Richard Branson Gave Elon Musk This Life-Changing Advice That All of Us Can Benefit From

Business LoungeJuly 3, 2019

When it comes to successful people like Richard Branson, the founder of Virgin Group, there are always a few principles that have guided them through life, and which we can adopt as well to significantly improve our own.

But, for now, Branson has offered advice to the Tesla founder, Elon Musk, especially in light of the recent controversies being faced by the latter.

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Richard Branson has found enormous success with Virgin Group and knows all about employee management considering Virgin employees approx. 71K people.

Words of Wisdom

In an interview given by Branson to CNBC, when asked if there was any advice that he would like to give to Musk, Branson pointed out that perhaps Musk had taken a lot on his plate and needed to delegate some of his responsibilities.

According to Branson, it is essential to find time for one’s own health and well-being, which includes getting enough sleep every day and spending time with one’s family.

There is a lot of truth in Branson’s words. For example, an essay presented in Harvard Business Review, which focuses on the case of Jenny Blake, a professional business strategist, shows the power of delegation.

According to this essay, Blake was able to save her business, which was on the verge of collapsing, and also multiply its profitability by three times, just because she delegated tasks and responsibilities to her subordinates.

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Elon Musk is considered to be one of the most revolutionary minds of our time.

The Benefits of Delegating

By delegating, Blake found more time to focus on more important aspects of her business, such as formulating and revising her business strategy. According to her, the proper way to delegate is to give up routine tasks to other people while retaining those requiring your expertise and insight.

Another important benefit of delegating properly is diversification of risk. For example, if you ever feel like taking the day off from work, if your team is properly trained in performing routine tasks, they would be able to carry on with business as usual.

Delegating also helps team members remain engaged, and offers enough motivation to encourage optimal productivity.

With proper delegation comes greater responsibility for the employees, which is good since employees desire the freedom to make mistakes and learn from them.

This is also when they are the most innovative in their working methodology, which is obviously beneficial for the company. With enough experience, these employees eventually became an invaluable asset.

Many studies have shown that properly motivated employees add a lot more value to the company compared to those with lower levels of motivation.

Process Improvement

Delegating also brings improvements in the processes of the business. As employees move through the hierarchy, they become responsible for a new set of tasks as delegated to their specific job function.

Compared to someone who has been doing those particular tasks for years, these new set of eyes views tasks from a fresher perspective, possibly bringing in innovation in the processes thereby optimizing the entire workflow. Such optimization can ultimately reduce the cost of doing business in the long run.

Some Alone Time

One major recommendation made by Branson for Musk was that he needed to find some time to spend with his own self.

Since leaders are mostly responsible for steering the company and come up with new ideas, they need solitude and time away from everyday tasks and processes. Branson gave the example of great thinkers of the past to solidify his point.