Introduction Brief Biography Mr. Richard Branson was born in the country of surrey in England on July 18 th 1950.

. He had passed through a very tough childhood where he had to have changed many schools in a relatively short period of time. Leadership skills were mainly part of his character though he went through tough times but his leading characteristics appeared at a younger age as well where at the age of 16 he founded a school magazine and called it the student. That magazine was the bedrock of his achievements and all his businesses where the success of the magazine pledged him to go further in the market and he became interested in music records and he founded the Virgin records in 1973 with assistance of young artist but his management skills and commitment to work and great leadership captured the attention of famous names in the music industry who became willing work with him like the Rolling Stones. The success of Virgin Records had been continued and Mr. Branson has been able to use the revenues in other investments and business expansions where the Voyager group; a travel company had been founded in 1980 and then followed by Virgin Atlantic; an air carrier and the last one was the Virgin Galactic; a themed business that provides outer space tourism tours to rich people where this idea is still new but yet the demand on it is very high. His consistency and commitment to work and his great leadership skills had made Mr. Branson a Billionaire and in addition to this he is an active person in the society and he is involved in many environmental and ecological causes. As certification for his leadership and achievements he had been awarded many times among which being named a Sir by her majesty the Queen of the United Kingdom.

Leadership Traits and Influences Leadership has many theories and there are lots of studies that are made in this concern but the most important thing is that each leader should has his or her unique personality and should have the proper influence on people rather being influenced by others though it is not a necessity or a must that the leader should not be influenced by others. When it comes to Sir Richard Branson we can find that this man has been born a leader; the man doesnt operate from an office where he doesnt have Head Quarters to settle in and also he doesnt even use computers for business purposes but yet his skills belong to him where he keeps working all the day. He considers that his life is separated into three thirds; the first one he uses it for thinking and brainstorming; the second one is used for working on the ideas that his mind generates; and the third one is used to promote and market his business. He considers that his business travels involve his family and include a vacation plan in the middle where any visit to him is a business combined with vacation. His leadership traits are mainly derived from ambition and energy in combination with desire to lead and self-confidence where to him he always thinks that failure is the key school of success and we do not have the motivation to continue if things are easy where we should pass through hard times to learn from them. No leader selects a certain theory and apply it over himself but the leader behaves spontaneously and then his behaviors, trends and details of actions determines to what theory or school he is shaped or characterized and also it is not necessary that the leader should be linked to one school only where leaders can be traced through many theories that influence

their actions. When it comes to Sir Branson his leading skills are more closed to the transformational theory because he is a proactive leader where he is always active in his work and dedicate too much time for it; also he is also following a wide scope of organizational culture and persistently working on implementing new ideas to it even if these ideas are not related where we see how he shifted from press to music to aviation in industries that are not even related to each other in any case. Leaders are not made to be influenced by others in most common cases but they should become influencers where Sir Branson has become a notable influence on the biggest business social Network LinkedIn and he is also influenced by other people that are not related in any means to his businesses and his nature of work like the late African Leader Nelson Mandela and the Previous US Vice President Al Gore. Sir Branson faced many situations where the leadership behaviors should be derived but they mostly came at an earlier age like when he decided to establish the Student Magazine in 1966 and also when he decided to support the ecological global campaign against global warming in 2007 where these decisions were made instantly and in spontaneous way and they showed the independency he has in decision making and this is very important for the leader. Both decisions were success and appropriate where the first one has led Sir Branson to become a leader and successful businessman while the second has made him an activist for a big social concern like global warming in collaboration between business and ecological associations. Success of Richard Branson Success, Accomplishments and Ethical Standards There are many reasons behind the success of Sir Branson as a leader where his key strengths are mainly represented in his appreciation to people and his ability to motivate them and his

decision making skills that enables him to take decisions and implement them in a proper way and directly where such a thing is very important for leaders. Also the key success to becoming famous is that he is working in diversity business from media to aviation and music and other industries and that thing widened his network of relationships. There are no much identified weaknesses in his leading skills except the part related to his family where his full focus is mainly made for his businesses and yet the time that should be assigned to family should be more according to him. Sir Branson has many activities and accomplishments where in addition to being the owner or co-owner of more than 250 companies and becoming a Billionaire he also had a big success in making the Virgin Name one of the most expensive brand names in the world. In non related business achievements he had made many social and environmental charity and solutions in his life like considering the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in all the fleet of Virgin Atlantic in cooperation with Boeing and also as mentioned above he was named Sir by the Queen of the United Kingdom. When it comes to Richard Branson there has been no ethical cases arose so far where his relationship with his employees is perfect, he is an environmental and social charity activist and he is also a motivated man to business but such thing had been arose in his beginning of his career when he was mostly surrounded by music artists where in that time he was involved in drugs but from the 80s onwards his personal record is good and there are no ethical issues at all.

Conclusion In this report we had stated the leadership skills of Sir Richard Branson in a descriptive way where we donated more to his traits than considering the theories of leadership but yet we stated that he is more closed to the transformational leadership than other leadership schools. Sir Branson had always been an active man where it is most likely to state that he didnt gather his wealth yet it is better to mention that he build it up because he founded each company separately and also he was hiring motivated people and give them stake in the company and make them partners so that they give everything to the company and that he can assure the success. He is a good listener and appreciates initiation of ideas by other people and also he has quick response to decision making where he doesnt mention that he ever regret a decision but he states that sometimes he made mistakes and he learnt from them. Sir Branson like other leaders has strengths and weaknesses where is good in decision making and troubleshooting but at the same time he doesnt have enough time for family and though he had made many achievements in his life and his career and become a billionaire and Sir but yet he is still regretting the time when he was involved in drugs and consider it a bad time of his life and a black point in his white history.

References 1. http://www.biography.com/people/richard-branson-9224520 2. http://www.virgin.com/entrepreneur/richard-branson-how-be-real-leader 3. http://influentialleadership.com/sir-richard-branson/ 4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Branson 5. http://www.markedbyteachers.com/university-degree/business-and-administrativestudies/swot-analysis-on-the-virgin-group.html