Skip to main content

Leadership Deconstructed


Interview with Laura Persky, Graduate Program Director by 

Christina Surrusco M.S Sport Business Management ‘2017.


        CS: What is the makeup of a true leader

LP: Great leaders motivate people to act; to work, to 
give or to play hard and one of the outcomes is that 
they help keep their teamsengaged.  As Jeff Weiner, 
CEO of LinkedIn says “a leader inspires others to do 
great things.” Great leaders are approachable, and 
active in the business by being good communicators 
and demonstrating concern for their employees. 

CS: How essential are these individuals in engaging 
employers and productivity throughout the company?

 LP: Leaders are essential to employee engagement and productivity. Leadership behavior sets the tone for the organization.  An organization needs to have authentic, ethical and positive leadership.   This will set the tone for how others behave.  Positive modeling will be followed as will negative.  For example, when senior leaders interact and say hello to employees, it shows that the employees matter.  Employees need to feel safe to take risks, make suggestions and try new things in order to keep up with the changing consumer needs.    
 
 CS: How does one go about building dynamic culture and continually promoting this desired environment? 

Laura Persky 2nd from left BCW Attraction Factor panel 10-17
LP: Culture can be set by the leadership and exemplified by how they behave.  When leadership sets a tone of collaboration and empathy then it will be followed. Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft explains the importance of leadership example when he says “The C in CEO is for Culture.”   Therefore, it is important to follow through and remedy negative situations where the desired behavior is not demonstrated.  Manhattanville School of Business recently hosted a panel discussion on creating culture and one of the speakers, James Giangrande, shared his insight on developing a positive work environment “leave your ego at the door”.   

 CS: How significant is employee retention and if so, what are some areas leaders can adhere to retaining employees? 
LP: Developing and retaining a positive and motivated staff is key to an organization's success because high employee retention helps develop customer relationships and create positive customer service.  Deloitte LLP, suggests that companies should aspire to the achieve the elements in the Simply Irresistible Organization TM model which includes meaningful work, supportive management, positive work environment, growth opportunity and trust in leadership.  
On the flip side, high employee turnover increases expenses and also has a negative effect on company morale.  Leaders should pay close attention to employee turnover numbers and if there is a problem they need to take an honest look at what is driving the issue.  In those cases, ignorance is not bliss.    

    

               Click for more information on the M.S. Business Leadership  or the 

                Advanced Certificate in Business Leadership. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Marketing Success of Mailchimp

Today in the October 5th New York Times there was a wonderful article published about the success of a small business called MailChimp and how they accomplished this while taking the road less traveled. According to the article there are two ways to create a business.  The first is the typical way a business gets started; a young entrepreneur comes up with an innovative idea, next is the creation of a prototype along with participating in a start-up boot camp. This then leads to small investors hopping on board; which leads to the creation of a Kickstarter. If everything works out and the product is successful it’s time for the founders to enter the haphazard mode called expansion. This usually translates to selling off the company piece by piece for huge chunks of money from venture capitalists. Then, once a few years have passed, if all goes well, the founders hit it big time and then BANG their set.  The second and less well known option is just ...
2 comments
Read more

The End Of A Manhattanville Legend

A piece of Manhattanville College died when sister Ruth Dowd passed on Friday, May 31, 2019, four months after her 100 th birthday. People will look at those dates will say “she had a good run,” or “she had a good life.” And while that is true, the fact is those who really knew her know there is much more to her story! Obituaries tell us about a person’s life; where they are from, went to school, worked, their family etc. They are benign by nature…   Let me tell you my thoughts about the PERSON, and bear in mind, I met her when she hired me 13 years ago…when she was merely 87! Ruth is one of my favorite names. Aside from being the eighth book in the Bible, and only one of two named after women in the Old & New Testaments,  it was my Grandmother’s (mother’s side) name. You want to talk about special people???? Sister Ruth Dowd hired me in 2006 to run the sport business management program at Manhattanville College. I took the interviews, but I really was kind...
1 comment
Read more

Why Study Risk Management?

As I read the newspapers, listen to news radio, watch TV news, stream business and general news, one of the words that shows up most frequently is “risk.”   Risky decisions, risk-weighted analyses, risk-focused audit, cyber risk, climate change risk, to name a few examples.   Several business people have told me they just want to run their enterprises and, unless risk taking is explicitly part of the business model (as for an investment fund or insurance firm), they just don’t have time to worry about risk.   This preference, while understandable, appears to be at odds with the frequent media references, so I decided to consult some experts.   The 2018 International Standard on Risk Management ( ISO 31000 ) says that t he purpose of risk management is “the creation and protection of value.   It improves performance, encourages innovation and supports the achievement of objectives.” Another widely recognized industry initiative ( COSO 201...
1 comment
Read more