LEAD Awards 2018: Interview with Michael M. Reuter, Seton Hall University

Developing Extraordinary Leaders

  Category: Certificate Program with Emphasis on Leadership and Organizational Development
  LEAD AWARD RANK: 1
 
  Organization: The Gerald P. Buccino '63 Center for Leadership Development, Seton Hall University
  Program: The Gerald P. Buccino '63 Center for Leadership Development
  Program Director: Michael M. Reuter
  Email: Michael.Reuter@shu.edu
  Visit: www.shu.edu/academics/business/leadership-development/

 
Our editorial team interviewed Michael M. Reuter from Seton Hall University at the LEAD2018 Awards this past February. Here are some excerpts from the exclusive interview.
 
What is the overall objective of your program?
Our program, inspired and driven by its purpose and mission, develops extraordinary leaders who are recognized for several attributes. These are the values and principles by which they live, their vision and purpose in life, the outstanding results they achieve and their service to their communities.

The Leadership Development Honors Program (LDHP) is a highly competitive and selective program that affords unique experiential learnings and opportunities to its highly motivated and well-rounded students. Further, the Program focuses on honing and enhancing the skill sets of its students to develop business professionals and leaders who take initiative, network, and continuously stretch and challenge themselves. The curriculum begins during the students’ first year, continuing throughout their collegiate career and beyond with numerous advanced, tailored leadership courses, such as Leadership 101, the Junior Mentoring Program, Ideas & Trends, and Crisis Management.
 

Who do you impact with your program?
The target audience of the Leadership Program at Seton Hall includes the Leadership Family: (1) students, (2) alumni, and (3) executive advisory board members. Our students are immersed in leadership coursework and internships, learning everyday throughout their four years at Seton Hall’s Stillman School of Business. Our Alumni are recognized and highly successful leaders in their disciplines and industries throughout the nation. Our Council consists of prominent executives associated with prestigious firms and businesses in the New York area, representing multiple disciplines, e.g., accounting, finance, marketing, law, management, non-profit, entrepreneurship and information technology. Our Program also serves our extended family ... the businesses of our council members, our community, local nonprofits, and more.
 
What are the lessons you’ve learned this year from facilitating your program?
 
“Vision is the art of seeing what is invisible to others.” –Jonathan Swift
 
As the program continues to grow, I am reminded daily that having an expanding vision is necessary to enable growth and opportunity. The most common piece of advice I offer is to “be more than you ever dreamed,” reaching beyond your know limits allowing you to see greater possibilities in your life, and to take action to achieve them.

The Program evolves every day, week, month, and year…so, when you evaluate its growth year-over-year the results are excitedly evident and impressive. Having a continuously expanding vision has enabled LDHP to grow beyond our wildest dreams. For example, our advisory council has grown to over 90 extraordinary members who mentor, teach, and coach our students. Our alumni carry with them the desire to grow and expand their visions by continuing to achieve positions of prominence and recognition in their respective businesses and fields. Our students continue to enlarge their vision by raising the bar in their academic excellence and constantly breaking new ground through gaining prestigious internships and positions at Fortune 500 companies. The greatest lesson for our leadership family is to never stop expanding your vision; thus, our LDHP is comprised of young entrepreneurs, change-makers, and innovative thinkers who will bring value, growth and change to the organizations and people whom they touch and serve.

How do you measure the return on investment and success of the program?
The Program measures its return on investment through the people it touches. The success of our Program is not measured quarterly or annually, but every day.  For example, this Fall two of our students organized a fundraising event that raised over $13,000 for the American Heart Association. To see the entire Program involved and engaging the entire Seton Hall Community in this effort was exciting. That is great success!

I recently received a call from a leading global financial firm who informed me that it wanted to discuss creating a potential pipeline for hiring the Program’s students because they are the ‘best-of-the-best.’ That is success. Moreover, since 2011, all LDHP graduates have secured full-time employment or began graduate studies within six-months of graduation. In fact, that particular outcome has seen even greater success the last three years. From 2013 to present, one hundred percent of our graduates secured full-time employment or began graduate studies BEFORE COMMENCEMENT! That is remarkable evidence of success.

Our students are not only focused on traditional business and trends, but also innovating by gaining internships and experiences outside of the standard realm. For example, one student was accepted into Google’s Building Opportunities for Leadership and Development (“BOLD”) Program last summer. That is remarkable evidence of success.
One of our alumni was recently recognized as one of Cablefax’s Overachievers Under 30.That is remarkable evidence of success.

Moreover, four of our alumni will graduate from law school this May and have received employment offers in the field. That is remarkable evidence of success.

Our LDHP family continues to show that the return on investment continues throughout their careers and long after graduation. That is remarkable evidence of success.
 
What lies ahead for the program and how will it continue to succeed?
The LDHP is always reaching for the stars–dreaming dreams undreamed. I always say that good is never good enough and great is never great enough. There is always something more to be achieved, something that will take the Program and students to the next level of excellence. We continue to nurture and create connections with high-level executives to create symbiotic relationships between our students and those executives. One of our exciting program expansions for 2017 is to announce that The Gerald P. Buccino ’63 Center for Leadership Development plans to have Executives-In-Residence who will be available on campus to our students for mentoring and coaching. And, there will be more ... so much more. The best is yet to come!


 

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