Richard Branson - Leader of the Virgin Empire.

Richard Branson way born in 1950 in London and grew up living a pretty standard life style. Academically he was an underachiever and suffered from severe dyslexia. It has been said that school was something of a nightmare for him. His scores on standardized tests were dismal, pointing to a bleak future. He was embarrassed by his dyslexia and found his education becoming more and more difficult, he was also remarkably reserved and shy in person. He felt as if he had been written off (Dyslexiaonline.com). This does not fit the conventional profile of a great leader. However it was his ability to connect with people on a personal level, and his intuitive sense of people that lead him to success.

In the 1970s Branson opened the first Virgin Company, a mail order record retailer (Virgin.com). However today Virgin is made up of around 200 companies in over 30 countries, the Virgin Group has now expanded into leisure, travel, tourism, mobile, broadband, TV, radio, music festivals, finance and health and through Virgin Green Fund they are investing in renewable energy and resource efficiency (Virgin.com).

It has to be questioned, how this seemingly insignificant schoolboy turned into one of the richest most powerful men in the world. I believe this is to do with the way that he leads. Branson himself has said that his success is ‘based on developing good ideas through excellent management principles’ (ibec.ie). Branson’s skills as an influencer and ability to create a common purpose among his followers are renowned, his core values and beliefs include helping people to achieve things they did not know they were capable of as well as being a catalyst for the success of others, while constantly learning as he went along (ibec.ie). This suggests that his leadership style is based largely on influencing others and team work rather than being the dominant leader. Avery states that Branson while being accountable for the success of the enterprise, ‘plays down his role as the top man of the company’ and ‘appoints speakers to represent the top’ instead (2005, p62). This is known as the Rhineland approach, and it is typically associated with distributed leadership, involving more people (Avery, 2002, p62).

The idea that leadership should ‘formulate, define and restate overall values, visions and missions’ in order to ‘energise people into action’ (Bass, 1998), I think largely represents the way in which Branson leads. This way of leading allows him to easily ‘influence patterns of behaviour, attitudes and feelings’ (Isaksen and Tidd, 2006, p315) of those who put into action his vision. This is displayed in his employee’s high satisfaction with their job and the willingness to accept very low pay.

Branson I do not think has just one leadership style. He is a largely Demographic leader, as defined in the previous blog, basing his way of working on ‘emotional intelligence, teamwork, collaboration, conflict management and influence’ (Goleman et al, 2002, p68). However he does include some autocratic leadership traits as he evidently makes decisions ‘confidently and assume that members will comply’ (Dubrin, 2001, p123).

References

Avery, G C. (2005). Leadership for Sustainable Futures: Achieving Success in a Competitive World. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd.  

Bass, B M. (1998). Transformational Leadership: Industrial, Military and Educational Impact. New Jersy Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Dubrin (2001). Leadership: research findings, practice and skills. Third Edition. USA: Houghton Mifflin Company.

Goleman, D. Boyatzis, R. McKee, A. (2002). Primal Leadership, Realising the Power of Emotional Intelligence. USA: Harvard Business School Press.

Isaksen, S. Tidd, J. (2006). Meeting the Innovation Challenge: Leadership for Transformation and Growth. West Sussex: John Wiley and Sons Ltd.

Virgin (2011) Virgin.com [online]. Available from: http://www.virgin.com/richard-branson/autobiography [Accessed: 28 November 2011].

Levinson Medical Centre for Learning Disabilities (2011). Dyslexia Online [online]. Available from: http://www.dyslexiaonline.com/famous/famous.htm [Accessed: 28 November 2011].

Irish British Employers Confederation (2011) IBEC [online]. Available form: http://www.ibec.ie/Sectors/SFA/SFANCEDocLib.nsf/441763b04b0320b68025722e003fb55a/bc12f53469df45728025722e003f060f/$FILE/Leadership.pdf [Accessed: 28 November 2011].