Effective Leadership: A of Richard Branson - Case Study Example

Effective Leadership: A Case of Richard Branson Name Institution Course Date Effective Leadership: A Case of Richard Branson Introduction Leadership is the foundation on which an organization is built. Chuang (2013) argues that, for any organization to succeed in today's complex and fast-changing business environment, effective leadership is necessary. Studies have also shown that lack of good leadership is one of the reasons most organizations fail. In Australia, for instance, there are quite many former giant companies that have collapsed due to poor leadership among them being Ernest Hillier, Betta Foods, Paid International, Homeart and Josh Goot to name but a few. The failure of these former dominant companies in their industries underscores the need for good leadership in any organization. Western (2007) defines a leader as a person in authority that has the power over others. However, effective leadership refers to the ability of a leader to exercise positive influence over the followers. The British Richard Branson is no doubt one of the most effective leaders in modern times. The British-born entrepreneur and manager have made the Virgin Group one of the most successful companies in the world (Branson, 2016). This report discusses Richard Branson's successes as a leader and the factors that have contributed to his effectiveness and a leader. The report will also examine the training and development that are required to enhance the attributes of Richard Branson in individuals seeking to become leaders. Richard Branson’s Brief Background Richard Branson is a British entrepreneur and leader born on 18 July 1950 in Surrey, England. Having been born in a humble family, Branson struggled during his childhood and was forced to drop out of school at the age of 16 years. After dropping out of school, Branson opted to pursue his passion for music by starting Virgin Records. Although many people around him, including his parents, were skeptical and thought he would not succeed in life, Branson has disapproved skeptics by expanding his business to form the Virgin Group which is one of the most successful companies. Virgin Atlantic airline, which is one of the segments of the Virgin Group, is among the leading airlines in the United Kingdom and Europe. Although Virgin was founded just barely a decade ago, the airline has offered a strong challenge to British Airways for the market share. Currently, Virgin Atlantic airline controls about 25% of the global airline market share. In 2015, the airline posted a before-tax profit totaling £22.5 million (Branson, 2016). In addition to the Virgin Atlantic airline, Branson runs many other successful businesses under its Virgin Group, which currently have a net worth estimated at $10 billion (Branson, 2016). The success of Virgin Atlantic and companies under Virgin Group is attributed to the effective leadership of Richard Branson. Attributes That Have Contributed to Branson's Effectiveness as a Leader Richard Branson is a true testament to effective leadership. His Virgin Group is currently ranked among the leading brands in the world, the success that has come about because of Branson's effective leadership. Branson's success as a leader is linked to certain attributes of this leader that has made him succeed, where others have failed. The first principal attribute of Branson is that he is a risk taker. According to Chuang (2013), because businesses operate in environments characterized by risks, any leader that hopes to succeed must be willing to take some levels of risk. Branson is one such leader who believes that, for him to succeed as a leader, he must take the risk. In fact, Branson (2016) state during one of the interview that he is that person who is willing to take risks by trying new things regardless of the risk involved. Branson's risk taking trait was demonstrated in 1987 when Branson decided to venture into the UK airline industry despite the high competition in the airline industry. To make this a reality, Branson entered into an agreement with the airplane manufacturer Boeing to acquire the 747 jet on terms that he will fly the airline for a year and that the manufacturer will take back the airplane should it fail to yield results (Branson, 2016). This way, Branson showed that, as much as he is a risk taker, he ensures that the downside is protected by limiting his exposure to losses. As a result of taking a risk and trying new things, Branson has been able to start at least 500 companies with more than two hundred have been close because of failing to break even (Branson, 2016). The second attribute that makes Branson an effective leader is that he is a master delegator. Branson believes firmly on the employee for a business to succeed, he must work as a team with his subordinates and empower them through delegation of work. In this respect, Branson has ensured that he does not run the organization alone by ensuring that the day-to-day responsibility of running the Virgin Group of companies is shared with his employees through delegation of work. According to Branson (2016), a delegation of duties has helped in ensuring that he is only left with the responsibility of crafting the business vision, thereby ensuring success. The third attribute that makes Branson an effective leader is the fact that he is customer-centric. Branson (2016) argues that a business can only succeed when managed by customer centric leaders. Because of this, Branson has ensured that customers are put at the heart of its business. Branson achieves this by ensuring that customers are provided with consistently quality services and products. As part of ensuring customer satisfaction, Branson makes regular follow up by calling his customers to seek their views regarding the experiences they are having with the Virgin products and services. Branson then makes improvements based on the customer feedbacks to ensure high customer satisfaction. For example, there was a time that Branson called one of the loyal customers flying the Virgin America to get his experience, where the customer informed Branson that most passengers do not like the hot towels that the airline provides on a scorching Las Vegas day (Branson, 2016). Based on the customer information, Branson changed its policy of providing hot towels to that of providing cold towels during hot holidays, and this has contributed significantly to Branson's success. Branson is also a strong innovator, an attribute that has contributed to his success as a leader. As the business environment keeps changing, a company must be innovative to achieve growth and sustainable competitive advantage. Branson is one such innovative leader that the world currently has as he has ensured that Virgin Group keeps up with the changes happening in the business environment through innovation. Branson's innovative skills were demonstrated recently when Virgin Atlantic airline launched the first ever glass-bottomed passenger airplane to ensure passenger flight experience on its airplanes (Branson, 2016). Strong communication is another attribute that has made Branson an effective leader. It is argued that communication skills are traits that are required of a leader to succeed. Branson states that his ability to communicate the vision of Virgin to the subordinates as this inspires the employees of Virgin, thus success. Besides, Branson keeps into close contact with his followers through phones, emails, Skype, WhatsApp and face-to-face (Branson, 2016). This way, Branson has built a workplace environment, where employees feel comfortable. Additionally, Branson's effective communications skills have helped ensure that conflicts are minimized or solved as soon as they arise because Branson has created a channel where employees are free to air their grievances and concerns. The other key attributes that have made Branson an effective leader include the fact that Branson is an honest and transparent leader and the fact that he values his employees. Training and Developments Needed to Increase Branson's Attributes in People Aspiring to a Leadership Role The debates as to whether or not a leader is born or made have been going on in the business field for centuries. The debate was triggered by the early trait theories that suggested that leadership in an innate quality that an individual either have or not have (Chuang, 2013). According to trait theories, leaders are born and not made. However, many other leadership theories that were conceived after trait theories have suggested that leadership is a quality that can be learned through appropriate training and development. As such, for individuals aspiring to become effective business leaders like Branson, a number of training and development techniques are available that can be employed to increase the attributed required to become a great leader. First, it has been demonstrated that Branson's effectiveness as a leader is partly attributed to the fact that he is a master delegator. Therefore, individuals aspiring to become effective leaders like Branson can be trained and developed through delegation of duties. Kurt Lewin, the father of behavioral leadership theories, define delegation as the act of allowing subordinates to participate in the managerial decision-making process (Western, 2007). Delegating duties to employees is a good way of developing good leadership skills of employees since it gives the employees the opportunity to learn how to make good managerial decisions. Branson (2016) reveals that he has been able to develop the skills of its staff to become future leaders of the firm through delegation. According to Branson, through delegation of work, Virgin Group has managed to develop the leadership skills of its workforce that currently assist him in running Virgin Group. Second, the skills of individuals seeking to become future leaders to take up managerial roles are by developing them to become effective communicators. De Vries, Bakker-Pieper and Oostenveld (2010) suggest that developing people to become effective communicators is critical because being effective communicators will help them inspire employees to pursue the vision of the company, build good working relationship with employers, as well as be able to solve conflicts before they impact negatively on a company, the same way Branson does. Therefore, in training employees to become good leaders, an employee aspiring to acquire the leadership attributes of Branson can begin by engaging in simple interaction with the work colleagues (Czech and Forward, 2013). At the same time, the employees should consider building improving his/her communication skills by practicing communication in professional and social settings. Additionally, the managerial skills of employees aspiring to become future leaders can be developed through promotion. Promotion, in this case, involves assigning an employee a more challenging role to perform (Western, 2007). Consequently, this helps them to learn and acquire new skills that would be critical in executing managerial roles in the future. Conclusion Leadership is critical to the success of an organization. As demonstrated, Richard Branson of Virgin Group is one of the greatest modern business leaders. Branson started the Virgin Group of companies small but has since grown to become a force to reckon within various industries, such as an airline. The success of Virgin Group is attributed to Branson's effective leadership skills that include being a good communicator, a master delegator, strong innovation, risk taker, honesty, and transparency, as well as the fact that Branson values his employees. As indicated, these attributes can be increased in individuals seeking to become leaders through delegation of work, training them on communication, and through promotion. Reference Branson, R. (2016). The Virgin way. London: Mizan kaifa. Chuang, S. (2013). Essential skills for leadership effectiveness in diverse workplace development. Online Journal for Workforce Education and Development, 6(1), 1-24. Czech, K., & Forward, G. L. (2013). Communication, leadership, and job satisfaction: Perspectives on supervisor-subordinate relationships. Studies in Media and Communication, 1(2). De Vries, R. E., Bakker-Pieper, A., & Oostenveld, W. (2010). Leadership = Communication? The relations of leaders’ communication styles with leadership styles, knowledge sharing and leadership outcomes. J Bus Psychol., 25(3), 367–380. Doi: 10.1007/s10869-009-9140-2 Western, S. (2007). Leadership: A critical text. Oxford: SAGE. Read More