Sir Richard Branson 's Leadership Essay

There is a great importance put on business leadership, this is directly due to how a business not only functions but in how fruitful the company can become. A great leader essentially can take a business plan that is weak yet turn it into a success, whereas a poor leader stands a higher chance of ruining the best of business plans. That is why it is essential to develop effective leadership throughout a companies entire management program at all levels. How does one develop or retain strong leadership? Companies must be focused on hiring strategies that encompass very specific parameters, building from within whilst creating a strong foundation for employee development and succession planning. Leadership is essential in any organization. The style and theory embraced determines whether the company will or will not achieve their goals. in all cases theory must be embraced, as a companies theory, style, and strategy is greatly dependent on the industry the company is in (Sadler, 2014). “The behavioral theory is one of the widely used theories of management. It suggests that leaders are made and not born. It gives room for training to install leadership traits in leaders at the expense of denying them a chance. There are various leadership styles embraced by companies (Cyert, & March, 2005).”  This paper takes a look at the management styles of two specific

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.

Gini & Green, 2014 argued, “Assuming the leadership of an organization—whether a club, a sports team, or a global corporation—is a daunting and dangerous thing to do, to attempt it without a solid understanding of who you are (your character) and without a clear sense of what you are willing and unwilling to do (your integrity and conscience) is a formula for public failure and personal tragedy” p. 438). The unique leadership style of Patriarch Partners CEO Lynn Tilton identifies her as a self-confident, mission driven, risk taker. While her leadership approach may be controversial, it has proven to be effective as her organization holds equity in the billions in over 70 companies.

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.

Richard Branson has proved his monumental visionary skills by persistently projecting his fantasies for the organisation and collaborating the resources to move in the direction of fulfilment of those fantasies. He inspires his workers to bring in new ideas and to think of their own thoughts and arrangements. This is exhibited by his routine practice of listening, reading and reacting to the suggestions and messages of his employees. Branson has been depicted as a personality who enjoys the difficulties, risks and challenges in business and the one who derives satisfaction to attain the apparently inaccessible targets. It is a part of who he is and he shows it through his leadership style.

Today’s marketplace is a very competitive environment. Companies should strive to find or develop multifaceted individuals who are capable of both leading and managing.

The success of an organisation is determined many different elements such their vision, goals and someone who is able to lead others and inspire them to work. A leader is a person who has the ability to influence other people by setting examples through their own accomplishments; and become a role model for everyone to follow (DuBrin 2013). A great leader also helps others recognise their own strengths and weaknesses and make them their source of motivation; therefore they can make improvement in their work progress. This essay is going to discuss some of the most important characteristics and traits of Sir Richard Branson, a founder and a well known leader of the Virgin group, an international and world recognised organisation. This paper also examines Sir Richard Branson 's leadership styles and how it affects the way he runs his company.

First main characteristic he pointed out was “Smile” everything gets much easier if people can show up a friendly face. Secondly have fun at work. Stress can be massively cut down plus employees will not feel the hard work by having fun at the working place. This was one reason Sir Richard Branson’s companies were successful. The employees of these companies enjoyed working. Branson made sure that the working environment of his companies always adapted accordingly. He came from a simple family background with the above mentioned characteristics so the leadership qualities were also very much simple. As it was mentioned in the introduction Sir Richard Branson was not a fan of theories. Even though his leadership style was very simple he never referred strategies and worked according to the theories. But it could be seen that his leadership

Sir Richard Branson is a global entrepreneur and also the chairman of the Virgin Company.  Within a large company such as Virgin, it is very important to work in a team, and there are a diverse range of teams that exist within the Virgin group such as the top-management team, problem solving team, continuous improvement team, cross-functional team and the work team. A top-management team is defined as “the CEO, executives or general manager, vice-presidents and other top department heads whose job is to help the organisation achieve its mission and goals.” (Kinicki, 404) This can be seen from the behavior of Branson giving the employees his private number and paying close attention to every firm as he wants to help those people and companies within the Virgin group who are belligerent. Many of the cabin crews are hired only during the peak season and then they are disbanded. This is an example of a problem-solving team as they only meet as a temporary team. Moreover, there are interest groups and friendship groups exist within the group. Branson actually encourages this by giving freedom to the employees as he thinks it is important for the employees get to know each other well on a more personal level helping to build a friendly environment within a team making the team successful. This may be referred as the continuous improvement team.  And the other significant teams that exist within the Virgin Group are the work team and the cross-functional team as each team members

The personal styles of leaders vary depending on the personality, and strengths of these leaders. The differences in personal styles are evident in the fact some leaders are extraverted and loud while others tend to be analytical and subdued. In several organizations in the modern society, leadership has developed to become more than position as these firms expect and seek for more. In the past two decades, Sir Richard Branson has been a common household name in the United Kingdom and a well respected businessman across the globe. He is widely known as the founder of Virgin Group, a company that produces cellular phones, record labels, airlines, and other business endeavors. In contrast, Branson is also known for his exceptional character and leadership style who believes that people as the basis for Virgin's success and doesn't fear taking risks. As a result of his exceptional character and leadership style, the company's leadership and management approaches have always received media coverage for its efficiency and track record of success.

The difficulty with attempting to analyze the leadership style of Branson is that everything that has been written about him prefaces his achievement with his larger than life personality. There's no denying that Branson is fun and passionate, but he's also very bright and very hardworking. I think that if Branson took the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator Profile he would discover that he is ENTP: an extroverted, intuitive, thinking, perceiving human being. From his autobiography, Losing My Virginity it's clear that Branson is action oriented, enthusiastic and

Assess the key elements of Richard Branson’s leadership style and the impact that those elements have had on his

Richard like many other leaders has been identified as one who can and has brought change in the way business and other organizations operate. When he started his company, Richard knew that it was not easy to go through and become successful. He was aware of the many challenges involved in business operations but went ahead to start his new company. Throughout his operation as a leader, he has been marked and studied out of his successful reign as a leader. There are many elements in his leadership that have enhanced his success and impacted the way he carries out his leadership activities. The elements that have been earmarked include;

This report analyses the differences between the leadership of Virgin Group’s Founder Richard Branson and UB Group’s Chairman Vijay Mallya. The two leaders operate in a wide range of industries, and live very public lifestyles, promoting both themselves and their companies through their activities. This is done with a view to determine which leadership style is better suited to the environment they are operating in, and what qualities leaders must possess to be successful. The analysis, covering the background, business ideologies, leadership style and public persona of these leaders, shows Richard Branson is clearly the better leader of the two.