Leadership

Leadership Qualities, Styles, and Skills of Richard Branson

by Faizul Haque

Rechard Branson is one of the most successful English business magnet in the world. Being a business person, he is also an investor and philanthropist. He is the founder of Virgin Group which has control over 400 companies. 

He was born in the year of 1950. From his student life, he has been taking different initiative in the field of business as an entrepreneur and became successful. What leadership qualities helped him to become this much successful? Are those extraordinary qualities or general? This post discusses the leadership skills and qualities of Richard Branson that helped him achieve success. 

Leadership Qualities, Styles, and Skills of Richard Branson

The Ability to Think Differently: Richard Branson believes in thinking different. In an interview with Telegraph, he mentioned that thinking differently can set a person apart. He told about his own leadership approach in that interview. he mentioned himself as a collaborative and democratic person.

High Confidence Level: He is a highly confident person. He has confidence in his own work. For example, he recruits an individual person for individual jobs. While he selects a person, he needs to select a perfect one. And he is very much confident about making this kind of decisions. When he select a person for his business, he can do it very easily as he knows about different types of personality.

The Ability to Delegate: Richard Branson believes in the delegation. He thinks each person should be given responsibility according to his/her own interest and expertise. Richard Branson can easily learn about different types of personality and their expertise. He believes, people should be given freedom, and he acts accordingly. He searches for the best person for a specific type of job and recruits him/her. In an interview with Telegraph, he said, “I have always believed in the art of delegation – finding the best possible people for Virgin and giving them the freedom and encouragement to flourish. When I set up Virgin Records, I even decided to separate myself physically from the company, by moving into a houseboat.”

Willingness to Listen and Learn: As a business leader, you need to listen and learn new things in every step. You need to have current information about the industry and the organization as well. No matter what, as a leader you need to be very attentive to the words which are being delivered by your followers. “As a leader, you should always be listening. Be visible, note down what you hear and you’ll be surprised how much you learn,” Richard Branson advised. While talking with Forbes, he claimed that learning and leadership skills go hand in hand. “

Risk Taking Capability: One of the most risk taker investors is Richard Branson without any doubt. He has introduced more than 400 companies. From the student life, he has been commencing new companies. Few of his renounced projects are Youth culture magazine The Student, Virgin Airways, Virgin Records, and Virgin Radio.  Recently, he has launched his new idea commercial space traveling.

Selecting Leaders: Richard Branson is directly involved in the process of hiring new employees in his organization. He likes to follow the SWOT strategy. While hiring, at first he checks the weakness of that person. He prioritizes the personality over the educational background. “A person who has multiple degrees in your field isn’t always better than someone with broad experience and a wonderful personality.” He mentioned in an interview. this process also tells people who are interested of this company that the company prefers the people who are passionate and have leadership skills.

Believes in Mentorship: Mentors are the great teachers. Richard Branson strongly believes in the process of mentorship. He says, “If you ask any successful business person, they will always say they have had a great mentor at some point of the road”. While he was struggling to have the Virgin Atlantic off the ground, he asked Sir Freddie Laker (The British Airline Entrepreneur) for guidelines.

Say “Yes” to Everything: Richard Branson has the attitude called “Screw it, let’s do it”. Yes, he always says “Yes” to almost everything.

Leadership Skills of Richard Branson

Adaptability Skill: As a leader and entrepreneur, Richard Branson has the skill of adapting himself to an unknown environment. Being the founder of Virgin does not make one the most successful person rather adapt to the current times makes one a successful leader. By coping up with the new environment, Richard Branson is apt to face the challenges whilst creating innovative ideas to succeed in the business. Adaptability skill helped him to grow his business and fame faster. This skill is one of the most important leadership skills of him to pave the way to achieving success in the world of business.

Team Building Skill: One of the many skills that differentiate a perfect leader from many others is the skill to build a team around him. Team building is one of the pioneers of success in every organization and Richard Branson is keying into that successfully. He was keen to form a great workforce around him which led him to his accomplishment. According to him, nothing can be achieved alone and no one cannot be a great leader without having great people to lead no matter what style you follow.

Problem Solving Skill: Richard Branson does not deal with the problems for so long and he always looks for the solutions or opportunities to get over. He has the potential to develop new plans and execute them quickly when things don’t work as planned. He moves to the new solutions each time there is a problem. At times when decisions are important, Richard Branson makes decisions by taking the right moves for the company’s betterment. He dumps problems quickly by giving proper solutions so that he won’t miss any opportunity to grab in.

Skill of Understanding the Need of a New Business: Richard Branson understands the need of the new businesses. He thinks, the business that fulfills the needs of the people can create value vastly, it improves their lives. He was unhappy with the customer service of British Airways. Later he started his own Airways service Virgin Airways.

Human Skill: His human skill is so strong. He believes in the long-term relationship with people. This gives him the opportunities to transfer responsibilities to individuals while he is not present physically in an operation.

In Conclusion

To bring success to your business as well as to be a successful business leader – you need to have a wide range of qualities and skills. Only the best people can reach the highest point of the career path as competition for the leadership jobs became very very competitive. The question is, How do you achieve the best skills to be a great leader and touch the success?

Related: