Retail Execs Share Their Leadership Styles
The question below was included in the cover story of Total Retail’s Winter issue, Top Women in Retail 2017. Among the questions asked, “How would you describe your leadership style?” Here are select answers to that question from some of this year’s honorees.
Rebecca Minkoff, Co-Founder and Creative Director, Rebecca Minkoff: Collaborative, encouraging, motivating, great listener, caring, approachable, supportive.
Andrea Hyde, CEO, Draper James: Disciplined, balanced and bold.
Paula Schneider, CEO, DG Premium Brands (Seven For All Mankind, Splendid and Ella Moss): Inclusive and a bit disruptive. I’m usually brought in to help with turnarounds. I encourage participation and freethinking. You have to try new things and perhaps make some mistakes. If you don’t try new things, then you can expect the same results.
Carly Rosenberg, President, Bluefly: When I have a strong team achieving its goals, I give my team lots of autonomy. When I have a team that’s struggling and not meeting its metrics, I have to roll my sleeves up and be more of a micromanager.
Traci Milholen Inglis, Chief Marketing Officer, Fast Fashion at TechStyle (JustFab, ShoeDazzle): Calm, collaborative and empowering. I like to encourage my team to think outside the box to come up with realistic and creative solutions to problems. I usually have a point of view, but it’s important to be truly open to hearing new ideas. Steve Jobs put it well when he said, “it doesn’t make sense to hire smart people and tell them what to do; we hire smart people so they can tell us what to do.”
I like to plan ahead so we’re ready for the unexpected. And when the unexpected happens, I can feel the room waiting for my reaction. Staying calm relieves the team’s anxiety and leads us to the best possible resolution in the quickest manner.
