Richard Branson has developed an unconventional leadership style that has gained a devoted following. His teachings on entrepreneurship and success are numerous, but three in particular reveal his soul and the human aspect of Branson's leadership.

As the billionaire founder of the Virgin Group, Branson recognizes that we all must accept the thing we fear the most – our failures – as the path to success and growth. He also believes we must meet our employees' basic needs to positively impact our businesses.

These principles have proven successful for Branson, and he shares them as his keys to success.

1. Reframe how you look at failure

Branson encourages and even celebrates failure at the Virgin Group. He believes that without trying something new and failing, it's virtually impossible to innovate and grow.

Branson has indeed failed spectacularly over the years, like his Virgin Brides experiment (with Branson donning a wedding gown for publicity) that tanked severely. But he's quick to point out that failure is every part of the entrepreneur's journey:

We've never been 100 percent sure that any of the businesses we've started at Virgin were going to be successful. But over 45 years, we've always stood by our motto: "Screw it, let's do it." Do not be embarrassed by your failures, learn from them and start again. Making mistakes and experiencing setbacks is part of the DNA of every successful entrepreneur, and I am no exception.

2. Communicate with your mouth and ears

Leaders often make the mistake of assuming that communication is about telling their people more information, giving them more directions and commands, and sharing more of their point of view, when all employees really want is to be heard.

For Branson, the best of leaders instinctively understand that communication is a two-way street. He said:

Being a good listener is absolutely critical to being a good leader; you have to listen to the people on the front line. That's a very Virgin trait. Listening enables us to learn from each other, from the marketplace, and from the mistake that must be made in order to get anywhere that is original and disruptive.

Most leaders with a good head on their shoulders understand that their front-line workers know when things are not going right or what needs to be improved. 

"If you listen to them," says Branson, "you can soon improve all those niggly things which turn an average company into an exceptional company."

3. Put your employees ahead of your customers

Branson is a people-first leader, which I admire, and for the right business reasons. He has said in the past that if you take care of your people, your people will take care of your customers, which makes everyone – especially shareholders – happy.

Branson has instilled across the Virgin culture the belief that a company's success starts and ends with having an employee-first mindset. 

If managers engage their employees, they'll become more loyal and produce better work, which leads to a better customer experience and, at the end of the road, more profits. In an interview with Inc. some years back, Branson shared:

If the person who works at your company is 100 percent proud of the job they're doing, if you give them the tools to do a good job, they're proud of the brand, if they were looked after, if they're treated well, then they're gonna be smiling, they're gonna be happy, and therefore the customer will have a nice experience. If the person who's working for your company is not given the right tools, is not looked after, is not appreciated, they're not gonna do things with a smile and therefore the customer will be treated in a way where often they won't want to come back for more. So, my philosophy has always been, if you can put staff first, your customer second, and shareholders third, effectively, in the end, the shareholders do well, the customers do better, and you yourself are happy.

This business practice is increasingly becoming the norm for more progressive and fast-growing companies that value their people, even ahead of their customers. The principle is predicated on a simple formula for success: Take care of the people first, and the business will take care of itself.

 

Inc