Leadership in Business: Richard Branson's Style and Capabilities

This paper discusses the leadership qualities and capabilities of Richard Branson, the founder of Virgin Atlantic. It explores his leadership style and the shift from a control paradigm to an empowerment paradigm. The paper also reflects on individual leadership capabilities and the development of communication skills for better leadership.

Leadership in Business
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Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
1. Discussion....................................................................................................................................3
1.1 Leadership qualities and capabilities.........................................................................................4
Leadership traits of Richard Branson.....................................................................................4
Capabilities for building relationships and establishing trust.................................................4
Capabilities out of above displayed by Richard Branson.......................................................5
1.2 Leadership Style.........................................................................................................................5
Leadership styles suiting the workplace.................................................................................5
Strength and weakness of chosen style..................................................................................6
1.3 Individual Leadership................................................................................................................7
Reflection on own leadership capabilities and selection of leadership style..........................7
Capability to develop to become a better leader....................................................................7
1.4 Empowerment............................................................................................................................8
Shift of company from a paradigm of Control to an Empowerment paradigm......................8
Implementation of shift along with reaction of employees to change....................................8
Improving leadership ability for change management in effective manner in group &
corporation..............................................................................................................................9
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10
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INTRODUCTION
Leadership can be referred to as the procedure by way of which an executive has the
power or authority to give direction and guidance to subordinates and thereby, impact upon the
behavioural pattern of others. This provides assistance to the leader in ensuring the realisation of
corporate goals within due course of time by emphasizing upon collaborative working of
personnel (Goss and Sadler‐Smith, 2018). Within the confines of any business organisation,
leadership has the primary role of encouraging the employees in an effective manner so that they
can work as per the requirements of corporation.
The purpose of this paper is to gain knowledge of the style, capabilities and skills of the
leader within a company. For this purpose, the entity that has been selected is Virgin Atlantic
which is an airlines company having its headquarters at Crawley, England, United Kingdom. The
leader of this internationally renowned firm is Richard Branson which is a famous entrepreneur
popular for his self motivated nature (Griggs and Howarth, 2018). The paper contains discussion
over leadership qualities and capabilities, leadership style and individual leadership. Lastly, it is
seen that how the entity could shift from a control paradigm to empowerment.
1. Discussion
Leader is the key to effective execution of operations within an entity as per the current
business situation and trends prevailing in market place. In this regard, leadership can be said to
be the potential possessed by an individual within a company to exercise positive or negative
influence of others. Through this, a leader seeks to align the behaviour and performance of
employees with the long term corporate goal (Bassell, Lambert and Friedman, 2019). They are
the ones who create a vision for the entity and thereby induce other by motivating them to
deliver their best performance for timely accomplishment of goal. Leader is the one who can
persuade other individuals to even carry out a task against their will. It is upon a leader whether
they want to use their authority positively or negatively to accomplish the corporate vision. In
this regard, a discussion is given below illustrating the example of Richard Branson as a leader
of Virgin Atlantic.
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1.1 Leadership qualities and capabilities
Leadership traits of Richard Branson
Richard Branson is the founder of Virgin Group. He is an excellent leader who possesses
immense drive and zeal to align the operations of company as per the changing business
environment. Across the global periphery, this leader is renowned for his rule-breaking approach
towards leadership which motivates every staff member to exercise their innovative skills and
thereby give their contribution in adding value to the airlines (Rosenbach, 2018). In this regard,
the leadership qualities as well as personal characteristics which are displayed by Richard
Branson at the premises of Virgin Atlantic are discussed as follows:-
 Creative thinking: One of the most apparent qualities of this great leader is that he
possesses the capability to think in a different manner (What makes Richard Branson a
Great Leader?, 2019). Just like him, he motivates the workforce also to operate in the
same style by leveraging their creativity and innovation.
 Eye for Talent: Yet another apparent quality of Richard Branson that is exhibited by him
is that he has always has had an eye upon individuals in whom he finds out a unique
talent or skill. He further claims that it is important for leaders to hire those candidates
which possess the potential to serve as a cultural fit for business entity (9 leadership skills
from Sir Richard Branson, 2019).
 Team working: Richard Branson has been a leader who is keen on emphasizing upon
collaborative working with a view to derive positive results for the organisation. The
application of the same within the confines of Virgin Atlantic has led to attainment of
leading market position by the company in last some time. The soaring revenues as well
as profits of the organization over the course of last 10 years are a proof of the same.
Capabilities for building relationships and establishing trust
There are several characteristics, traits, skills and competencies which must be present
within a leader so as to ensure that the leadership would be able to build relationship as well as
establish trust. In this regard, one of the key characteristics is honesty as this is what is cherished
the most by subordinates for trusting the leader. Further, another trait that is important for
employees of an organisation is integrity within leadership (Strielkowski and Chigisheva, 2018).
Apart from this, it is essential for an effective leader to have excellent communication skills so as
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to discussion with staff members before taking any key decision for the entity. Delegation and
empowerment are also required to be exhibited by leaders so that they can keep the personnel
happy and motivated at all times. This inflates the productivity of staff members, thereby
enhancing the scope for timely accomplishment of corporate goals and objectives. All of these
skills are significant for a leader as they together aid in the development of an effective
leadership which possesses the capability to influence the behavioural pattern of employees in a
positive manner.
Capabilities out of above displayed by Richard Branson
As already discussed above, there are several traits that must be present within a leader so
as to instil a sense of loyalty and trust among individuals. In this regard, Richard Branson is a
leader who exhibits majority of the skills, qualities and characteristics mentioned above as he
believes that gaining trust of employees is necessary to make use of the authority linked with
leadership (Becker, 2018). In this regard, it has been analysed that although the respective leader
can interact non-hesitantly, he does not hold effective communication skills which acts as a
constraint with respect to Virgin Atlantic at times, thereby hampering overall organisational
productivity.
1.2 Leadership Style
Leadership styles suiting the workplace
Leadership style is determined as an approach and framework to identify the manner in
which leader provide direction to people and motivate them towards achieving organisational
objectives. Within the confines of Virgin Atlantic, leader can make use of the following
leadership styles to motivate their workforce:-
Authoritarian leadership style- In this leadership style, leader dictates certain
procedures and policies to its subordinates and decide the goals which are about to achieved and
controls and directs all the activities without any kind of meaningful participation of
subordinates. Such leader has the control over team, and leaves low autonomy within the team.
The authoritarian leader has a vision in mind which enables to motivate team members in an
effective manner for accomplishing a task and they are required to perform a task under close
supervision of leader (Macdonald, Burke and Stewart, 2018).
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Transformational Leadership- In this style of leadership, leaders helps in encouraging,
inspiring and motivating workers to innovate and change which will help them to grow and
become successful for the future growth of an organisation (Bassell and Lambert, 2018). The
transformational leader motivates and inspires its workforce without micromanaging as they
have faith in their workers to take authority over the decisions in their respective job roles. In this
approach, leader gives workers a room to become more creative and look towards the future and
then find solution to old problems.
Out of these two leadership styles, the most appropriate style of leadership for Virgin
Atlantic is Transformational Leadership as it will give workers a chance to express their views
and opinions. On the other hand, authoritarian leadership is ruled out as it controls workers and
do not allow their participation in decision making process. This would hamper their creativity
and instil a sense of negativity within them (Ensign and et. al., 2019). By applying
transformational leadership style, Richard Branson would be able to make sure that workers feel
good to be a part of the respective airlines company. It encourages the workforce to come up
with innovative solutions that can provide assistance to the concerned business in achieving its
corporate goal and objectives.
Strength and weakness of chosen style
Transformational leadership is an effective leadership style that holds a number of
strengths which would provide aid to Richard Branson in several ways. First of all, this
leadership is focussed upon retention of employees through the charisma held by leader in this
style. This implies that application of this leadership would aid the respective leader in lowering
down the turnover cost. Further, transformational style is best suited to implement changes
within the premise in an effective manner. Through this, Virgin Atlantic would be able to adapt
itself to the changes taking place within the business environment. The strength of chosen
leadership is that it inflates the productivity levels of employees giving them the leverage to
work as per organisational requirements by introducing positive changes. On the contrary, there
are certain weaknesses of this style also that need to be taken into account by the company with a
view to ensure that the drawbacks do not overpower the benefits of this style for Richard
Branson. In this relation, the biggest weakness of this style is that may hold negative outcomes
for the concerned airlines organisation (Madry, 2020). Further, communication is the key in
transformational leadership style wqithout which it would fail to deliver positive outcomes.
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It can be said on the basis of above stances that it transformational leadership style is
effective for Richard Branson if its weaknesses are timely considered by Virgin Atlantic. It
would provide aid to the leader in managing oneself and building healthy relations with others so
as to motivate them in an effective manner. When the workforce receives timely motivation, it
tends to deliver positive outcomes, thereby inflating the scope for timely realisation of corporate
goal.
1.3 Individual Leadership
Reflection on own leadership capabilities and selection of leadership style
As being a leader in the respective airline company, I will give preference to
transformational leadership as the core style which I will also incorporate in my regular based
business work. It can be said that I own numerous of leadership capability belonging to
transformational leadership style which will work as the supportive factor for me to execute my
job role in the organisation. This will also support in attaining organisational work in rightful
manner (Muegge and Reid, 2018). The main capabilities owed by me belonging to this
leadership style includes ability of taking right decisions, making difficult decisions, self
management, adaptability, communication etc. All of these capabilities are considered as the
main one in all leadership capabilities as it helps me out in understanding the work of company
also executing them in the same manner that will be fruitful for all. With reference to my own
capabilities it can be said that I am good in taking rightful decision as my vision in business
context is very strong which helps me enhancing my business growth in right direction. On the
contrary, while talking about my own weakness associated with this skill, it can be said that I am
not that much good in communication skill which directly affect my motivating and inspiring
skills. As being a leader, it is essential for me to have good communication skills so that I can
easily motivate existing workforce towards their respective goals as well as organisational goals.
But, lack of this skill made me feel ineffective in this skill as I am not able to motivate them in
their low time that directly hampers their performance in negative.
Capability to develop to become a better leader
As per the all stated leadership capabilities, it can be said that it is essential for me to
develop communication leadership capability in order to improve my own as well as
organisational performance. In order to develop this capability in rightful manner it is essential
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for me to indulge into maximum number of interaction session so that I will get opportunity to
develop this skill of mine in rightful manner. Along with this, it is also required by me to
communicate to my superiors and other management staff about my core weakness associated
with this skill. These will also support me in improvising their command over this skill as I am
having knowledge about all weak sections. In addition to this, it can be later said development of
communication capability will also help me out in enhancing myself management as well as
relationship building capabilities too. This is because, effective communication will allow me to
convey my messages to all associated people in rightful and influential manner. This helps me
out in developing my relationship with them as they perceive overall information in my expected
manner only. I addition to this, it will also allow me to influence them to work according to my
vision. On the other hand, it can later be said that strong communication skill will allow me to
express my vision to my colleagues in right manner that will directly support me in managing
effective self management work as there are less number of confusions due to strong
communication skills.
1.4 Empowerment
Shift of company from a paradigm of Control to an Empowerment paradigm
Virgin Atlantic could 'shift' from a paradigm of Control to an Empowerment paradigm
owing to the realisation by Richard Branson that control paradigm restricts the creativity of
employees and leads to occurrence of resistance from them. Thus, it became necessary for the
leader to shift the entity to empowerment paradigm which emphasized upon engagement of
employees in key decisions and practices of company. In this regard, it has been analysed that
after reporting a loss for 2 straight years, Virgin Atlantic is intending to return to profitability in
the year 2021 (Virgin Atlantic targets profit in 2021 after second annual loss, 2019). For this, the
shift of paradigm is necessary and thus, the leadership proposed to execute the same in a timely
manner so as to attain the objective stipulated by Richard Branson by the end of 2021.
Implementation of shift along with reaction of employees to change
The respective airline company will implement above shift by enhancing employee
engagement and influencing employees within every decision making in the company. It can be
said that employee engagement is the best way that will help this company in incorporating
above explained shift. This will also result in the higher boost up within the performance of the
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company in rightful manner. Along with this, it has also been seen that there are probable
chances that employees might react in both the positive as well as negative manner towards
organisation. There are probable chances that empowerment paradigm might develop conflicts
among employees as they interacting a lot because of employee engagement which might
develop chance of conflict of interest among them. Apart from this, these employees might also
react positively because they are getting chances to express their views with one another. This
encourages a lot which also influences their performance in effective manner.
Improving leadership ability for change management in effective manner in group & corporation
For effectual management of alteration within the group as well as corporation, Richard
Branson prefers to improve its communication skills in rightful manner as it allows him in
influences its employees towards working in the same direction. It can be said that improvement
in communication skill will directly help the respective entrepreneur in the effective
incorporation of empowerment paradigm within the company. This is effectively done by
influencing interest of employees towards organisation as well as its objectives in rightful
manner. This will also influence their performance and also supports them in attaining
organisational objective in effective manner.
CONCLUSION
On the basis of above discussion, it can be said that effective leadership is the key to
aligning the behavioural pattern of employees in a manner such that they work collaboratively
for the accomplishment of corporate goals and objectives. In addition to this, it has been
analysed that innovation, creativity, observation, different thinking are some of the traits that
must be present within a leader to ensure that the leadership yields desired outcomes as per
organisational requirements. Apart from this, it is inferred that transformational leadership style
is suitable to be adopted by a leader as it helps an entity in effectively executing the change and
inflating the productivity of employees to ensure timely realisation of goal.
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REFERENCES
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Griggs, S. and Howarth, D., 2018. The Airports Commission, the Dilemmas of Political
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