The Virgin Way: Everything I Know About Leadership (4 page)

The commission reportedly received more than 22,000 statements from such victims and held thousands of public hearings at which they testified on the atrocities they had suffered. Under Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s compassionate but no-nonsense leadership the commission received in excess of 7,000 amnesty applications, held some 3,000 amnesty hearings and granted more than 1,500 amnesties. As with any such polarising issue, the TRC’s work had its critics but was considered by most to have been an unprecedented success in healing wounds that, if left untreated, could have become festering sores for generations to come.

Among the Elders, two equally remarkably listeners whom I have been lucky enough to get to know, are former US president Jimmy Carter and Mary Robinson, the first woman president of Ireland and UN high commissioner for human rights. No matter what the subject, they both possess an incredible talent to tune in intensely to what’s being said – I am a firm believer that the kind of wisdom such people manage to accumulate and dispense is directly attributable to their extraordinary listening skills. What they have said and done is what the history books will post as their legacies, but their greatest achievements are all down to what they were able to absorb by the simple act of listening.

‘AS I WAS INTERRUPTING . . . ’

When you start trying to become a better listener the first difference you’ll notice is similar to how you see things after you’ve lost some weight. It’s only once you manage to successfully drop fifty pounds that you are suddenly aware of all the people around you who could benefit from doing the same thing. Watching others, one of the first things you will be aware of is that listening while keeping your mouth shut and saying nothing is a whole lot smarter than not listening, speaking up and saying nothing. As opposed to really listening, a lot of people get totally hung up on frequently interjecting with comments and questions they mistakenly think make them look smart. This is seldom the case as, on the usually flawed assumption that they know what the speaker is going to say, instead of listening their focus shifts entirely to trying to formulate ‘smart’ questions. In addition to the sheer rudeness of their constant interruptions, such people usually only succeed in looking foolish. It all comes back to note-taking. Rather than constantly interrupting a speaker with self-serving questions, it is a whole lot smarter (and better table manners) to note down comments and questions and save them for later – if indeed the issues haven’t been covered by the time everyone gets to ask questions.

A wonderful Mark Twain quote is:
‘There is nothing so annoying as having two people talking when you’re busy interrupting.’

Interruptions when speaking are unfortunately a fact of life and we have to learn to live with them. I must confess, however, that when I am trying to express my thoughts to a group of people I find constant interruptions really exasperating. I have tremendous admiration for our CEO and president at Virgin Galactic George Whiteside’s uncanny ability to handle interruptions. Perhaps he learned the art in his previous position as chief of staff at NASA where he was accustomed to dealing with highly opinionated politicos much of the time, but one way or the other he is a master at it.

If someone rudely interjects when George is speaking, it is a thing of beauty to watch. He will stop mid-sentence, smile and listen politely for as long as it takes them to get their point across. George will then acknowledge the person’s point of view or question and either respond there and then or say he will come back to it later before seamlessly resuming where he left off with his presentation. It can sometimes help to try and ward off interruptions by asking for questions to be held until the end, but George’s technique certainly beats any other approach – particularly the popular one of simply ploughing ahead at a higher volume while totally ignoring the interruption from the floor.

THE UNSPOKEN WORD

A really skilled listener not only takes in what has been said but will also hear what has
not
been said. One of the easier results of this can allow questions such as, ‘I was intrigued to note that you failed to make any mention of XYZ. Does this mean you don’t consider it relevant to your proposal?’ A more interesting spin on the unspoken word, however, can be recognising when someone is deliberately avoiding an issue that they should really be addressing. In a one-on-one chat with a mid-level manager, for example, if they painstakingly steer the subject away from any mention whatsoever of their divisional vice-president’s role in a failed initiative when they would seem to be a logical part of the dialogue, it may be enough to confirm concerns about there being a cover-up going on.

An actual example of such a ‘deafening silence’ was to be seen in the UK Department for Transport’s bungled handling of Virgin Trains’ 2012 bid to retain the West Coast franchise. More on this later, but suffice it to say that in this context the government’s silence and disinclination to address cold hard numbers that showed our rival’s bid to be far riskier than the government believed and it set alarm bells ringing in my head that all was not well with the process.

Similarly, paying close attention to not just what someone says but the way in which they say it can help you to read between the lines – a place where the real story is often dramatically different to what the casual listener might understand is being said ‘on the lines’. While what a speaker says can have several layers of meaning, how it is said can also be a giveaway to various subtexts. I have always found it hugely interesting to closely observe a speaker’s body language, facial expressions, the enunciation of certain words and all sorts of subtle innuendo, which can put a very different spin on what the words alone might convey. I remember vividly watching British Airways chairman Lord King responding to a TV interviewer on the so-called ‘Dirty Tricks’ case. When he asserted that no one on BA’s senior management team had sanctioned, or had any knowledge of, the unauthorised misdemeanours of his airline’s lower-level employees, the way he looked away from the camera as he said it made me seriously question the veracity of his statement.

LISTENING DOESN’T GO UNNOTICED

When you take the time and effort to improve your listening skills by growing that extra pair of ears, you will be pleasantly surprised by how much your people will appreciate the new you. It is a strange facet of the human condition but invariably when you engage in a thirty-minute dialogue with someone and manage the conversation in such a way that you get the other person to talk for twenty-five of the thirty minutes, the person who you allowed to do all the talking is highly likely to go away impressed by what a great conversationalist you are. If on the other hand you yourself had spoken for twenty-five of the thirty minutes, that same other party would most likely be thinking, ‘What a talker! I couldn’t get a word in edgeways.’

Actively creating meaningful ad hoc or semi-formal opportunities to speak
with
rather than
at
your people, and then actually listening attentively to their responses, achieves some incredibly positive outcomes. In addition to what you’ll hear straight from the horse’s mouth that you’d never be able to find in a management status report, the fact that a senior person (you) cares enough about their opinions to actually ask for them – and then take the time and attention to listen to them – is of unbelievable value to all concerned. It may be hard to believe but I’d even submit that such an event contributes much more for most people’s morale than giving them a raise! Show me a company where such interactions are a comfortable feature of the daily routine and you’ll be looking at a company with a culture that works better than most – in every sense of the word.

HOW VIRGIN VIEWS VIRGIN

Our top company, Virgin Management, recently conducted a major piece of research throughout all the Virgin Group companies around the globe, the purpose of which was to try and gain a clearer understanding of how our people define leadership in the Virgin world. This was not some type of ‘360’ review session, but more of a wide-ranging, in-depth review of the leadership styles our people are experiencing presently and what they expect to see from their leaders going forward. To avoid any misunderstandings, I should make it very clear that this was not about me – it was focused on leadership at every level throughout the Virgin companies. By sheer coincidence the project was titled ‘The Virgin Way’.

We believe that one of the key differences that makes Virgin such a special place to work is the fun and freedom of expression that results from the absence of employee handbooks that read like some kind of a corporate penal code. There are, of course, some people who require and enjoy the disciplines and order that stems from a highly regimented work environment, the kind of people who are governed by ‘the book’ and where the role of management is to enforce the rules and regularly throw the said (heavy) book at anyone who dares to deviate from the corporate dogma. Such people would
not
enjoy the Virgin way.

Along with all the top people from almost every company in the group, I attended a day-long review of the first cut of the research and as expected it was filled with some utterly fascinating takes on the inner workings of what makes Virgin tick. Before going into this session had anyone asked me (which they didn’t) what I would list as the top Virgin leadership attributes, I would likely have said, not necessarily in this order:

• integrity

• a sense of humour

• an entrepreneurial spirit

• they have to be ultra-gregarious

• they should truly care about their people

• be able to delegate work (and credit) where it’s due

As it turns out I was almost spot on as the employee list, although longer, fell under the broad categories of:

• they should embrace individuality

• have an entrepreneurial spirit

• empower their people

• inspire trust

• be ‘in it together’

• be genuinely caring

• be energisingly passionate

• be accessibly informal

The day was spent going through the wealth of employee-generated feedback that had built these categories and in the process I couldn’t help but notice that there was one common denominator that ran like a golden thread through every one of these headings, as you may have guessed based on the theme of this chapter. The key to almost every one of these leadership attributes was the vital importance of a leader’s ability to listen.

Here are some direct quotes on listening that we received about our leaders in just a few of the companies. They are representative of recurrent themes that we were delighted to see ran through every business unit.

From Virgin Mobile Australia:

‘He can have a conversation with you on a personal level but you can also challenge him and give your opinion without feeling like he isn’t listening or it’s a career-limiting move.’

I especially like this one as I believe that good employee relations should stretch beyond purely work topics. You cannot fully understand colleagues if you don’t know anything about their life outside of the office. As described here, a broader relationship can make both sides more comfortable expressing their feelings openly and honestly.

From Virgin Trains:

‘He obviously has interests to do with the shareholders and the financial side of things, but he also wants to hear what I have to say, wants to hear what the cleaners have to say. He wants to see the whole picture and he has all of our interests at heart.’

This is great to hear as sometimes feedback from the most unlikely places can be the most valuable and I believe that, as the old saying goes, ‘God is in the details’ – details that often go unseen if only viewed from the corner office.

From Virgin Media:

‘She’s out there, she’s on the ground, she listens, she acts on feedback.’

More of the same – getting out and about and keeping an ear to the ground on a daily basis works wonders for any leader and the culture.

From Virgin Active UK:

‘I don’t care if you’re the managing director or whoever, somebody that you feel you can talk to, I think embodies Virgin.’

Rank simply isn’t part of the Virgin way of being. A hierarchy is always a huge obstacle to good workplace relationships, especially when elitist managers hide behind their desks and their titles. I go by plain old ‘Richard’ – Mr Branson was my dad!

From Virgin Limited Edition:

‘He’s always fair. He always listens to suggestions. He’s always got time for you in anything really, if it’s eleven o’clock at night or whenever he’ll always listen, that’s important.’

Getting around the company is important but only if you make the time to listen to your people. Lines like, ‘That sounds really interesting but I’m afraid I have to run to a meeting right now’ can do irreparable harm.

LOCATION, LOCATION, INTIMIDATION

In the research there were a group of attributes that were locked in with the importance of listening. One of the most frequently mentioned was ‘accessibility’. Clearly there’s little value to being a great listener if people can’t get to you – or worse, if you can’t get to them. Visiting your staff in their ‘natural habitat’ as often as is practicably possible is huge for you and for them. I often find this to be one of the biggest gaps in the make-up of otherwise very accomplished leaders. They are all busy-busy people, with big important things to do, big important people to meet and big decisions to make and big . . . well, you get the picture! To close this top priority circuit, though, making the commitment every week to spend some quality time with your most important assets – your people – is every bit as critical as any other entry in your diary. A tall order, perhaps, but it is a discipline that, if you can pull it off, brings huge paybacks on multiple levels, often in the most remote places where you probably never imagined you had levels of influence.

I have always enjoyed a bit of an unfair advantage when it comes to my appreciation of the need to visit one’s employees in their own workplaces. It is almost certainly a by-product of the fact that I have never really worked from anything remotely resembling the conventional perception of an office. I started out in a church crypt before moving to
Duende
, a houseboat in London’s Little Venice, on which I also lived with my wife and newborn daughter. Next I inhabited what would usually have been the living rooms of our various family homes and then in recent years I have moved into a rattan chair or a hammock on Necker Island. I can put my hand on my heart and say I have never sat in the corner office!