Richard Branson Leadership Essay

IntroductionI move over chosen to preserve the profile of a barter attraction who I admire on Richard Branson. Branson is a English clientele magnate, best kn own as the kick in and chairman of vestal Group of much than 400 companies. According to Wagner and Hollenback (2009), lead is the use of non-coercive and symbolic influence to direct and coordinate the activities of the members of an organised community toward the accomplishment of group objectives. According to Clark (2010), there be trey outstanding leading(p) styles. These argon autocratic, democratic and laissez faire. In order to be an stiff leader, managers should use all three leadinghip styles. A mature leader should be able to judge which leadership style is al just about let in a given situation. Research carried pop by the University of cabbage and Ohio State University suggests that there be a number of behavioural and leadership theories.These theories outline different aspects of a leade rs behaviour or leadership style which may differentiate those who be effective leaders from those who are not. For precedent, the University of Michigan identified dickens general classes of supervisory behaviour. These are employee peak and melodic line production oriented behaviours. Research carried out by the Ohio State University is very similar to the supra piece of research. They identify the two classes of supervisory behaviour styles as a considerate style i.e. employee oriented and an initiating social organization style i.e. job production oriented. Similarly to the two above pieces of research, Fiedler identifies two different leadership styles.These are relationship incite leaders i.e. employee oriented/considerate style and task affectd leaders i.e. job production oriented/initiating structure style. Another piece of research conducted by House identifies four different behavioural styles. They are as follows directing leadership, supportive leadership, part icipative leadership and achievement oriented leadership. In order for a manager to be an effective leader they moldiness also be able to perform their roles effectively. A modern leader has fourteen of import roles.Richard Bransons ProfileRichard Charles Nicholas Branson was born on the 18th of July 1950 in Blackheath, London. In his youth, Branson was not an impressive student. He was dyslexic and near-sighted, but he could constantly make affairs happen. Whenhe was s all the sameteen, attending school at Stowe, Richard and a schoolmate started a cartridge clip, Student . When doing an interview with The Guardian he stated it was aimed at giving young people a voice on nominate issues much(prenominal) as the Vietnam War. He s sr. 6,000 worth of advertizing in its starting time edition, which was launched in 1966. The first run of 50,000 copies was disseminated for free, after Branson cover the hails with advertising. This was important occupation and sales experience for Branson and what he learnt during this snip benefited him over time. While running the Student from a basement in London, Richard noticed that stores were not discounting marks.Richard began to run ads in the Student offering records at discount prices. The orders flooded in and record sales soon became more profitable than subscription sales. Richard quickly locate up an office above an old shoe store and pure(a) was born (http//www.lemonadestories.com/virgin.html). The name unadulterated was suggested by one of Bransons early employees because they were all new at business. It was from this point that the Virgin brand grew. Earning enough money from his record store, Branson in 1972 launched the record label Virgin Records with Nik Powell and bought a country estate, in which he installed a recording studio. Mike Oldfield, whose debut album Tubular Bells (1973) was Virgin Records first release and a chart-topping best-seller. Virgin Records had other notable artists such as The Sex Pistols and Culture Club. n 1992, to keep his airline go with afloat, Branson change the Virgin label to EMI for 500 million.Virgin Atlantic had its inaugural flight in 1984 on its then only route betwixt London and New York. After adding a route from Gatwick to Miami in 1986, Virgin Atlantic celebrated its 1,000,00th passenger in 1987. In 2011 Virgin Atlantic carried 5.3 million passengers, making it the eighth largest UK airline in terms of passenger volume. Branson has added other airlines to his Virgin empire such as Virgin communicate which operates in Brussles, Virgin Australia and Virgin America. Not being one to shy(p) away from a challenge Branson has had many a(prenominal) other ambitious business ventures such as Virgin Vodka, Virgin Cola, the gay night gild Heaven, Virgin Cosmetics, Virgin Money, Virgin Cars, F1 team Virgin Racing and most famously Virgin Galactic which plans to provide sub-orbital putflights to space tourists, suborbital launches for s pace science missions and orbital launches of small satellites.He himself frequentlystates that all of these ventures are calculated risks which is hard to argue against seeing as Branson is the 4th richest citizen of the unite Kingdom, according to the Forbes 2011 list of billionaires, with an estimated net worth of US$4.2 billion. Bransons ambitious and tough are not just limited to the business world as he has broke s of all timeal world records and attempted many more, for example he completed the first balloon flight across the Atlantic in 1996. All these business and adventuring feats make Branson a truly admiral business leader role model.Bransons Career and Leadership directionBransons career has been hugely successful from leaving school at 16 to go on to become the 4th richest U.K. resident is remarkable. Branson is befool in his book know it, lets do it (2007) about how he has achieved this I induce no secret. There are no rules to follow in business. I just work h ard and, as I al ways have done, believe I screw do it With this being said he has combatted the tediousness of working hard by indulging himself in whatever he does, taking a current interest and having fun with it A business has to be involving, it has to be fun, and it has to go by your creative instincts. Bransons leadership style is undeniably democratic. Although a democratic leader will the final decision, he or she invites other members of the team to conduct to the decision-making process.This is not only increase job satisfaction by involving employees or team meam members in whats going on, but it also helps contrive peoples skills. Employees and team members feel in control of their own destiny, such as the promotion they desire and so are motivated to work hard by more than just a monetary reward. Branson professes this in an interview with Kets De Vries (1998) Im absolutely certain that its a question of the kind of people you have, and the way you motivate th em. Im sure thats what makes any company successful.If you can motivate your people, use their creative potential, you can get through bad quantify and you can wassail the good times together. If you fail to motivate your people, your company is doomed.If your employees are happy and smiling and relishing their work, they will perform well. Consequently, the nodes wiIl enjoy their experience with your com- pany. If your employees are sad and miserable and nothaving a good time, the customers will be equally miserable.In the same interview Branson says he often rewards employees We like to reward our key performers for their creative contribution I suppose that we have made maybe 15 or 20 multimillionaires through this structure. Branson applies this personal approach when assessing new business like when Virgin Money took over Northern Bank When we launched Virgin Money, I met with round members at branches up and down the country. The insight those visits gave me were priceles s.If I ever inevitable convincing that investing in a bank was the right thing to do, well, the stories I heard that week confirmed it. To see so many employees enthusiastic and proud to be working for Virgin made me even more excited about the future of our bank. We very much valued Virgin Money to be the start of something different, and it was great to see that everyone was onboard. Ive found that if you ensure that your staff and customers are happy and that your product or service is of good quality, the finances often take care of themselves.What I could learn from Sir Richard BransonThrough my study of Branson I have took many snippets of advice which I hope to use during my career in business after I complete my studies. Branson is an avid ambassador for his democratic style of leadership Having a personality of caring about people is important. You cant be a good leader unless you generally like people. That is how you bring out the best in them. This is definitely a char acteristic I necessity to weave into my leadership fibre. This approach has served Virgin well over the long time as in his book, Branson (2009), he mentions a positive outside post of working for Virgin which is echoed by the agreement of Virgin staff who enjoy working there. Virgin people have told me that at the end of a tiring day, when they are off duty, having a drink in the pub, or a meal, theyre occasionally asked where they work. When they say, With Virgin, the enquirer usually replies, Lucky you That must be a great place to work Our staffs usually agrees.In addition to this extracted advice he gives open advice to anyone who wantsto join him in being an entrepreneur. Forbes magazine (2012) pitched Sir Branson the question What are your top three pieces of advice for young entrepreneurs? to which he responded 1. Create a strong culture of excellence roll up your sleeves and work alongside your staff and take care of them. 2. Dont be afraid to make a fool of yourself if it helps your business. 3. Find ways to equally prioritize people, planet and profits because it CAN be done. These three points offer up key things to take on board if you are to succeed. Have luxuriously standards to give you an edge over competition and if postulate be work on the ground level with your staff to set an example of how you expect things to be done.Take risks even if there is a chance it may make you look silly if it fails, it could help your business and you should lose your ego for the sake of your business. And finally your staff are your sterling(prenominal) resource, environmental and ethical procedures should be taken, Branson has become environmentally aware ever since a speech Al Gore gave him and he has even set up a green fuel business, and do all you can to ensure your business is running profitably. He insists these three things can be done together.Branson is a master marketer and communicator. Forbes (2012), When Richard Branson had the idea of lau nching Virgin Atlantic, he pitched it to his fellow directors who had no previous experience in the airline business. He delivered the idea simply, concisely, and effectively.Branson offers leaders and entrepreneurs this advice It is vitally important to extradite a clear, concise plan that investors can easily understand and take over to their own people. In the first meeting debar overly complicated, numbers-laden presentations. Presentations are supposed to be about getting your point across effectively, you could have the most statistical, graphically stunning and hilariously funny presentation to have ever been seen but if the people you are pitching it to dont come out of that meeting 100% sure what the point you were nerve-racking to make was and interested in your idea then you have failed in your objective.As well as reading from Bransons successes and teachings, there is equally as much to learn from his failings. He expresses this himself You dont learn to qualifyin g by following rules.You learn by doing, and by falling over. Bransons book Business stripped bare even has a entire chapter called Damage Report. unmatched anecdote goes as follows I was 19 years old and driving a shipment of records to Belgium when I stumbled on the fact that recordsbought in Great Britain that were intended for export were not root to purchase tax. So I bought the records I needed, pretended they were export, and then sold them to British customers.The whole ploy involved driving four transportation system vans loaded with records to Dover, taking them to France, then returning on the next ferrying with the records still on board. It not only was illegal, it was really pretty stupid. In May 1969, I was caught red handed by HM employment and Excise But I learned a very important lesson never do anything that means you cant sleep at night. This is a huge piece of advice and something we can learn from and hopefully avoid from encountering ourselves. It cost Richard 60,000 and took almost 3 years for him to patch up such a loss. Illegal doings can almost certainly cost a business its existence and shouldnt even be eyeshot about.ConclusionMichael Walenius (2010) concludes in his analyses of Bransons leadership that Sir Richard has got a very high degree of consideration and participation in what he does, but at the same time he is very involved in the structure setting at the start of a new business. He is definitively a relationship-oriented leader who is good at aligning people and giving them ablaze support and encouragement. He seems to fall into the segment of being a participative and consultatory leader. His very strong charisma seems to make anyone listen and follow him. I find it extremely difficult to disagree with this evaluation. Branson is an iconic leader who prioritises his employees and their well-being.He follows his belief that a happy employee will work harder, create a happier and better working environment, infect customers with their pleasantness, resulting with a happy and loyal customer who then by word of mouth praise the business leading to increased revenue. He is extremely insightful with his advice on presentations, assessing business opportunities and acknowledging and learning from your mistakes. With an estimated wealth of 4.3 billion, 400+ companies under his name including the 7th biggest airline in the U.K., the first commercial space travel business and most importantly a well-respected name thats held in high regard in the public eye Branson truly is the business leader who I most admire and most envy.ReferencesBooksWagner, J.A. and Hollenback, J.R. (2009) Organizational Behaviour Securing Competitive Advantage, Michigan Taylor and Francis Richard Branson (2009) Business Stripped Bare Adventures of a Global Entrepreneur. London. Virgin Books.Branson, Richard (29 March 2007). Screw It, Lets Do It. London. Virgin Books WebsitesClark, D. (2010) Leadership Styles online (Cited 3 February 2012) useable from Kets De Vries (1998) Charisma in Action (online) (cited 2 December 2012) Available from http//molar.crb.ucp.pt/cursos/2%C2%BA%20Ciclo%20-%20Mestrados/Gest%C3%A3o/2007-09/DGRH/Papers/Charisma%20in%20action%20PPP.pdfRichard Branson (2012) Richard Branson on How to Delegate Control of Your pecuniary resource (online) (cited on 2 December 2012) Available from http//www.entrepreneur.com/article/224879 Carmine Gallo (2011) Richard Branson The One Skill Leaders Need to Learn (online) (cited 2 December) Available from http//www.forbes.com/sites/carminegallo/2011/06/29/richard-branson-the-one-skill-leaders-need-to-learn/ Michael Walenius (2010) The leadership style of Sir Richard Branson (online) (cited 2 December) Available from http//michael.walenius.com/?p=141