Be A Good Leader
Having a personality of caring about people is important,” says Richard Branson. “You can’t be a good leader unless you generally like people. That is how you bring out the best in them.”
Branson is often criticized for his management style – or lack thereof.
He holds no regular board meetings, has no business headquarters, and
has no idea how to operate a computer. But, with his brand name
licensed to over 250 companies, Branson has had to develop the
necessary leadership skills to ensure his survival.
His overall leadership principle rests on the need to treat other
people with respect but the nuts and bolts of it are much harder to pin
down. Branson 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 makes
time for his family and vacations.
“I’ve had to create companies that I believe in 100%. These are
companies I feel will make a genuine difference,” says Branson. “Then I
have to be willing
to find the time myself to talk about them, promote them and market
them. I don’t want to spend my life doing something that I’m not proud
of.”
Branson hires bright people, gives them a stake in his ventures so that they are motivated to be even
more successful and then delegates. While his staff often takes care of
the daily operations of a company, Branson focuses his time more on the
end user experience, doing publicity and promoting his products.
Part of being a good leader, according
to Branson, is also the ability to know when to back away from a task.
“As much as you need a strong personality to build a business from
scratch, you also must understand the art of delegation,” he says. “I
have to be good at helping people run the individual businesses, and I have to be willing to step back. The company must be set up so it can continue without me.”
But, for Branson, the most important factor of good leadership is relating to other people. “If you’re good with
people…and you really care, genuinely care about people then I’m sure
we could find a job for you at Virgin,” he says. “The companies that
look after their people are the companies that do really well. I’m sure
we’d like a few other attributes, but that would be the most important one.”
Treating his employees as important team players is crucial to the
success of Branson’s Virgin Empires, putting employees first, customers
second, and shareholders third. “A company is people…employees want to
know…am I being listened to or am I a cog in the wheel? People really
need to feel wanted.”
With one of the most licensed brands in the world, Branson has
demonstrated perhaps better than any other entrepreneur of the 20th
century how good leadership skills can make the difference between success and failure.