Sir Richard Branson, Chairman, Virgin Group, Ltd. Case Study Research Paper

Sir Richard Branson, Chairman, Virgin Group, Ltd. Case Study - Research Paper Example One is to remember that it is difficult to make use of one particular leadership style for different types of contexts. However, the leader may demonstrate the best style or a combination of styles for each exclusive leadership context. From the case study, it has been apparent that Sir Richard Branson is one of the most influential, successful and enduring business leaders. Among numerous leadership styles such as autocratic leadership style, participative leadership style and laissez-faire style as well as in terms of authentic leadership model, expert power and referent power models, it can be analyzed that the leadership style demonstrated by Richard Branson is a laissez-faire leadership style. He has been successful in genuinely serving his employees and customers by means of his leadership. He has been interested in empowering the employees that he leads in order to make a vital difference. Richard Branson has natural leadership gifts and, thus, he makes use of his natural abil ities. It has been apparent from the case study that Richard Branson always believed in building long-term relationships with people. Authentic leaders generally learn from their failures. Richard Branson has focused on preparing himself to have another attempt at any failed activity with the required knowledge that he gained from his previous failure. One of the well known facts regarding authentic leaders is that they draw encouragement from their own lives. Richard Branson seems to be inspired by his mother who taught him not to look back in regret but rather to move on to the next task. An authentic leader is someone who is not frightened to admit his mistakes and, therefore, makes efforts to overcome his limitations. By facing weaknesses and declining to compromise with them, Richard Branson tends to identify ways to beat the weaknesses, which helps him to become a strong leader. Richard Branson also seems to possess expert and referent power. He has been capable of influencing others’ behaviors owing to the recognized competencies, talents and knowledge. He is capable of influencing others because his employees respect, admire and like him as a person. Whenever Richard Branson experiences any kind of setbacks, he chooses to pick himself up and try again. His principles are based on the belief that entrepreneurs will only succeed if they have good people around them and they listen to the superior’s advice. Authentic leaders such as Richard Branson care for themselves as well as the people that they lead, and their compassion is genuine (Harvard Business School, 2012). Richard Branson practices self-discipline by incorporating balance into his personal and professional lives. While most of the executives focus upon serving their customers as well as stockholders, Richard Branson believes that the correct hierarchical system in any organization is to have ‘employee at the first position’, ‘customer next’ and ‘s tockholders at the end’. It is because of the effectiveness of Richard Branson’s leadership style that Virgin Group Limited has been capable of becoming a multibillion-dollar worldwide conglomerate and one of the most recognized brands in the world. It has been identified that most of the US leaders tend to have participative leadership styles. Therefore, it can be stated that although Laissez-Faire leadership style tends to