Leadership in Business: Qualities, Styles and a Case Study of Richard Branson

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Leadership in business
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Introduction
Leadership is a critical aspect of the daily running of any business or organization. The
Leadership qualities of business owners and/or managers and the type of leadership style they
portray has a lot of contribution to the direction a business or organization takes in regards to
serving its purpose. Leadership is important in a business and defines whether a business is
bound to succeed or fail. The difference between businesses that fail and those that often succeed
is to a large extent leadership issue. John Calvin Maxwell, an American author, speaker, and a
pastor sums what leadership is in one of his quotes that; “a leader is one who knows the way,
goes the way and shows the way”
Different leaders portray different leadership qualities. Great leadership according to
Fries (2018) have eight essential qualities that define them. A great leader should be enthusiastic
and sincerely portray that enthusiasm in his/her undertakings. Enthusiasm drives passion. A
leader should be passionate about the company's ideologies, products or services for him/her to
be able to lead a team to achieve the set goals. Leaders also ought to display integrity at all times.
They are supposed to do the right thing and stand for it even if that which they believe in is not
the right thing for the situation at hand. Communication is a relevant tool for a leader to always
put his/her team on the check. Leaders should be able to communicate directions and/or findings
to their team members without distortion.
Further, a leader should exhibit loyalty at all times. Loyalty in this perspective would
imply a leader being able to make decisions that benefit their team members. Such leaders should
also ensure that they stand with their team members in times of conflict, crisis or better times
too. Decisiveness is also an important trait for leadership. Leaders should be able to make
decisions that they themselves could be held accountable for even when things do not go right as

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per their expectation. Last but not least, a leader should have managerial competence. This
attribute requires that leaders are able to make sound decisions that bring balance to their team
and not division. A leader should be able to motivate, inspire, mentor and even direct activities
and teams they are responsible for.
Leadership styles
Leaders also apply different leadership styles. One may choose to adopt one leadership
style and use it effectively to produce good results. Still, some leaders prefer an integrated
approach to leadership styles in which they adopt and apply different leadership styles at
different instances and still get desired results. An array of leadership styles exists for the choice
of leaders. Eagly, Johannesen-Schmidt and Van Engen (2003) classify leadership styles as either
transformational, transactional, laissez-faire and situational.
Transformational leadership style
Medley and Larochelle (1995) define transformational leadership style as a type of
leadership geared towards bringing a change to an individual and a social system. It aims at
inculcating a positive attitude in a follower who eventually will become a leader. It is a follower
development oriented type of leadership where a leader applies motivation, morale boost and
performance improvement strategies to grow someone wholesomely.
Transactional leadership style
Nanjundeswaraswamy and Swamy (2014) define transactional leadership style as a type
of leadership that focuses on results but with strict adherence and conformity with the rules and
regulations. The basic structure of such type of leadership is working as per the directions were
given and laid down rules. The leader gives directions as per the company policies and

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everything is done is such strict conformity. Tasks are routinized through the management of
individual performance and team performance.
Laisses fair leadership style
According to Merrill (2015), laissez-faire leadership style also known as delegating leadership
style is a type of leadership practice in which leaders tend to be hands-off and give
responsibilities to their team members to make responsible decisions. This leadership style is
characterized by a reporting structure where individuals report to their leaders the updates of a
task assigned to them. The leaders in this leadership style are held accountable for all the
decisions that their team members make.
Situational leadership style
Thompson and Glaso (2015) define situational leadership style as a leadership style that
is shaped and adjusted by the leader to fit the developmental capacity of the team s/he seeks to
lead. This leadership style is solely dependent on the leader's flexibility to change his/her
leadership styles to fit in with the team s/he leads and not that the followers are the ones to adjust
and blend well within the leader's style of leadership. Therefore, the leadership style adopted by
the leader often changes with time-based on the diversity in a team. It requires that a manager
adopts different leadership styles in dealing with different scenarios at work.