Tuesday 26 August 2008

Leadership(The richard branson way)

According to different theories and contexts it has been argued that a true leader is a person who meets or enable other to meet three areas of need in groups or organizations which are to achieve the comman task ,to work in harmony as a team and to satisfy each individual`s needs.This is very similar to what Richard Branson said in an interview

.”To be a good leader ,you have got to concentrate on bringing out the best in your people .people are no different than flowers ,they need to be cared for and watered all the time ,this is true whether it is a switchboard operator or the chairman who just gave a bad speech.I should know because I gave a bad speech last night.the point is,people know when they are F****** up,they don’t need bosses ramming it down their throats”

Richard branson is a very well respected name in the business world ,He is the founder of Virgin Group ,known for record labels,cellular phones,airlines and many other business ventures.Branson is responsible for a $5 Billion empire and have 200 companies around the world.Branson is not afraid to take risk and believes that people are the foundation to his company`s success which is why he is known for his unique character and leadership style.Branson believes that good ideas can come from anywhere and anytime whether it comes from an employee,a friend ,a business partner or even a stranger which is why he caries a notebook in his pocket all the time because when ever or wherever he hears something interesting from people he interacts are core value to him.Branson is recognized by almost 95% of UK`s consumer and he believes in his customers as “Virgin People”. If I were to characterized his leadership style I would say he is definitely a democratic leader.A democratic leader is someone who allows employees to take part in the decision-making process,who is fully supportive and developmental and he who retains responsibility and is accountable for results.This type of leadership style is also very common and similar to the transformational leadership in which the leader inspire followers to rise above their own self-interests for the good of the organization using charisma,presenting a vision,being a hero and apart from all these the leader also motivate and guide the followers.

Branson truly feels that listening to what people have to say are core value to him ,as Branson once said that “Virgin Group is an organization driven on informality and information,one that is bottom heavy rather then strangled by the top management” This statement shows that he listens to people below the management level and cooperates and intakes ideas at all levels,Although He makes all the top decisions but he consults his staff before going ahead with the idea.According to Branson he feels that praise goes much further than criticism and he make sure that people working for him are properly taken care of.An example to justify this is that when he won a lawsuit against British Airlines and was awarded $500,000 he divided the compensation amongst his staff.In another statement he says “Having a personality of caring about people is important and you cannot be a good leader unless you generally like people ,that is how you bring the out the best in them”.Branson is a natural born leader and he has shown all the abilities and characteristics mentioned in the leadership trait theory.If we look at his early life as a child he lacked in the area of academic performance while he was a teenager this was due to the disease known as dyslexia which is considered to be a learning disability particularly associated with reading and spelling.He still managed to create a vast empire by adapting to his weakness and using it to his advantage.he simply decided to keep things as simple as possible,he prefer to talk to people one on one to discuss the possibilities of making things more easier and straight forward as he once made statement that where he said that “the more simpler for him to understand ,the easier for him to explain to others and the clearer his vision becomes.Due to his charismatic behaviour and excellent people skills has also made him an exceptional negotiator .

When talking about passion and passionate leaders ,Branson is one of those leader which falls under this category.Passionate leaders are said to be risk takers,their fearlessness and confidence are not just personality traits of the passionate leaders ,infact they are a way of life.Micheal Jordon who is a very well known and said to be the greatest professional American basket ball player says that “I have missed more than 9000 shots in my career,lost 300 games and has also been trusted to take the winning shot which I missed.I have failed over and over again in my life and that is why I have succeed”.Richard branson have had a lot of noticeable failures among all those successes but for him those were just the speed bumps as he has always overcome failure by never losing his momentum.Failures can create a pause but it never stop the progress of a passionate leader.With passion also come the adventure as Richard branson`s sense of adventure is also one of his behaviour that he is very well known for.In 1987 Branson was the first person to successfully cross the Atlantic ocean in a hot air balloon and also was the lead sponsor for the GlobelFlyer,the first aircraft to fly non-stop around the world.Branson is a type of a person which I must admit carries social aptitude and persuasive traits.i Think if Branson took the Myers-Briggs test(Type Indicator Profile) he would discover that he is ENTP(an extroverted,intuitive,thinking,perceiving human being).From his autobiography ,”Losing My Viginity” it is clear that Branson is action oriented,enthusiastic and seems to work well in every environment.

Being charismatic and transformational could also have negative consequences when Conger and Kanungo proposed the theory of charismatic leadership in 1987 their main assumption was that charisma is an attributional phenomenon ,they emphasized more on the positive side of such kind of a leadership.later on they found out that charismatic leaders have optimism and self confidence which are essential to influence others to support the leader`s vision but excessive optimism make it more difficult for the leader to recognize flows in the vision.It has also being argued that to attain the vision a charismatic leader may ignore or reject evidence unrealistic or doomed to fail.Charismatic leader are also make very risky decisions that could result in serious failure,Few years ago Richard Branson made a deal to start Virgin Galactic which would take passengers into the orbital space by 2007,This is where he shows that he is too much ambitious to the point where makes bad business deals also being too much charismatic to the point where could lead to substantial failures.Branson is often criticezed for his management style or lack thereof.He holds no regular meetings ,has no business headquarters,and has no idea how to operate a computer ,His overall leadership principle rest on the need to treat other people with respect ,He stresses the importance of time management skills,saying He spends roughly one third of his time on trouble shooting ,one third on new projects,both business related and charitable,and one third on promoting and marketing his businesses.In between ,he also spend some time with his family .Branson also have outstanding delegation skills despite being a patient of dyslexia ,”As much as you need a strong personality to build a business from scratch,you also must understand the art of delegation” says Branson.

With all the leadership qualities he carry in himself have made him quite a success,as he said before that every business venture he joins is not solely for the money,but for one reason or another he seems to make a profit everytime and the Virgin Empire just gets bigger.Richard Branson has truly been a unique leader leader and an inspiration to anyone wishing to take over the world .He has tought us that businesses are not built and ran by one man ,and also that if you do not fall down in life you will never learn to get up.For him ,taking no is not the answer in his personal or business life and it almost as if the sky is the limit .

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