past few months for how he's handling Twitter, it was pretty obvious he was going to get a negative vote," Peter Bamberger, a professor at Tel Aviv University's Coller School of Management, told Insider.

"Now, he can gain a sense of legitimacy in terms of stepping down while also creating an image that he's a democratic leader — and maximize his personal wealth, too."

An egalitarian and community-minded leader who does exactly what he wants

Many companies use online polls and social media surveys as a way to build engagement with customers and gather market intelligence, however imperfect that market data might be.

Musk also likes using polls. Some cases in point: Should he sell more Tesla stock? Should Donald Trump be allowed back on the platform? And Should Twitter offer a general amnesty to suspended accounts?

But Musk doesn't conduct polls to engage or to inform, but rather to rationalize his plans and point of view. "He doesn't seem impulsive," said Bamberger. "He runs his polls selectively and he does them when he knows what the outcome will be."

In other words, by allowing Twitter users to ostensibly make decisions for him via these unscientific, unorthodox means, he can frame his leadership as egalitarian and community-minded, while doing exactly what he wants. And what he wants is to resign as CEO of Twitter and refocus his energies on Tesla.

This shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone. Way back in May, Musk told investors that he'd serve as a temporary CEO of Twitter for a few months after he completed his $44 billion takeover. During his first meeting with Twitter employees in June, Musk said he didn't care about being the company's CEO. And he reiterated that sentiment in November, saying, "I expect to reduce my time at Twitter and find somebody else to run Twitter over time."

Leaving Twitter would seem to be a savvy business move for Musk. His leadership of Twitter is viewed as a disaster in most circles, and even many Musk loyalists want him to go. They see his stint as the head of the social media platform as a distraction from Tesla. Investors appear to agree: The value of Tesla has plummeted since Musk bought Twitter.

In resigning his post by virtue of a vote, Musk can boost his personal wealth and return to his beloved car company under the guise of democratic leadership. Shares of Tesla rose on Monday after the Twitter poll results, though they ended the day largely unchanged, trading at just below $150.

Of course it's plausible that a tiny part of Musk thought that the poll would have turned out differently. Maybe he thought users would beg him to stay on as CEO For Life. Musk is nothing if not an egotistical showboat, after all.

Perhaps his silence on the vote is a sign of his wounded pride. "I am not in his mind," said Ariane Ollier-Malaterre, professor at the School of Management at Université du Québec à Montréal. "But I don't see how people voting on you leaving makes you look good."