Richard Branson's leadership style and effectiveness in organizational contexts

Leadership Effectiveness

Leadership

Leadership Qualities

Effective Leader

Sir Richard Branson

Branson Leadership Style in Terms of Leadership Models

The for Framework Approach

Structural

Human Resource

Political

Symbolic Framework

The Three-Stage Model of Effective Leadership

Effectiveness of Branson's Leadership Style in U.S. today 7

Leadership Styles Making Branson a More Effective Leader

Authoritarian Leader

Development of a Global Team

Applying Branson's Leadership Qualities at Work

This paper is designed to analyze the importance of good leadership. How good and effective leaders are made and how effective leadership can lead to the establishment of global team for the successful accomplishment of tasks. It describes the effective leadership style of Branson in terms of the effective leadership model. It describes which leadership styles can make Branson's leadership style more effective. How Branson can develop and lead a global team for a major project and how one can apply Branson's effective leadership style at work.

Leadership Effectiveness

Effectiveness leadership is one of the key elements in the success of a group or company and anyone can be a good leader by following strong leadership strategies.

Thomas Gordon states about leadership that in order to gain the acceptance and trust of the team members it is important for the leader to learn some good leadership manners and tactics.

Leadership Qualities

Good leaders have the following common qualities:

Listen openly to others.

Give clear directions

Offer and accept construction suggestions.

Help members to identify and solve problems.

Show understanding

Encourage members to exchange ideas

Appreciate other's work

Create a productive atmosphere

Handle conflicts

Following these leadership qualities, one can establish a strong foundation that enables to build a team of loyal and committed employees.

Effective Leader

To further elaborate the concept of effectiveness leadership, the effective leadership style of Sir Richard Branson, can be discussed, who is considered as one of the most successful leader and businessman of his time due to his effective leadership qualities.

Sir Richard Branson

Sir Richard Branson is the founder and chairman of the London-based Virgin Group Ltd., and has turned his business into a multibillion-dollar company and one of the world's most recognizable brands. The Virgin Group runs different lines of business such as retail stores, air travels, financial services, books, music and telecommunication. The Virgin Group consists of approximately 200 countries that operate in numerous countries. (Slocum, 2011)

Branson Leadership Style in terms of the Leadership Models

Branson's leadership style can be analyzed by comparing it with two of the most effective leadership models.

The Four Framework Approach by Bolman and Deal (1991)

The Three Stage Model of Effective Leadership by Linda Neider and Chester Schriesheim (1988)

The Four Framework Approach

In this model, Bolman and Deal (1991) suggest that strong leaders usually follow the four types of frameworks; Structural, Human Resource, Political and Symbolic. All of these frameworks of leadership can be observed in the leadership style of Branson. (Deal, 1991)

Structural

In the structural framework the leader focuses on the structure, strategy, environment, implementation, experimentation and adaption. Branson implies all of these rules which make it an effective leadership style.

David Rooke, a Managing Consultant at Harthill states, "Branson is the consummate people's man. He is not a smooth operator that people may feel inclined to distrust, but a genuine strategist, who thinks outside the box, who achieves, and given some of his crazier pastimes, someone who manifestly enjoys life." (Slocum, 2011)

Human Resource

This framework also relates to Branson's leadership style, who believes in people and communicates that belief with them, believes in equal participation of the employees in all the decision makings, provide whenever it is required and shares information with them. Branson believes that making the employees happy would make them do good work, which would make the customers happyand this would eventually benefit the company. (Slocum, 2011)

Political Framework

Branson can also be referred as a political leader who defines what is wanted and what can be achieved. Branson focuses on building strong working relationship with the shareholders, and uses negotiations and coercions if necessary.

Symbolic Framework

Branson's leadership style can be categorized as symbolic, a leader that uses symbols to capture attention and shares experiences and achievements with the employees and customers to encourage and motivate them which eventually benefits the company.

The Three Stage Model of Effective Leadership

In 1988, Management Professor Linda Neider and Chester Schriesheim introduced a three stage model to understand the leadership process. This model explains leadership effectiveness in three stages. These three stages of effectiveness leadership can be observed in the leadership style of Branson. The first stage involves selection and training of the employees. The second stage involves describing the goals and objectives. The third stage involves assessment and rewarding the employees. By following these three stages in the leadership style Branson has proved to be the most effective leader.

Effectiveness of Branson's Leadership style in U.S. Today

US is a democratic state that shows an effective leadership style. It has a strong leadership style that can be easily related to the Branson leadership style as both involve participation and involvement of the people. Leadership strategy of U.S. focuses on creating emotional bond with the people, to understand the needs of the people and provide help at the time of crisis. The U.S. leaders provide equal opportunities to all and provide the full right to make one's own decisions. These points of leadership show that the leadership style followed by U.S. is similar to the leadership style of Branson which has categorized both as effective leadership styles.

Leadership Styles Making Branson A More Effective Leader

Following are some of the leadership styles that can be make the leadership style of Branson more effective when used according to the situation.

Authoritarian Leader

These are the leaders who are more focused on the task and are not very friendly with the workers. These leaders want everything on time and expect people to do what have been told without any question or debate and are blamed if something goes wrong without even looking for a solution to solve the problem. This leadership style can be useful to make Branson's style even stronger as sometimes too much friendliness can spoil the workers and make them ignore the task given to them. This style can be very useful at the time of crisis, when it is time for the leader to take full control. (Benincasa, 2012)

Conclusion

Leadership effectiveness is the key element for the development of a good working team which can help to achieve the goals and objectives of a particular company. Without good leadership qualities it is not possible to maintain a strong team which eventually results in bringing downfall to the company. Branson's leadership style stands among the best leadership example which works as a guideline for those who want to achieve the best working teams and achieve high goals and objectives.