Leadership Skills of Sarina Russo: A Transformational and Democratic Approach

This article discusses the leadership skills of Sarina Russo, founder of the Sarina Russo group, and her transformational and democratic approach to leadership. It explores her background, the leadership style she exercised, the key challenges and issues she faced, and the lessons that can be learned from her leadership style.

Running head: Leadership skills
Leadership skills

Leadership skills
Introduction
The primary purpose of this task is to outline the significance of the leadership. Sarina Russo is
one of the unique and popular leaders who is the chief founder of the Sarnia Russo group. Here
is the discussion about the leadership style that is exercised by the leader. The paper explains that
how Sarina Russio is performing roles and responsibilities for attaining success and growth in
the large extent. Along with this, the key challenges and issues that faced by the leader while
initialing the business actions and operations have been discussed in the task. The biography,
roles and background of Sarina Russo have been explained in the task. More detail of the paper
has been discussed below.
Background of leader
Sarina Russo is a founder of the Sarina Russo group who was born in 23rd June 1951 in
Castiglione di Siclila, Italy. Before becoming an entrepreneur, Sarina Russo was a legal
secretary. She opened “The office” business academy in 1979 with approx $2,600 nine student
and two part time staff. Now Sarina leads the Sarina Russo group. The Sarina group employs
apprx 1000 people and has an annual turnover appox $100 million. It has been found that Sarina
Russon group is invented of: Sarina Russo recruitment, Sarina Russo Job access Australia &
great Britain, Sarina Russo Apprenticeship. Sarina Russo believes that everyone can achieve
success and growth by setting long term goals and objectives in life. She has established the
Sarina Russo group to provide support to employees who are searching job in the global market.
She is known as a financial contributor for the different parties in Australia before being the
director and chief fonder of the billionaire corporation (Clarke, 2013). There are ample of Sarina
Russo institutes and schools that are providing education to the student in all over the world. By
establishing Sarina Russo group, Sarina Russo has been able to provide employment to the job
seekers and employees in the country. Her father, Antonino was a farmer who grew grapes and
hazelnuts. He married Maria. Antonino moved from the village in 1952 for Australia and a
brighter future for his family. Sarina Russo lived of a hard work and no frills. In today’s era,
Sarina Russo is providing full contribution in Sarina Russo Group by monitoring on the training,
learning and education. The group renders various types of knowledge, experiences and
education to the people. It has been stated that Sarina Russo was advisor by her father. She is
2

Leadership skills
considered one of the famous and wonderful leaders in training, employment and education
(Sarinarussorecuritment, 2018).
Description of the leadership approach
It has been found that leadership exercised by Sarina Russo was of the transformational nature as
well as democratic. In democratic leadership style, there is an open and unique disclosure
between laborforces and they follow the unique policies while working. During her leadership,
various actions have been taken by Sarina Russo. One of the significant actions she had taken
was that she started a stress reducing program whereby the manager delegate power and
authorities, initiatiate the cooperation and collaboration and creates an interaction program and
seminars through which the employees can participate in decision making process (Yang, Huang
and Wu, 2011). This is done by Sarina because she wanted best quality of work. It helped the
employees to perform tasks and duties effectively and efficiently. It has been found that
democratic leadership style provides ample of creative ideas, thoughts and opinion for getting
success and growth in the life. Another action that taken by Sarina was two way communication
system in the organization. She found that employees feel unhappy and dissatisfy without proper
communication. Two way communication system helps the employees to maintain reciprocal
relationship with employers within the organization (Giltinane, 2013). Two way communication
system was used by Sarina Russo to reduce and eliminate the barriers and obstacles of the
employees. It is noted that some of the circumstances in which democratic leadership style do
not fit then tensions and anxiety are raised at the workplace. By using this leadership style,
Sarina Russo was able to operate Sarina Russo job access around more than 200 sites. This result
was supported in providing job and growth opportunities to more than 1000 people. The
leadership style provides a real and unique path for the employees seeking to follow a right and
appropriate career in management and leadership around the world (Schyns and Schilling, 2013).
It has been analyzed that the framework of leadership in the organization is much wider however
in today’s era the democratic leadership style is usually more effective and unique (Vinkenburg
et al, 2011). By using this leadership style, the managers maintain dignity and superior emotional
intelligence. The employees are being encouraged and inspired by the shared mission and at the
same collaborated and cooperated to the group members. This leadership style helps in bringing
changes in the community and individuals life. The four pillars of Sarina Russo success include
3

Leadership skills
individual consideration, intellectual simulation, idealized influence and self development. By
using democratic leadership style, the Russo business school has attained 200th position in the all
over the world (Avolio and Yammarino, 2013).
Key challenges and issues encountered by the leader
Although democratic leadership provides ample of benefits to the leaders but it also entails some
of the drawbacks that can affect the capability and potential of the leaders. It is noted that
democratic leadership style is significant to point out that there are theoretical differences
between leadership and authority. Sometimes, democratic leaders do not function well in an
authoritarian role (Heikka, Waniganayake and Hujala, 2013). This style create a atmosphere
where every worker feels that his opinion should be heard simultaneously but in real life only a
few persons can be heard therefore it becomes very crucial for the employees. Such type of
leadership takes ample of time and it is quite complex to make unique and effective decisions.
Furthermore, there is uncertainty in democratic leadership style. It also creates hurdles and issues
at the workplace. It has been found that democratic leaders become apologetic in the workplace.
In addition, leaders forget the ideas of collaboration and team building. Apart from this,
democratic leadership style does not fulfill the all demands, wants and expectations of the
organization. In this way, ample of issues and challenges are faced by the leaders while
exercising democratic leadership style. However, Sarina Russo handled and controlled to strive
with the disadvantages of the leadership strategy. She ensured that workers should be listened
and heard equally and properly (Voegtlin, Patzer and Scherer, 2012). This will help to motivate
the workers and on the other hand, it also increases and enhances the productivity and efficiency
of the workers (Raelin, 2016). There are ample of ways through which the leadership strategy
can be made more attractive and effective in the firm. The mission and vision of the firm shall be
effective and logical which can be analyzed and understood by the employees effectively.
Furthermore, these mission and vision should be communicated to the employees in an effective
way (Voon et al, 2011). Training and development coaching shall be provided to the employees
so that the Sarina Russo group, business school and job access institute established by Russo can
be managed and operated in a hassle free manner. Mentoring program and session shall be
conducted to monitor on the performance and productivity of the employees (Kellerman, 2013).
Learning
4

Leadership skills
After evaluating the leadership of Sarina Russo it can be said that she is a well known and
brilliant leader in the competitive market (Gunter, Hall and Bragg, 2013). After measuring the
leadership skills of Sarina Russo, it has been learned that like Sarina Russo a leader should be
able to monitor on the brand image and financial position rather than the market share and
volume of revenue. For becoming a wonderful leader, it is essential to focus for the leader to
focus on own skill, talents and knowledge. Along with this, managers and leaders should be able
to handle his/her emotions intelligence and feelings to give a steadiness in the tasks and duties.
The enlargement of the capabilities and knowledge must be done on a regular basis to become a
great leader. The leaders must possess the capability and talent like Sarina Russo to make a
bright future. The leaders should appreciate whenever required. It can be learned that whether
how the leaders should treat with employees in the organization. The leaders provide right
guidance and path to the workers for performing roles and responsibilities effectively. Therefore,
various things can be learned from the Sarina Russo leadership style (Dinh et al, 2014).
Conclusion
From the above mentioned analysis, it has been concluded that leadership plays a significant role
to make a dynamic brand image in the minds of the customers. Sarina Russo is the wonderful
and brilliant leader who provides motivation to the workers for exercising roles and
responsibilities effectively. She is the chief founder of the Sarina Russo group that provide
support to the employees by providing employment to them. The leadership style of Sarina
Russo has been explained in the task.
5

Leadership skills
References
Avolio, B.J. and Yammarino, F.J. eds., 2013. Introduction to, and overview of, transformational
and charismatic leadership. In Transformational and Charismatic Leadership: The Road Ahead
10th Anniversary Edition (pp. xxvii-xxxiii). Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
Clarke, S., 2013. Safety leadership: A meta‐analytic review of transformational and transactional
leadership styles as antecedents of safety behaviours. Journal of Occupational and
Organizational Psychology, 86(1), pp.22-49.
Dinh, J.E., Lord, R.G., Gardner, W.L., Meuser, J.D., Liden, R.C. and Hu, J., 2014. Leadership
theory and research in the new millennium: Current theoretical trends and changing
perspectives. The Leadership Quarterly, 25(1), pp.36-62.
Giltinane, C.L., 2013. Leadership styles and theories. Nursing Standard (through 2013), 27(41),
p.35.
Gunter, H., Hall, D. and Bragg, J., 2013. Distributed leadership: A study in knowledge
production. Educational Management Administration & Leadership, 41(5), pp.555-580.
Heikka, J., Waniganayake, M. and Hujala, E., 2013. Contextualizing distributed leadership
within early childhood education: Current understandings, research evidence and future
challenges. Educational Management Administration & Leadership, 41(1), pp.30-44.
Kellerman, B., 2013. Leading questions: The end of leadership–redux. Leadership, 9(1), pp.135-
139.
Raelin, J.A., 2016. Imagine there are no leaders: Reframing leadership as collaborative
agency. Leadership, 12(2), pp.131-158.
Sarinarussorecuritment.2018. History of Sarina Russo group[Online], Available from
http://www.sarinarussorecruitment.com.au/about-sarina-russo-job-access/history-and-
timeline.aspx, [Accessed as on 5th June 2018].
6

Leadership skills
Schyns, B. and Schilling, J., 2013. How bad are the effects of bad leaders? A meta-analysis of
destructive leadership and its outcomes. The Leadership Quarterly, 24(1), pp.138-158.
Vinkenburg, C.J., Van Engen, M.L., Eagly, A.H. and Johannesen-Schmidt, M.C., 2011. An
exploration of stereotypical beliefs about leadership styles: Is transformational leadership a route
to women's promotion?. The Leadership Quarterly, 22(1), pp.10-21.
Voegtlin, C., Patzer, M. and Scherer, A.G., 2012. Responsible leadership in global business: A
new approach to leadership and its multi-level outcomes. Journal of Business Ethics, 105(1),
pp.1-16.
Voon, M.L., Lo, M.C., Ngui, K.S. and Ayob, N.B., 2011. The influence of leadership styles on
employees’ job satisfaction in public sector organizations in Malaysia. International Journal of
Business, Management and Social Sciences, 2(1), pp.24-32.
Yang, L.R., Huang, C.F. and Wu, K.S., 2011. The association among project manager's
leadership style, teamwork and project success. International journal of project
management, 29(3), pp.258-267.
7