MacPhail Addresses Leadership Class

Nichols alum Jack MacPhail '65 addressed Professor Mary Trottier's Introduction to Leadership class in Davis Hall on April 14th.

Jack MacPhail remembers his Nichols years fondly. "It's where I found myself," he told Professor Trottier's Introduction to Leadership class in Davis Hall on April 14th. He played hockey, was a member of the student government association, and lived in Budleigh on the 3rd floor with the late John Jay McCarthy.

For ten years in the 90's, MacPhail was a member of the Nichols Board of Trustees, and he even worked with Vice President of Enrollment and Marketing Tom Cafaro on a team alignment project. Today, he's a member of the Nichols College Board of Advisors.

Before MacPhail's presentation, students were asked to read several Harvard Business Review articles and complete an online assessment of their own leadership potential.

MacPhail told students that learning ability and emotional intelligence is a key component of life-long learning. He talked about a paradigm where leadership looks different at different levels of management based on a study by Russo of 20,000 executives who were categorized into four styles of decision making: decisive, flexible, hierarchic, or integrative.

Senior executives recognize that you have to get things done, but not by yourself. Those compensated at the highest levels tend to make that adjustment to their leadership style when at the managerial level. MacPhail also outlined the components of emotional intelligence, including self awareness, interpersonal skills, understanding others, and putting it all together.

At the end of the program, MacPhail left students with these parting thoughts:

• broad-based experience is essential
• you must "re-tool" yourself continuously
• it's important to be genuine and vulnerable
• always stretch yourself
• a key to future leadership success is understanding the concept of servant leadership

Jack MacPhail

Jack MacPhail is managing director of Korn/Ferry International's Leadership Development Solutions practice for the Americas. Based in the New York City office, MacPhail's experience has included line and staff management in a global enterprise, and senior-level leadership consulting. He specializes in institutional relationships focused upon significant change, with particular expertise in the global financial services field.

Before joining Korn/Ferry, MacPhail served as an executive vice president with Senn-Delaney Leadership, a national consulting firm focused on leadership development and culture change.

Previously, MacPhail served as senior vice president at Chase Manhattan. While at Chase, he worked as a line manager in commercial lending and public finance and as country manager in Sweden and Japan. He also held various senior-level staff positions.

MacPhail holds a bachelor's in marketing from Nichols College and a master's in public administration from the Johnson School of Management at Cornell.