Managing operations at New York’s most prestigious venues requires more than just logistics and coordination. It demands a deep understanding of team dynamics, client expectations, and the ability to maintain excellence under constant pressure. Gianluca Sardo has mastered these challenges through years of experience in the hospitality industry, developing proven strategies and leadership principles that ensure smooth operations even in the most demanding high-stakes environments where failure is not an option.
Building Team Culture as the Foundation
Most managers talk about team motivation, but Sardo has figured out what actually makes people want to work hard. “One of the most important things is team motivation and environment and culture,” he says. “You need to create a cohesive goal and mission for the team.” Sounds simple enough, but here’s where most people struggle. “You need to share your ideas and the reasons behind them. Why are we doing that?” he explains. “It’s not just giving orders or ideas. You need to share with them.” This approach proves effective because when people understand why they’re doing something, they actually do it better. But here’s the part that really matters. “You need to listen to them,” Sardo adds. “Try to get the most out of them and share your ideas. Sometimes they’re good ideas, sometimes they’re okay ideas, but you need to continue to keep them on board.” People want to feel heard, not just told what to do.
Leading by Personal Example Daily
He doesn’t believe in the whole “do as I say, not as I do” approach. “You need to have them on your side, train them, coach them, and help them to achieve the goal,” he says. “But with your support and your lead by example.” That last part is crucial. You can’t expect people to care about quality if you don’t show them what it looks like. “They need to feel that they’re part of something,” Sardo continues. “All together to bring your company and your organization to success, to the objective and all the goals that you set for them and for the company as well.” When everyone’s pulling in the same direction, things actually get done.
He knows that copying success from one venue to another isn’t as easy as it sounds. “This is the most difficult part, right. To be consistent and to replicate the business model that you have in one place to other places,” he admits. His solution? Don’t wing it. “You need to deploy your team to create an opening team that goes there and just replicates what you’ve done in your main location,” Sardo explains. “Set expectations and set goals and set strategy and set processes. Processes are what make you able to replicate your business.” The key word there is processes. Not complicated systems or fancy software, just clear processes that work anywhere. “But you need to have a team of expertise. They are able to make that a reality,” he adds.
Aligning with Client Expectations Fully
Sardo has noticed something that should be obvious but apparently isn’t. “All the operations need to be centered around clients, around client expectations,” he says. “All your operations need to work around the client’s request, the client’s expectations, the client’s goals.” But here’s where most places go wrong. “Sometimes we don’t do that. We just say, oh, we did that every time. So it’s going to be fine,” he points out. “Sometimes you need to step back, reflect, hear them out. Because sometimes they have good suggestions and good feedback.”
Running high-end venues means dealing with chaos on a regular basis. Sardo’s advice? “Never give up. There are moments when stress, pressure, deadlines, and expectations are all coming together towards you.” His solution isn’t meditation or breathing exercises. “You need to be able to receive that, organize your time, organize your team and planning. Planning is the word,” he explains. “You need to plan everything properly in order to not get hit when all these situations happen at once. So you need to be proactive basically and not reactive.”
Sardo didn’t figure this out overnight. “If I look back a few years ago and I remember when I was younger and I began my career and I got hit from all these things together, it was tough,” he recalls. “But you learn with experience, with the right support, you make mistakes and you learn from them.” His final piece of advice cuts through all the noise: “Continue to trust yourself, to work on yourself and continue to push to the limit that you can and push your target, your goals always above the previous one and try to achieve.”
Follow Gianluca Sardo on LinkedIn to see how top-tier operations leadership is built from the ground up.
