Surrounds Himself with People Smarter Than Himself
The secret to great managers and business leaders is understanding their limitations and surrounding themselves with people that are far better at a lot of things than themselves. Branson is not an exception to this rule; he practices the same thing.
One can, and I think should then ask the question of what use is someone like a Branson or an executive to a company?
It's one thing to be someone that can perform something better than a leader, it's something totally different to be a leader.
Having smarter people doesn't imply stupidity in a great leader, rather it shows that the leader understands that there are tremendous limitations to what one person can do, and their job is to be more of an orchestra director than to attempt to do all the work.
This is one of the reasons that certain people in small businesses never grow. They refuse to let go of complete control, and the result is that the business can only grow as large as the owners control will allow it. If they can't control it, they don't allow it to grow. It's another way of saying that they aren't able to trust people or are secure enough to let someone else take charge of certain aspects of the business.
But if we want great businesses, we need to hire and engage with people that are far better than us in specific areas. To not do this is to be addicted to mediocrity.
Other Richard Branson Resources:
Richard Branson's Virgin Success
Thoroughly postmodern billionaire
Richard Branson's latest adventure will take Virgin into space
Richard Branson - Life - Philanthropy - Money
Richard Branson, Business Personality
Richard Branson conquered the world. Now he wants to fly you to space.
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