{"id":1451,"date":"2014-05-13T15:12:10","date_gmt":"2014-05-13T19:12:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/magazine\/?p=1451"},"modified":"2025-01-28T09:18:56","modified_gmt":"2025-01-28T14:18:56","slug":"leaders-are-made-not-born","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/magazine\/2014\/05\/leaders-are-made-not-born\/","title":{"rendered":"Leaders Are Made, Not Born"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3>That\u2019s the belief at Seton Hall. And the success of the Leadership Development Program at the Stillman School of Business shows how promising students transform into young professionals equally at home in the classroom and the boardroom.<\/h3>\n<p>Zachary Blackwood stood inside Investors Bank\u2019s executive suite, facing the company\u2019s chief executive officer, senior vice president and several directors. Dressed in a full suit, dark shoes glistening, he tried to quiet his nerves. It wasn\u2019t easy, since he had an intimidating mission: tell these high-level executives how to improve their company.<\/p>\n<p>Blackwood and his colleagues had been preparing for almost two months. They\u2019d gathered data on how the bank\u2019s branches looked, the customer service each provided and the online experience Investors offered. That day in February, they laid out their findings and recommendations in the Investors Bank boardroom.<\/p>\n<p>About a week later, Blackwood received a phone call: Would you like to come intern for us?<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Leadership Honors: Stillman School\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/-omTQYYTVa0?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Though he\u2019d just been offering recommendations to the bank\u2019s most senior executives, Blackwood wasn\u2019t an employee or consultant. He is a student in the Stillman School of Business\u2019 Leadership Development Program, and at the time of that big presentation \u2014 which he gave with four of his classmates \u2014 he was only midway through his freshman year at Seton Hall.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_1453\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1453\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/magazine\/files\/2014\/05\/leadership.jpg\" data-rel=\"lightbox-image-0\" data-rl_title=\"\" data-rl_caption=\"\" title=\"\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1453\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/magazine\/files\/2014\/05\/leadership-300x140.jpg\" alt=\"Kathleen Ellis, senior vice president at Chubb and a member of the Leadership Development Advisory Council, shares her business savvy with students.\" width=\"300\" height=\"140\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/magazine\/files\/2014\/05\/leadership-300x140.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/magazine\/files\/2014\/05\/leadership.jpg 574w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1453\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Kathleen Ellis, senior vice president at Chubb and a member of the Leadership Development Advisory Council, shares her business savvy with students.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Incredible, perhaps, but nothing unusual in the Leadership Program, which catapults undergraduate students into remarkable situations on a daily basis. One week they\u2019ll be presenting their suggestions to senior executives. Another day they\u2019ll sit down with University President A. Gabriel Esteban, or hear a Stanley Cup winner\u2019s take on leadership, or discuss business ethics with a prominent CEO.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThese students are exposed to experiences that change their mindsets entirely and challenge them to broaden their world views, to see something more,\u201d says Professor Michael Reuter, director of the Center for Leadership Development. \u201cThey\u2019re the best of the best. When they walk into the room, their poise and professionalism just knocks the socks off people.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur mission,\u201d he adds, \u201cis to develop extraordinary people into great leaders.\u201d And with a recent seven-figure gift commitment from Gerald P. Buccino \u201963, a top-25 national ranking, and a growing base of high-powered alumni, the Leadership Program has been attracting notice in both academia and the business world \u2014 and it\u2019s far from finished with its ascent.<\/p>\n<p>On one of the first days of his Leadership 101 class each fall, Michael Reuter issues an unexpected challenge.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDevelop a presentation about the next five years of your life,\u201d he says. \u201cYou have 15 minutes. Starting now.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>His students often look at each other, clearly flummoxed. They ask Reuter for clarification, or which format to use, or what exactly he wants them to say. Most of them are only a few months out of high school, but as participants in the Leadership Program, they are asked to face what they will encounter in their business careers: unexpected challenges, tight timeframes, and delivering their point of view.<\/p>\n<p>The program is the Stillman School\u2019s honors program, so the students have all earned at least 3.5 GPAs and many have served as club officers or sports team leaders. They\u2019re smart and driven, but they\u2019re also used to working within stricter parameters than \u201ctell me what your life has been and will be.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe say to them, \u2018This is not high school anymore, where somebody pours in knowledge, and if you regurgitate it correctly, you get an A,\u2019\u201d Reuter says. \u201cNo. Here you learn, you think broadly. That\u2019s what they\u2019re taught from day one: to look at things from a broader perspective, to challenge each other in class, to understand that ideas are different, to understand that their own way of seeing the world is OK.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Over those first few months in Leadership 101, Reuter\u2019s students master the basics of the business world \u2014 from acting and communicating in a professional way to handling themselves in high-pressure, high-profile situations.<\/p>\n<p>But they don\u2019t receive academic credit for any of it \u2014 not for the four years of leadership-oriented classes they take, the meetings and formal functions they attend, or the lectures they hear from top-level executives.<\/p>\n<p>As Professor John H. Shannon \u201975, M.B.A. \u201977\/J.D. \u201982, a mentor in the program sees it: \u201cIn the future, they\u2019re going to work on things they\u2019re not compensated for many times. This helps them understand that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Blackwood, a marketing and finance major now in his junior year, marvels at the experiences he\u2019s had as a Leadership student. He spent his sophomore year working as a part of a Leadership team asked to forecast what the business world will look like 10 years from now.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was a very lofty goal,\u201d he admits, and in the open-ended tradition of Leadership 101, \u201cwe could take the project any way we chose.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>At the end of the year, Blackwood\u2019s group offered their insights to the program\u2019s Leadership Council, which includes some 60 executives. (Among them are the president and CEO of Investors Bank; the president and chief operating officer of ShopRite\u2019s parent company, Wakefern Food Corp.; the president and CEO of Argent Associates and the executive vice president and chief financial officer of Reader\u2019s Digest Association.)<\/p>\n<p>This year, Blackwood is working one-on-one with Joe Sheridan, the Wakefern president\/COO, on a project to improve business. More specifically, Blackwood is figuring out how to adapt the company\u2019s \u201cShopRite from Home\u201d grocery delivery service for college campuses.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis [Leadership] program has given me so many great opportunities that I wouldn\u2019t have had at another college,\u201d Blackwood says. \u201cI\u2019ve had a lot of experience dealing with high-level people and getting my feet wet with actual, real-world skills. When I get out of school and am looking for jobs, I can say, \u2018I\u2019ve done some of that before,\u2019 as opposed to, \u2018I just read about it in my textbook and went to class.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Those same hands-on experiences helped Michael Ojo \u201912 when he interviewed for \u2014 and ultimately landed \u2014 a job at Goldman Sachs after graduation.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI had to go through vigorous rounds of interviews with many top-level executives,\u201d he says. \u201cThat can be quite intimidating, but I felt completely relaxed. The Leadership Program had given me the opportunity to sit across from top-level executives since day one, so I felt completely comfortable interviewing and speaking about myself.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Alumni of the program have found success on Wall Street, inside the courtroom, and at Johnson &amp; Johnson, Prudential, Merrill Lynch and the U.S. Treasury. Some even blaze entirely new trails \u2014 like Ojo, who has started an investment fund with former Leadership classmate Vijar Kohli \u201911. Through their firm, VM Global, they have offered consulting services to start-ups and helped small business manage their books.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think Leadership really gives the innovation and motivation necessary to do your own things and start your own initiatives,\u201d Ojo says. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t just about following the path that\u2019s already laid out; it\u2019s also about going on an undiscovered road and challenging yourself to be on your own. That really stayed with me and my partner Vijar. It was a key takeaway from the program.\u201d<br \/>\nWhile it has recently climbed to great heights, the Leadership Program has deep roots at Seton Hall.<\/p>\n<p>In 1994, new to his position as dean of the Stillman School, John Shannon had a brainstorm: he would create an honors program specifically to serve Seton Hall\u2019s business students.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI wanted to take the traditional college experience, pump it up, and give the students access to people who \u2014 in the ordinary course of their lives \u2014 they might not see, hear, or be in a room with for maybe 15 or 20 more years,\u201d he says. \u201cI wanted the best and the brightest in our business school to spend serious time with senior executives who could mentor them and help them understand what they were getting themselves into.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The inaugural class of Leadership freshmen arrived in 1995. Two years later, Gerald P. Buccino \u201963, a successful businessman and pioneer of \u201cturnaround management,\u201d joined the effort. Drawn to the program\u2019s hands-on philosophy, he launched the Buccino Scholarship, which has been awarded to one incoming freshman every year since 1998. Recipients receive $5,000 scholarships each year they are in school along with one-on-one mentorship from Buccino himself for their entire time at Seton Hall \u2014 and beyond.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI didn\u2019t find my first mentors until I was 38 years old,\u201d Buccino says. \u201cI would have loved to have met them when I was 18. I get a lot of satisfaction out of mentoring these students. They call me constantly and they stay with me long after graduation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>When Michael Reuter became director of the Center for Leadership Development in 2007, he threw himself into enhancing all aspects of the program, including attracting national notice.<\/p>\n<p>An experienced senior-executive coach, Reuter asked his Leadership students to begin benchmarking their own program. How did it compare to what was happening at other schools? How could it be better? The students came back with 30 proposals, all of which Reuter accepted and implemented.<\/p>\n<p>With four non-credit courses, several new initiatives and a greatly expanded Leadership Council, Reuter submitted the program for a Leadership Excellence magazine evaluation in 2012. The results came in that fall: Seton Hall\u2019s program had ranked 24, beating out similar offerings from Cornell, Dartmouth, Georgetown and William &amp; Mary.<\/p>\n<p>More breaking news arrived earlier this year, when the school received the gift commitment from Buccino. (As a result, the center will be re-named the Dr. Gerald P. Buccino \u201963 Center for Leadership Development.) With those additional funds, the program will be able to bring in nationally recognized speakers, enhance its study abroad offerings, develop more courses and introduce a new annual event.<\/p>\n<p>At the same time, Reuter will continue on his quest to bring the program to national prominence. He wants the Leadership Program to be known as one of the best out there, and to serve as a model for other schools. Just the other day, in fact, he answered the phone and found a nearby college\u2019s dean on the line. She\u2019d heard about the program\u2019s Women Mentoring Women initiative and wanted Reuter\u2019s advice on enhancing her own program. He happily obliged.<\/p>\n<p>In the coming years, \u201cwe will continue, we will make changes, we will imagine the unimaginable,\u201d Reuter adds. \u201cEnough is never enough.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"The Gerald P. Buccino &#039;63 Center for Leadership Development\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/EQJYAQVuYmo?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><cite>Molly Petrilla is a freelance writer based in New Jersey.<\/cite><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The success of the Leadership Development Program at the Stillman School of Business shows how promising students transform into young professionals.<\/p>\n<div class=\"more-link-wrapper\"><a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/magazine\/2014\/05\/leaders-are-made-not-born\/\">Continue Reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Leaders Are Made, Not Born<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":1465,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[47,257,5,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1451","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-2010-2014","category-articles-2010-2014","category-faculty","category-students","entry"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1451","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/40"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1451"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1451\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3707,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1451\/revisions\/3707"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1465"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}