Effective leadership involves having the ability to lead the people into achieving a common goal. Understanding the core importance of leadership is controversial issues as it involves trying to explore the capabilities of different people who make them qualify to be called leaders. The ability to lead people of different beliefs and cultures is a challenging aspect especially if the leader does not have varied traits that are suitable to lead people. Leadership entails having a passion and desire to organize, direct and lead people to achieve a common goal.
This is a similar case portrayed by Sir Richard Branson, the chief executive officer of the Virgin Group. The ability to lead is portrayed by his skills, competencies and roles in innovating and implementing various projects that benefit both the organization and the community. This paper, therefore, outlines some of the key traits and competencies portrayed by Richard Branson and his leadership skills. The paper also outlines the suitable leadership theory that can be used to describe this leader in relation to his traits and relationship with his followers.
Richard Branson is one of the richest and most influential people. He was born in 1950 in Sulley, England and started his entrepreneurial venture at an early age. He is the founder and the current Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Virgin Group, which includes brands such as Virgin Atlantic, Virgin Blue, Virgin mobile and Virgin Brides among many other different companies. Due to his success in inventing various ideas and turning them into successful businesses, Branson has remained an influential figure especially in entrepreneurship where many upcoming entrepreneurs emulate him as a role model.
His role as the leader of the Virgin Group has earned him various achievements. For instance, in 1999; he acquired the title of ‘Sir’ after he was knitted by the queen of England as a result of his success in entrepreneurial skills. Branson is currently at position five of the richest people in Britain.
The leadership traits of Richard Branson
The traits portray the success of a leader that he/she possess that enables him/her to achieve the best. In this case, Richard Branson’s main trait that has made him an outstanding leader is the drive and energy to achieve the best. This is characterized by the success story of the Virgin Group that has transformed from a single printing store to the current multinational corporations dealing with various business ventures that were all inspired and developed by Sir Branson.
An example is seen by Sir Branson’s idea to develop Virgin direct, an investment plan that he intended to charge lower amount of money as compared to the competitors in 1997. The idea itself was regarded by most people as a waste of time as Virgin group was in a different kind of business. But, amidst all the criticisms, Virgin Direct emerged the top, pocketing over 680 million dollars in investments. In simple terms, the ability of setting goals and coming up with measures is among the leadership traits that has brought success in Branson’s leadership role.
In addition to this, Branson has clear knowledge on the business. He knows what to expect from various segments, the type of business to merge with and when to create such mergers. In addition, he takes chances in creating new brands while considering business environment and other factors. Such factors include the existence of new opportunities, competition in the market and potential threats that could harm the business and various ways of handling such threat.
Motivation to lead is another trait that drives a leader. This incorporates the ability to set goals, assist and inspire the followers to work hard and take responsibilities for any consequences. One of the ways that Branson uses to motivate his employees is the issuance of the monthly letters to the employees briefing them on what the company wishes to achieve in the long term. He also encourages the employees to talk directly to him on various issues and concerns.
He has also motivates his employees to work hard in order to achieve the organization goals through direct involvement in daily activities of the company. Motivational strategies include providing incentives and training the employees and coming up with strategies that creates teamwork in various establishments. Through this trait, he has established both employee and customer loyalty to the Virgin group.
Self-confidence in the organization’s operation is an important trait that enables a leader to tackle various issues that may arise within the organization. This is essential in making critical decisions and in coming up with plans and strategies that direct the followers towards achieving the set goals. Branson’s self-confidence and a risk-taking trait have enabled him to lead and develop Virgin Group of companies to its current position.
The trait of self-confidence is also evident from the kind of difficulties that he has gone through in his personal life. For instance, his ability to prove that he can be successful despite having problems of dyslexia that made him unable to read even at the age of eight. It is through this trait that Branson was able to shape the company to the way it is today despite having some unsuccessful plans. For instance, the failure of products such as that of establishing Virgin Cola and Virgin Vodka could have made Branson give up. Instead, he continued with the desire to expand the Virgin Group with confidence that it will conquer various market segments.
Core competencies
Being a competent leader involves succeeding in achieving the target goals despite challenges that may occur along the way. The core competency of Sir Richard Branson is reflected by his ability to shape the Virgin Group from a single printing shop to its current position that includes different Virgin companies in various industries. Having the ability to expand the organization is portrayed by his willingness to take risks in developing new products regardless of the existing competition. He has also initiated the formation of several mergers and acquisitions in different locations with the aim of expanding Virgin group to new opportunities.
Among the key strategies that he uses to achieve these expansion projects includes the ability to identify new market potentials and expand the business towards conquering such markets through formation of acquisitions and joint ventures. Also, having the ability to motivate the employees towards achieving the organizational goals is among the competencies portrayed by this leader. In addition, Branson has emerged to be a role model to different people including actual and potential entrepreneurs, managers from different organizations among others.
Theory of leadership
Looking at how Branson relates with his employees through engaging them in the business operations, it is evident that he is a transformational leader. Other than identifying potential opportunities, he values the opinions of his employees in addition to allowing and motivating them to present their innovative ideas. In achieving the goals of Virgin Group, Branson engages the organization’s employees to participate in collaborative decision-making process. In doing so, this ensures that employees feel that they are part of the organization and as such, they can appreciate their work. This leader also encourages informal working environment as characterized by his freestyle mode of dressing and ways of addressing his employees.
Being successful in business is a challenging factor that calls for effectiveness in the management and execution of different projects. This is a key factor that has made Sir Richard Branson successful both in his personal life and business operations. Amidst the challenges facing the aviation industry, he has enabled Virgin Atlantic to emerge among the top best airlines due to his ability to satisfy the needs of various personnel. This means that Branson is a transformational and a visionary leader who achieves his leadership qualities through giving considerations the need of the stakeholders mainly the employees, consumers and the society in his leadership role. A method of interacting with the followers as well as the ability to communicate effectively as seen in the case of Branson is one of the key competencies that describe the effectiveness of a leader. This also plays a vital role in describing the type of the leadership style that different people portray in leading their followers towards the achievement of a particular goal. This is a similar ability portrayed by Sir Richard Branson in transforming a multinational company to the way it is today.
References
Pierce, J. & Newstrom, J. (2005). Leaders & the leadership process: readings, self-assessments, & applications. NY: McGraw Hill.
