AGL 020: Richard Branson’s ‘The Virgin Way: Everything I Know About Leadership’ Book Summary and Review

I loved this book (click here to pick it up for yourself).  It took me a few weeks to read through it all, but I really enjoyed the wonderful stories that Richard Branson tells about his experiences in Entrepreneurship and leading the Virgin Group. He breaks down the book into four main categories: Listen, Learn, Laugh, Lead and then gives a nice recap of his top tips.  Many of his insights and stories are from the Virgin group of companies and can seem a little like marketing or promotional material, or better yet, highlight reel for the companies he’s founded.  Other stories come for various business leaders such as Steve Jobs, Larry Page, and Elon Musk. I love the way he openly and honestly points out the mistakes of some companies and leaders, but then also praises either their turnaround or other industry leaders who do it right. Listen In this section Richard talks about the importance of taking notes.  I’m terrible at this… really terrible. All through college I didn’t take notes.  I learned to listen and pay attention, without taking notes. It served me really well there, however, with the increased amount of information I’m taking in these days, I can’t keep up without notes. Richard recounts many times where his note taking has saved him and he can look back and see ideas and commitments he’s made in the past. He also talks about how he believes people that take notes are better equipped to do their job and to be leaders. “A really skilled listener not only takes in what has been said but will also hear what has not been said. The unspoken word.” This quote shows me that there is more to listening than just hearing.  Listening requires taking in the body language, facial expressions and tones that surround the words. Sometimes you can hear more in the silence than you can in the words. “Simplicity wins every time.” On my door of my office I have an equation that I stole from Todd Henry’s, “The Accidental Creative”.  It states “1+1=[((27/3)/3)-1].”  That reminds me to keep it simple.  Everytime that I can remember picking a complex solution over a simple one, I regretted it in the long run. “Keeping it short goes a long way” I’m a huge fan of this.  I even have a rule (that’s only mildly enforced) that only permits 4 sentences in an email form my team members.  It helps them learn to get to the point and to understand that if it needs to be longer than 4 sentence, then we should probably talk about it. Learn "Live as if you're going to die tomorrow. Learn as if you're going to live forever" (Gandhi). I believe that learning is very important when it comes to leadership and just being a good employee, especially in the technology field.  When I teach my students at the local university, I try to teach them how to learn, moreover, what to learn.  If you understand how to learn, you can learn anything. Richard uses a quote from Seneca in this book that I just love… “Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.” It basically teaches you “how to get lucky.” For more information about that, check out episode 15. As many of you know, Richard Branson hosted a reality TV show where he hired an apprentice.  Sara Blakely, the CEO of Spanx, competed on the show and gave this quote, “The smartest thing I ever did in the early going was to hire my weaknesses.”  I’ve used this in previous podcasts and will probably use it again.  I think it’s the most important thing a leader should do when hiring, but its also one of the hardest.  We like to hire and work with people that are just like us.  That doesn’t workout too well.  We’re also intimidated by people who can do things better than us, but if they excel at my weakness, then together we can make a great team. Laugh “One hundred per cent down to the people-first culture.” If your employees come first, then the customers, then the shareholders you will be successful.  One of the biggest mistakes I see leaders and businesses ...