Marlins GM Kim Ng is the first female to have such a post in the Big Four leagues. She talks with Post columnist Steve Serby about breaking barriers and how she goes about her business.
Q: How would you describe your leadership style?
A: I would describe it as, I guess, No. 1, leading by example. I think No. 2, I will try and be as straightforward and honest as I can with people. And third, I will say that I really do care about the staff and where they want to go in their careers and will help them get there. I think that’s really important for them to know this is not just about this team, but it’s also about them as individuals. And I think that helps them understand and that’s empowering for them. No. 4, I’m not a micro-manager. I believe in giving people a reign within which to work, and you’re giving them freedom to be creative. And 5, I’m a team player, and I want to hear from them. I’m not a rule-by-an-iron-fist type of person. … I am definitely collaborative and inclusive. And lastly, I’ll say while all those things, I do try and be as efficient as I can.
Q: Describe the pressure or responsibility of being a quote-unquote trailblazer.
A: I definitely feel that pressure. I know it’s out there. A lot of people are looking to me. But I feel that my experience and my demeanor and my staff are going to help us quite a bit in trying to win a world championship.
Q: Do you see yourself as an inspiration?
A: It’s not something that I sit there and ponder a whole lot (chuckle) about. I think that now when people bring it up to me, I know that I am, it’s more of a subconscious thing. I would frame it this way: On a daily basis, I don’t necessarily feel like I’m an inspiration, but I do feel the responsibility, that people are looking to me.
Q: What do you think has enabled you to have success in a man’s sport and a man’s world? What has enabled you to open up a door that others and you yourself struggled to open all those years?
A: I think I’m fairly relatable. I was a college athlete. I played a sport that’s not the same, it’s fairly similar, in softball. I think I have a pretty good idea of how to talk to athletes and coaches. Work ethic is huge. I was always trying to stay ahead of the curve. I think I have a background that was foundational in terms of the way that the industry trended towards, which was more of an analytical background.
Q: How would you describe your negotiation style?
A: I think I like to just shoot it fairly straight. I don’t like to waste a ton of time. I will do the dance if needed, but I’d rather just try and be as efficient as I can, tell people where I’m coming from, I try to understand where they’re coming from, try to understand their position and why they think the things that they do. And really try and have constructive dialogue all along the way.
Q: How does Derek Jeter’s leadership style compare with George Steinbrenner’s leadership style if at all?
A: Looking at what Derek has done with the organization, Derek has shown a lot of leadership, and shown that he was going to do some of the things that were not necessarily popular. … He’s shown a lot of patience. He’s trying to build this organization from the ground up, and that meant taking several steps backward in order to move forward.
Q: What did you learn from Brian Cashman during your time with the Yankees?
A: I was always impressed with how prepared he was, and thorough. I do think a lot of that had to do with his personality in general with having been a Yankee his entire career and working for Mr. Steinbrenner. And the second thing I always admired about Brian was how he handled the media … just try and be as straightforward as he could, obviously knowing that they had a job to do.
Q: What traits do you look for in your ideal baseball player?
A: I would say they have to have great work within. For me the ideal is to have players with great aptitude and are open-minded … instinctual … team players.
Q: You sound like you’re describing Derek Jeter and Don Mattingly.
A: (Laugh). Seems to be kind of a theme there isn’t it? … And obviously, you want them to have talent.
Q: How would you describe Don Mattingly’s managerial style?
A: I think Donnie’s got a really interesting style. He is a player’s manager. I think he’s very relatable. He’s able to put himself in the players’ shoes, obviously he was a player, on a huge stage. I think Donnie’s a real positive guy, and a positive manager. I see him as understanding young players. Which is not easy to do. I’ve worked with a handful of managers now, because you’re trying to balance winning today and a player’s career and how they can help be productive for you in the future. And I think Don does a really nice job of it.
Q: What do you hope the Marlins Way is?
A: I think similar to all the things that we just talked about. You obviously want them to be out there giving 110 percent all the time. You always want them hustling. You always want to keep the competition on their toes. In terms of their style of play, you want it to be multifaceted, and … you just want it to be relentless. That was one thing that I really got from being with the Yankees at that time [from 1998 to 2001] — just absolutely relentless, everything that they did, whether it was working the count, or whether it was the pitchers pounding the zone. … Our bench was relentless. Every night was a battle. And every night was a different hero. I call that [‘98] team the sum of the parts, because every night it was somebody different who led the way. When I talk about my career, that team was for me truly inspirational in what they did just day in and day out on a very consistent, dependable basis.
Q: What can be done to better vet would-be hires in the wake of the Mets firing Jared Porter and the Angels suspending Mickey Callaway for sexual harassment?
A: I’m not sure what those vetting processes were like, but I think one of the major takeaways for me is that there should be more women in the game. I think when you have more women in the game, you gain a greater understanding and have more resources to go to, to help you engage in that vetting process.
Q: Who are leaders you admire in sports or out of sports?
A: I would say Pat Summit … John Wooden … Joe Torre. Joe I’ve been around, the other two I haven’t, but just having read about them.
Q: Why Joe Torre?
A: I think he’s got an incredible patient, calm demeanor. He shows great loyalty to his people. Will give you the benefit of the doubt. And tries to put people in areas where they will succeed. He has a way of instilling a lot of complex information, sometimes minutia, into a very succinct way of talking about it, and boiling it down to very easily understood information. He keeps it simple. I also think that he shows humanity in his leadership style.
Q: You mentioned Pat Summit. Who are other women in sports that you admire?
A: Billie Jean King. Incredibly vocal, incredibly impassioned. Very inspiring. Very motivating. From all that I’ve read about her, she’s about a movement, and getting other people involved, and really encouraging them to have a voice.
Q: Why were you a Yankees fan and not a Mets fan growing up in Fresh Meadows?
A: (Laugh) I was a bit of a frontrunner, I guess. It was the late ’70s and the Yankees were pretty good then.
Q: After Thurman Munson died in that plane crash, you had a scrapbook of articles?
A: I did. I did. That was a devastating day for me. I remember hearing it on the radio … absolutely crushed.
Q: Was he your favorite Yankee?
A: He was.
Q: What was it about him?
A: He was just tough. He was tough, uniform was always dirty. He was leading the group, really didn’t care what many people thought, and he was pretty clutch.
Q: Two dinner guests?
A: My dad, Barack Obama.
Q: Why your dad?
A: My dad passed on, and so it would just be great to talk to him again.
Q: How proud is your mom of you?
A: (Laugh) Extraordinarily proud.
Q: She probably never envisioned you in this role I would guess, right?
A: No, not at all. She never wanted me to take an internship [with the White Sox] where I was making so little money. She didn’t want to see my University of Chicago degree go to waste.
Q: Favorite movie?
A: “Deer Hunter.”
Q: Favorite actor.
A: [Robert] De Niro.
Q: Favorite actress?
A: Meryl Streep.
Q: Favorite singer/entertainer?
A: Lizzo.
Q: Favorite meal?
A: A bone-in ribeye steak.
Q: How proud of you are the fact that there is no doubt that you are accepted in the baseball world?
A: Extremely proud. I think that’s one of the things that really hit home when I got this job. … I knew that I was accepted, but I think it was interesting for many people inside the industry as well as outside the industry to then gain an understanding of how accepted I was. It takes a lot to break down walls, in terms of people’s perception of you, just because I am not a man. I think that in a lot of people’s minds that was always going to be a tough obstacle to overcome for me. But I don’t think that they quite … a lot of people didn’t necessarily quite have an understanding of who I was, or the relationships that I had built over a lot of years. And so I think that to be accepted by a lot of different segments of the baseball population is not that easy. And so it is something that I am extremely proud of.
Q: What advice would you have for women who want to be the next Kim Ng?
A: I would just say that they need to be prepared, they need to be focused, to be persistent … and don’t take no for an answer.
