Richard has so many attributes as a leader that I respect and want to replicate at Virgin Hotels, but what I commend the most about him is his listening skills. Given his success, you might think he would want to run all meetings, but he prefers to sit back and listen, take notes and participate when he has something valuable to share. He’d rather be the listener than the talker and I think this is one of the main reasons why he’s so successful. If you ever get a chance to be around him, you’ll see he travels with a small notepad where he collects feedback from staff and guests. He’ll ping the people around him for their comments on the hotel, the food, the rooms and sometimes will turn that feedback into action to better the company.
Slack (the company) has managed this as well, as has Netflix to some degree.
