(upbeat music) - Hi everyone.

Steve Adubato.

We kick off the program with our longtime friend, Dr.

Lamont Repollet, president of Kean University, Kean University, Jersey City, which we'll talk about in just a moment, and the co-author of a compelling new book called, "Leadership By Design: Winning Hearts, Building Your Brand, and Achieving Success."

He's also on the 2005 ROI Power list and the New Jersey Business Magazines Innovate 100 list two of our media partners.

Good to see you, my friend.

- Good to see you, Steve.

How you doing, sir?

Thank you for having us.

Thank you for having me.

- Always.

You think you're busy enough?

- Just a little bit.

Just a little bit.

But I kind of like it that way, right?

- I love it.

Hey, listen, by the way, check out previous interviews we've done with Dr.

Repollet.

And Kean is one of our higher ed, our significant, very significant higher ed partners.

Let me put that out there.

I'm looking at the table of contents, put up the cover of the book.

There's so many areas I want to talk about, but the one I wanna jump right into, is this book, 'cause I write about leadership, coach about leadership, this is about more than leadership.

Why is it not just leadership by design, but winning hearts and building your brand and achieving, what's all that?

- Well, this book is a compilation, Steve, about lived experiences, right?

My lived experience as a leader.

It's about how to interact with individuals.

It's about being authentic.

It's about always being centered, people centered.

So there's this quote that I've had for years that was always in my cover letter.

I'm not quite sure the quote, whoever authored this.

But it said, "People are the greatest asset in any organization.'

And as a result of that, my leadership kind of built around being people centered, right?

I always say that, right?

Whether it's student centered when I was in the school systems, well now as a leader, people centered, and it's always been about authenticity.

And so leadership by design is pretty much a manuscript for those who prescribe to leadership to learn about leadership, right?

It's not a novel.

It's not something that I encourage you to read, from page one to the end of the page.

It's about something that we can pick and choose a la cart to look at things that maybe you may find yourself, meaning what to learn more about, whether it's being the chief architect in chapter one.

And that goes back to leadership by design.

So leadership by design is being very intentional.

The book is also based off of faith, right?

So winning hearts is about faith, it's about trust.

It's about when people are watching you in action, how do they react based off of your decisions?

And I think that's winning hearts, right?

And then also building your brand.

Building your brand equates to your brand, your character, the values you espouse.

And so if you look at those things, and the last piece is always gotta be when you're asked to have some metrics and have to be able to achieve success, right?

There need to be elements to show that you've achieved success or you have a plan of action or strategic plan of action to identify that.

So I took the fact that the book is about intentionality and leadership by design, being intentional.

That's why I call myself the chief architect.

But then also, I talked about the faith aspect, right?

You're talking about Ecclesiastic chapter four, verse 12, and it talks about the three strands.

I've always used things in threes.

And so if you look at the three strands, each strand together could hold itself, each individually, but together, it strengthened.

And I think if you're looking at your leadership being intentional, on creating a culture, being of high value, moral, and your mission and being guided by that and success, then now you have the ability to sustain your leadership because based off of those three characteristics, which we call our framework, our three frameworks, which is building your hearts, building your brand and achieving success.

So the book was based off of my lived experiences, is based off my faith, understanding that my faith is strong.

And when you do that, you win hearts.

You build your brand, right?

And you achieve success.

- I wanna go into this a little deeper.

You said a la carte.

You wanna do a la carte?

We're gonna do a la carte.

- Let's do a la carte.

Let's do a la carte.

- You say that great leadership isn't born.

It's designed.

What about those who say, "Dr.

Repollet, come on."

And people say this to me in my leadership seminars all the time.

"I'm not a natural leader, Steve.

I wasn't born to be a leader."

And you're saying, what?

It's design.

Pick it up.

- So yes, some folks would say, "I wasn't born to be a leader."

However, leadership, like anything, is a science, right?

Leadership is a science.

Let's just break it down.

Leader, ship.

Let's look at leader.

In order to be a leader, you have to lead individuals, right?

Simple as that.

And so those individuals will follow you.

However, some folks are natural born leaders, right?

They actually can get up the command of space.

Some folks actually are strategic in planning, but may not have a presence.

But however, when you are intentional about your leadership, you can design a system that benefits your personality.

We talk about leadership styles later on in the book.

You can benefit those things.

So when we're talking about, you know, the size of leadership, you're talking about learning the ability to lead, to lead others, how to inspire an individual, right?

What is your mission?

What's your vision?

And how do you get the best out of folks in order for you to have those outcomes?

And I think that's where it is.

So I would say it's intentional because like a strategic plan, you have to be strategic in how you look at things and how you approach.

I always talk about the art of war being strategic.

I talked about our plans, understand that, being intentional at what we do.

So I think for me, the book is really about being intentional and how to develop those skills in order to be intentional, right?

So for us, this book is about, how do you develop the skills necessary to be intentional in your leadership approach?

- I'm gonna get a quick answer to this if I can.

In my book, "Lessons in Leadership 2.0 - The Tough Stuff," I have a chapter called, "Is Everyone Really a Leader?"

I mean, and I also make the argument, it's not about my book, it's about yours, but I say everyone can and should become a leader on a great team.

And someone will say to me, "Steve, we need doers on the team to wait to be told what to do."

Our response is, on a great team, not so sure.

Do you believe, Dr.

Lamont, that everyone on a great team, not an average or mediocre team, can and should become some form of a leader?

Please.

- Yes, I do agree, the fact that individuals on great teams can be leaders because they can lead within their division, within their sphere of influence, right?

And so that's how you become the great leader.

Now, collectively, if you have individuals that are leading their division, their office, their unit, their whatever, whatever it is they have, whatever sphere of influence they have to lead, then collectively, you add those pieces up, right?

The sum of the whole.

And now you have a complete group of individuals who are leading the unit, the division or the organization, the way, what you desired it to be.

Because within it, you should have your mission.

See, folks need to understand where are we going, and how we're gonna get there.

And I think as you start to look at those individuals that's on the team, they need to lead their teams because there's a team and there's a team and there's a team.

And so that's the fact that people can be leaders on their team, even if they're divisional leaders, even if they're unit leaders or office leaders, but they can be leaders.

- Wow.

There's another chapter, one of my favorite chapters, the crystal ball effect.

What is that, and why are you smiling?

- Because that was drawn, honestly, I created the crystal ball effect when I was a superintendent at Asbury Park Schools.

- By the way, by way of background, we're talking to the former head of the department education in the state of New Jersey, a really big job, superintendent in the school system, where again?

- Asbury Park Public School District.

- Just a few challenges.

So we're talking to Dr.

Lamont Repollet.

Let's just say he's led in some challenging situations.

Pick it up, doctor.

- And so it was challenging times in Asbury Park, and I wanted to demonstrate the individual, where we can go, and how far we can lead this organization.

But because of systemic failure within the organization, they would have blinders on and they couldn't see, they couldn't see ahead.

And so I created this concept that I called the crystal ball effect because I needed to demonstrate, to show individuals the future, and then work ourselves back from that, right?

And so what I've done for that is that we created these incredible videos that depict the university, sorry, depicted a school district as this thriving academic center, right?

I mean, branding, our social media, the videos captured, what we could become if we just imagined it, right?

And so I showed them the future, and then I talked about each individual, their role they could play within this future.

So I would say, "Principal X, if you do X, Y, and Z, this can be the future."

But they couldn't see it though.

They couldn't imagine it because of systemic failures, because of whatever challenge they may have had in front of 'em.

So the crystal ball effect shows 'em the future and then allows us now to create, to be intentional, to create a strategic plan to reach that mission and to reach that vision.

- Get the book.

Dr.

Lamont Repollet is the co-author of "Leadership By Design: Winning Hearts, Building Your Brand, and Achieving Success."

We've only scratched the surface.

Lamont, can we do this?

Dr.

Repollet, can we talk about a couple of other issues, - Yes.

- Outside the book?

How about this?

We're doing a series in cooperation with Kean University, called "Urban Matters."

Kean University is the official research institution in the higher ed community for urban matters.

And that's the John S. Watson Urban Research Institute, if I'm not mistaken.

- Yes.

Yes.

- The merger between Kean University and what was Jersey City University with serious financial problems, now becoming its merged organization, Kean Jersey City, - Yes.

- Because the Jersey City urban community matters and more.

Pick it up from there, Dr.

Repollet.

- Yes.

So we wanted to create this space, right?

So as we create this new Kean University system, which it covers our Wenzhou Kean University campus in China, our Kean ocean, which is down the shore, and Kean Union, which Kean Union is our headquarters, is our main campus.

We wanted to create this opportunity where we can focus on urban matters.

We got an urban policy, urban issues.

And so we're creating a Jersey City, our metro campus, which will be totally different from our campus.

We have on Union campus, and not gonna be as comprehensive as our campus in Union, it's gonna be focusing on issues and focusing on workforce development that's particular to that county, to Hudson County and to Jersey City.

So we're gonna pare down some of the programming and put those major programmings on our main campus, would have programs to support the workforce, to support the skill levels, to support the need of that community, such as business, education, nursing, all of those programs that we consider anchor programs, right?

The anchor down into the university.

And so the folks would be looking at problems within the urban center and coming up with solutions via research, the applied research, right, the experienced students have, whether it's through traveled learns, to go back and to create, I would say a more just or better community.

And they're looking at those individuals and demonstrating the fact that it doesn't matter where you come from, what your zip code is.

It's pretty much, you have quality mentors, quality professors, you have research, and can you contribute back to that community?

And so that's what we're gonna do right now with our students to go back to anchor down the community.

Not saying they're not anchoring down right now 'cause they are, but under the Kean brand, under the Kean umbrella, under the Kean resources and research to really dig down into Hudson County and create a true community, community university that serves Hudson County and the metropolitan area.

- And the time we have left, I'm curious about this, how incredibly important is it for university college presidents to be very effective business professionals?

And not simply, you have to be.

Someone says, "I'm an academic.

I don't really want to get involved in fundraising and strategic mergers, relationship building, all that stuff.

I just wanna be an academic."

You say what to that person who wants that higher ed institution today?"

- I would say, so good luck.

And clearly you have a track record of success because leadership encompass leadership by design, encompasses those skillsets to be able to have the political acumen, the business acumen, the fundraising acumen, 'cause these are all things on the outside, right, that support the ecosystem.

So these are all of the pieces that support the ecosystem.

And I think that once you understand the impact of taking our students, developing the workforce to support the economy, hence therefore, the education is the economic engine of the economy.

Understanding that and however, understanding that finance and resource supporting, you just can't rely solely on the state or the federal government.

You have to be creative in such ways as philanthropy, fundraising to accomplish those goals, partnering with business institution, businesses, right, to ensure that, that whatever you need to have to build up the workforce, we can support you.

So I think that whole process, but it comes again Steve, by being intentional and how you do this, right?

- Leadership by design.

- And that's the strategic point that people don't necessarily get.

It's the strategy.

So you just can't say, I'm an academic anymore.

Yes, you're an academic by heart, and that is your strength, but you also need to understand that you're an educational leader.

And being an educational leader encompasses all of those different pieces that support the ecosystem of higher education.

- Final thing, and I will not get on my soapbox.

Partnering is not an option.

Collaborating is not an option.

The things we do as leaders, doesn't mean everything we do we want to do.

It means you can't succeed without them.

I'm off my soapbox.

Read his book.

He's got an important book, Dr.

Lamont Repollet, co-author of "Leadership by Design: Winning Hearts, Building Your Brand, and Achieving Success.

Thank you, my friend.

Well done.

Congratulations.

- Thank you, Steve.

Thank you for having me.

- You're a great partner.

Stay with us.

We'll be right back.

- [Narrator] One-On-One with Steve Adubato is a production of the Caucus Educational Corporation.

Funding has been provided by Valley Bank.

NJM Insurance Group.

PSE&G.

The Adler Aphasia Center.

The Russell Berrie Foundation.

The New Jersey Education Association.

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

The Turrell Fund, a foundation serving children.

And by Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey.

Promotional support provided by ROI-NJ.

And by CIANJ, and Commerce Magazine.

- (Narrator) New Jersey is home to the best public schools in the nation, and that didn't happen by accident.

It's the result of parents, educators and communities working together year after year to give our students a world class education.

No matter the challenge, because parents and educators know that with a shared commitment to our public schools, our children can learn, grow and thrive.

And together, we can keep New Jersey's public schools the best in the nation.