Sir Richard Branson on How to Bring Out the Best in Others

Sir Richard Branson is a business magnate who in 1970, founded Virgin Group, a multinational conglomerate operating in various sectors, including travel and leisure, telecommunications and media, music and entertainment, financial services, and health and wellness. The Virgin Group businesses now operate in thirty-five countries across six continents, employing more than sixty thousand people and generating billions of dollars in revenue. In addition to his business endeavors, Richard is a philanthropist, anti-war activist, and encourages business leaders to be more socially responsible.

Richard knows that he doesn’t have the answer to everything, but he can hire a team that can help fill in his gaps. “A lot of entrepreneurs are not good delegators. They want to do it all themselves,” he says. “If you’re stating a business, surround yourself with great people.”

And after hiring the right people, trust them to get the work done. “Give them the freedom to make mistakes, as well as to do good things,” he adds. “Inspire them. Do not second-guess them, and your business is likely to excel as a result. If you give people a big say in what they’re doing, they will flourish, but you will flourish, too.”

Richard knows others can succeed if they are encouraged to let their full potential shine. Here is how he brings out the best in his team:

1. 1. Empower your team by keeping them small. It is essential to keep teams small so there is a clear line of communication. “Some companies let the companies get too big,” Richard says. “From a very young age, I’ve realized that you just should not let your companies get too big; otherwise, you start losing contact with people.”
2. 2. Encourage bold ideas. Great leaders know their team works with them, not for them. This means encouraging collaboration and creating a safe environment where employees feel comfortable sharing their ideas and dreaming big, which pushes them outside of their comfort zone and gives them permission to fail. “People generally leave companies not because of the pay or that they could get more money in another job, but because they come up with a great idea and tell the manager who gives no feedback,” Richard says. “A good leader has to realize that if people stick their neck out and do something really bold, but it doesn’t work out, they must receive praise for trying.”
3. 3. Give constructive feedback in the right way. Feedback is necessary, so voice your concerns in a more positive way. Provide criticism in mature and measured ways that do not make your team feel singled out, and encourage them to do the same for you. “It’s important that teams get feedback and that teams can give feedback to the manager that gives them feedback,” he says. “It should be mutual. . . .You do have to be careful not to criticize people, and certainly not to criticize people publicly. It’s important for a leader to realize that if they say something, it is magnified in the brain of the person they're saying it to many times over.”
4. 4. Listen more than you speak. Active listening can raise team members’ self-esteem and play a key role in helping you learn and hear from others who may have important ideas to share. It is critical to pay attention to your direct reports. “Your brain already knows what you think, so you don’t need to hear it all the time,” Richard says. “If you spend your time actually listening to people, you’re gonna be learning and learning and learning all the time.”
5. 5. Promote from within. Hiring someone from within is a huge motivator. It shows you are invested in your team’s growth and recognize their good work. It also saves companies training time because there is already built-in familiarity with the organization. As Richard shares, “If you promote somebody who’s already within your company, they may not be the best, the absolute best in the world, but you’re never gonna find the absolute best in the world, even with the best talent scouts. But, you’ll know the person’s strengths, and you’ll know their weaknesses before you actually take them on.”
6. 6. Start with a “we” mentality. Remember you are part of a team, not doing every task yourself. That means you and your coworkers need to be a unified front and one that can healthily collaborate as a team to complete hard work. “People who use the ‘I’ word too much, I think, put people off, and rightfully so,” Richard says. “If you’re in a team of people, it’s important that you talk about ‘us’ or ‘we’; try to avoid the ‘I’ word unless it's absolutely necessary. . . .It’s the collective of people that makes something happen.”

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