While investigating Richard Branson’s path to business success, it should be stressed that a traditional manager would not be able to achieve such incredible results. Therefore, he could be considered a powerful leader who makes use of unconventional strategy in managing people. Specifically, the head of the Virgin Group has always been distinguished in stimulating creative ideas and supporting other people in generating creative, unique processes. Such a strategy is not always typical of a traditional leader, who is more concerned with creating ideas and giving orders to subordinates to accomplish those. It should also be stressed that all ventures he guides are not large-scale; rather, Branson pays attention to creating small enterprises in which the major assets are employees’ skills and creative ideas contributing to the organization’s success. Overall, all his leadership strategy is confined to searching for something authentic and unique, which strengthens the competitiveness of the venture.
Regarding the theoretical perspective, Branson’s leadership strategy relies on influencing others to generate success and achieve the desired goals. Because leadership is a social process that influences other members’ actions, it is not limited to the impact exercised by someone taking a higher position because followers constitute an inherent part of the leadership process. Hence, leaders can lead until they have followers, which is the primary condition for success. At this point, the main advantage of Branson’s techniques lies in his ability to notice people who are capable of generating unique ideas and defining the very uniqueness of these new ideas.
There is a strong connection between leadership and followership because they shape the balanced system in which both parties are interested in success. In this respect, the main attributes of leaders involve honesty, competence, straightforwardness, and inspiration whereas followers should possess such qualities as independence, competence, and ability to cooperate. The differences could be even more evident, depending on the circumstances and the goals which need to be accomplished. In this respect, Branson’s wisdom is apparent because the CEO never intervenes with the creative process to impose his ideas. On the contrary, he waits until the idea will be shaped to put into practice.
About the above-presented case, there are several myths about leadership that could be dispelled. To begin with, Branson’s experience supports the idea that a good leader should not necessarily possess common sense and follow the reasonably established strategies for carrying out business. In contrast, Branson’s abilities and skills in school could not be evaluated using standard tests that estimate “common sense” performance. His logic has always been non-standard and unique, which has made him successful. There should be no strict rules and algorithms for becoming a good leader because being successful does not mean possessing common sense and thinking rationally.
Second, Branson could not be regarded as a born leader because some of his conceptions and approaches differ significantly from the accepted ones. Nevertheless, his charismatic personality and great interest in other people provide him with the advantage of other talented leaders. Finally, Branson’s practical experience rejects the fact that leadership skills can be achieved through formal studies only. Encouraging creativity and inspiration into the governing process can be much more interesting and profitable. Therefore, all three myths are dispelled because leadership should adhere strictly to the established frames.