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Richard Branson: Servant Leader
As Robbins and Judge (2017) point out, technical skills are not enough for a leader of an organization to be successful. Interpersonal skills are also necessary—mainly because a leader must be able to develop strong relationships with followers in order to achieve organizational goals. Richard Branson has shown himself to be exceptional at developing relationships with followers, communicating his vision, and serving his workers so that they in turn will serve the vision and achieve the goals that Branson has set out for himself and his teams.
What specifically has Branson achieved? Branson launched the Virgin brand in the late 1960s when he began selling records in the UK from his church basement. He started the record label Virgin Records in 1972, and the airline Virgin Atlantic in 1984. None of it would have been possible without his focus on the need to serve others and to help people get what they could not get otherwise. For example, his record business was a success because he helped consumers purchase the records they wanted at discount prices. His record label was a success because he signed groups that could not find a home at other labels because they were too controversial—groups...
His airline grew out of his experience of having a flight cancelled and deciding to charter his own flight home and offering seats to other passengers at a discount rate to cover costs (Zeveloff, 2011).
His business leadership principle is summarized in this quote: “If you take care of your employees, your employees will take care of your customers and your customers will take care of your shareholders” (Entrepreneur, 2008). Branson has always been about serving others: “Customer service is everything in the end,” he states (Gallo, 2013). The idea of servant leadership is inherent in Branson’s approach to leadership. He understands that in order to be a successful leader one must be willing to serve the needs of others. If one is not serving others, there is no point to being in business. Every one of his businesses in the Virgin Group has grown out of an identified need—i.e., a reason to satisfy others.
Branson is able to achieve great things as a leader because he uses the tools of servant leadership to engage others. He uses emotional and social intelligence to understand what consumers…
References
Entrepreneur. (2008). Richard Branson: The PT Barnum of British business. Retrieved from https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/197616
Gallo, C. (2013). How Southwest and Virgin America Win by Putting People Before Profit. Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/sites/carminegallo/2013/09/10/how-southwest-and-virgin-america-win-by-putting-people-before-profit/
Robbins, S. & Judge, T. (2017). Organizational Behavior, 17th Edition. UK: Pearson.
Zeveloff, J. (2011). Richard Branson: How a canceled flight led to the world’s greatest travel empire. Retrieved from https://www.businessinsider.com/richard-branson-entrepreneur-visionary-2011-5/
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