Branson's Leadership Style

This week I have chosen to interview my uncle, Greg Gerontes; President, CEO, and Owner of Hecht Stout Insurance, Inc. Instead of going to business school, Greg went to Illinois State University and double majored in Psychology and Political Science. He graduated in 1987 and continued his education at the Cincinnati Financial Corporation Insurance School.

I feel that Tony Dungy was a more effective leader. He took the time to develop his players and instilled leadership qualities in all of them. Dungy had ha very successful career and in later year was extremely involved in giving back to the community. References

(2006, 05). Leadership Styles: Richard Branson. StudyMode.com. Retrieved 05, 2006, from http://www.studymode.com/essays/Leadership-Styles-Richard-Branson-88459.htmlBlustein, A. (2013). What kind of leader are you?. Inc, 35(8), 58-59.

Richard is not afraid to take risks and believes that his people are the foundation to his company’s success. `My philosophy is, put your employees first, your customers second and your investors third and in the end everyone will be happy’ (Inc, 2013). From researching his leadership style I would say that Richard is a transformational democratic leader, he likes to get other peoples input and develop on their ideas. Richard believes that praise goes much further than criticism in achieving results so he likes to lead his team using positive reinforcement. Richard seems to be a very caring and involved leader who listens to everyone and is very professional in his leadership style, he is definitively a relationship-oriented leader who is good at aligning people and giving them emotional support and encouragement. He seems to fall into the segment of being a participative and consultative leader whilst his strong charisma seems to make anyone listen and follow him.

A leader I admire, whether real-life or fictional character from the television, the movies or a book, will be identified. Leadership theories will be used to evaluate my selected leader to determine what characteristics and leadership abilities helped this leader become successful. I will also include an evaluation of my own leadership style and identify what my individual leadership characteristics are. The plan will be developed to improve my leadership style based upon the findings of my chosen leader’s leadership style compared to my own.

IT IS VERY COMMON to hear that government would run better if it were more businesslike. I think that is correct. Nevertheless, I will turn the tables on that proposition. I believe that business would benefit from learning some management lessons from a surprisingly gifted governmental executive--Ronald Reagan.

In 2004 Virgin Australia created a non-profit foundation called Virgin Unite to which it unites people and entrepreneurial ideas to they then create opportunities for a better world. Over the last decade, partners have inspired and raised an amount of magnificent relationships such as Ocean Unite, Carbon War Room and The Branson Centres for Entrepreneurship to which these groups have encouraged the change in the world that is needed. Branson says he spends his time now working with Virgin Unite to ensure that he creates a positive difference that is needed in the world. He supports the projects that he is truly passionate about to being an advocate for issues such as gay rights and using the power he has to raise his voice to the issues that

1. What is your style of developing others? Are you a shaman, a priest, an elected leader, a missionary, or a mystic healer in your approach to teaching? How did you develop your style?

The report will give a details view of Richard Branson and Bill Gates skills and attributes of

1. Richard Branson's leadership style works for his particular role as visionary and figurehead of his diverse group of companies under the Virgin Group umbrella. However diversified the Virgin Group may be, Branson remains an essentially charismatic and transformative leader. His leadership philosophy is built on employee empowerment and stimulating employee satisfaction. In his own words, Branson states, ""Rather than focusing on mistakes, catch someone doing something right every day," (cited by Adonis, 2010). Likewise, Branson advises that managers "place greater emphasis on unearthing what their employees are thinking and feeling," (cited by Adonis, 2010).

From Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela’s charisma, to Winston Churchill and Martin Luther King’s intelligence and Steve Jobs’ analytical nature, there can be as numerous ways to lead as there are leaders (Crossman, 2010). Leadership is a hot debate both in the business world and other areas of the society. Throughout the world's, there have been as many leadership models as there have been their commentators (Burns & Peltason, 1966). Fortunately, psychologists and businesspersons have established useful frameworks that refer to the main ways of leadership.

Sir Richard Branson's model is a personification model of Virginia brand and explains it using his life when he was young. He uses both his life and Virginia brand to elaborate his leadership skills which is not based on any professional skills. Over the years, he is seen to recruit the best managers. Leadership is one of the strategies and strategic management. It includes planning for informal, formal and strategic planning systems by the leader. It has planning for emergent strategies, which include; responsiveness to arising threats and opportunities, increasing of changes to predetermined intended strategies, and adaptive learning and responsiveness to intended strategies. The Branson's model includes visionary leadership, which is planning, for the future. Competitiveness and competitive advantage for business services and products are dependent on strategic plans.

“Leadership is the capacity to develop a vision that motivates others to move with a passion towards a common goal. Therefore, leadership is a process by which a person influences others to accomplish an objective and directs the organization in a way that makes it more cohesive and coherent” (Democracy, 2014). Apple CEO Tim Cook will predictably be compared to his antecedent Steve Jobs, but in one way, he 's greatly more like Bill Gates -- he has encouraged philanthropy at Apple (Stone, 2014). Under his leadership, Apple has become a much more socially aware company, working to enhance conditions in foreign factories and planning to reduce pollution caused by data centers and the devices themselves. In contrast to Tim’s leadership, a successful legend spread out at Microsoft Company where leader Bill Gates has many leadership qualities. One of the most important attributes is his capability to analyze, interpret, and be competent. His methodical intelligence is mentioned in his biography that corroborate of his abilities by scoring 1790 on an 1800 Harvard entrance exam (Stone, 2014). The excellent skills and mentality that Bill Gates has develop places him with to be one of the most powerful transformational leaders who motivate the crowds of whom he shares his vision.

Leadership traits have been studied to determine what makes certain people great leaders. There is no right way to be a great leader, there are many ways to be a good leader however, studies have shown that all good leaders have similar characteristics. Good leaders are able to recognize problems and opportunities, they can develop a vison and an implementation plan to carry out their vison. They understand that teamwork and the right people are vital in obtaining their end goal. All of the above are specific traits that tie good leaders together. An interesting subject to look at when examining leadership styles is Donald Trump. Trump has always been known for his leadership style throughout the business industry. He has excelled through

In 1968 a guy named Richard Branson started the Student magazine and that was the starting of his revolutionary business career and from that time Branson did not have to look back ever. Now today Branson has the huge size of his business which is VIRGIN BUSINESS GROUP. This group owns more than 200 companies. “Branson” and “VIRGIN” is now a symbol of a famous brand all over the world.