In the Lead Magazine, Winter 2021

Why reaching for success isn’t aiming high enough

How leading and serving others at the same time leads to better outcomes

WINTER 2021 A Seton Hall University Publication

AT SETON HALL UNIVERSITY CHANGING THE WORLD BY CHANGING HOW LEADERSHIP IS TAUGHT We believe leaders can come from all disciplines. That’s why we are breaking down barriers and training our undergraduate leaders to participate in and lead interdisciplinary teams on real-world projects.

W I N TE R 2021

14

Lessons Learned

Unlocking the strengths and struggles of our future Gen Z leaders.

BY BRYAN C. PRICE, Ph.D.

7

Letter from the Editors

9

Leadership Lessons

A turnaround expert offers his take on how leaders are formed — and what makes them tick.

BY JERRY BUCCINO, Ph.D.

10

In Focus

18

Don’t Just Be Successful.

Be Significant.

The CEO of Investors Bank explains why reaching for success isn’t reaching high enough.

BY KEVIN CUMMINGS

22

Servant Leadership in Action A bestselling author and a management professor explain how you can lead and serve at the same time, and why that leads to better outcomes.

BY KEN BLANCHARD, Ph.D. AND STEVEN LORENZET, Ph.D.

Vina Tailor ’17 puts leadership lessons she gained at Seton Hall into play in the world of finance.

12

In the Crucible

An Emmy Award-winning anchor shares lessons on ways leaders can stay connected and communicate better in a remote world.

BY STEVE ADUBATO, Ph.D.

28

Case Study

The strategic benefits to keeping long-term goals top of mind, even when solving urgent problems today.

BY KAREN E. BOROFF, Ph.D.

30

Book Review

A new book explores how corporate digital surveillance affects our lives.

REVIEWED BY PAULA ALEXANDER, PH.D., J.D., AND STEPHEN WOOD

35

End Game

Leadership word search

BY ARIANNA WELING

In the Lead | A Seton Hall University Publication 3

EDITORS

Ruchin Kansal, M.B.A.

Steven Lorenzet, Ph.D.

Bryan C. Price, Ph.D.

A leader and an educator, Professor Kansal has dedicated his energies and resources to leadership development, healthcare technology, and recently, space health tech advancements. He is a member of the faculty of the Department of Management and directs the Gerald P. Buccino ’63 Center for Leadership Development at the Stillman School of Business, Seton Hall University. Prior, he served as the SVP and global head of strategy for digital services at Siemens Healthineers, and as head of business innovation at Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals Inc. He is the author of Redefining Innovation: Embracing The 80-80 Rule to Ignite Growth in the Biopharmaceutical Industry and the recipient of the 2016 MM&M Top 40 Healthcare Transformers Award.

Additionally, he has served on the board of Stanford Medicine X, and Weston Education Foundation.

is associate dean of academics and associate professor of management in the Stillman School of Business at Seton Hall University. He is also the director of the Stillman School’s MBA program.

He teaches management courses at the undergraduate and graduate level.

His research has received multiple awards including the Citation of Excellence from Emerald Management Reviews. Throughout his career he has been very active with corporate and international partnerships, as well as new program development. Dr. Lorenzet has also served as a consultant to pharmaceutical, legal, military, financial and academic organizations.

He received his Ph.D. in organizational studies (human resource management/ organizational behavior) from the University at Albany, SUNY.

is a nationally recognized expert on leadership development and mental performance coaching. He is the executive director of the Buccino Leadership Institute and the founder of Top Mental Game. Price’s career is steeped in more than 20 years of distinguished leadership experience as an Army officer, which included serving in multiple levels of command, leading combat troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, and serving as an academy professor in the Department of Social Sciences at the U.S. Military Academy. At West Point, he also directed the Combating Terrorism Center, an internationally renowned research and education center that regularly briefed the nation’s top counterterrorism officials. Price is the author of Targeting Top Terrorists (Columbia University Press, 2019).

In addition to developing the next generation of leaders at Seton Hall, he also works with athletes, coaches and business leaders on mental performance.

Price earned a B.S. in U.S. history from West Point and an M.A. and a Ph.D. in political science from Stanford University.

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CONTRIBUTORS

Steve Adubato, Ph.D.

Ken Blanchard, Ph.D.

Karen E. Boroff, Ph.D.

is an associate professor and chair of the Department of Management at the Stillman School of Business at Seton Hall University. She developed the curriculum for Corporate Social Responsibility, a core course in the school’s M.B.A. program. Routledge published her business ethics textbook, Corporate Social Irresponsibility, in 2015.

is one of the world’s most influential leadership experts. Coauthor of the iconic bestseller The One Minute Manager and 65 other books, he is cofounder of the Ken Blanchard Companies®, a leadership training firm, and Lead Like Jesus, an organization committed to helping people become servant leaders.

is professor and dean emerita at the Stillman School of Business at Seton Hall University. She also served as dean of the school as well as interim provost. Among other work as interim provost, she led the creation of the University-wide Leadership Development Program.

Boroff earned her Ph.D. from Columbia University.

Jerry Buccino, Ph.D.

Kevin Cummings

Arianna Weling

Stephen Wood

is nationally recognized as a “turnaround management” pioneer. He is the president of The Buccino Foundation and a Seton Hall regent emeritus.

Buccino’s contributions have led to the establishment of the Gerald P. Buccino ’63 Center for Leadership Development at the Stillman School of Business and the Buccino Leadership Institute at Seton Hall University.

was appointed chairman and CEO of Investors Bank in 2018. He previously served as president and CEO since 2008. Prior to Investors Bank, he had a 26-year career at KPMG LLP, where he had been partner for 14 years. Kevin has a BA in Economics from Middlebury College and earned an MBA from Rutgers University.

is currently an eager, enthusiastic and efficacious sophomore at Seton Hall majoring in marketing and english literature and language. In her free time, she acts as student council secretary for the Buccino Leadership Student Council, a mentor for the Junior Year MBA Program and a writing center tutor.

consults and writes on policy topics after 43 years on Wall Street and in governmental finance. He specializes in infrastructure and project finance, publicprivate partnerships, federal and state grant and finance programs. A speaker at numerous industry conferences, he teaches about corporate social responsibility at Seton Hall.

is the author of five books, including his latest, Lessons in Leadership. Adubato is an Emmy Award-winning anchor on Thirteen/WNET (PBS) and NJTV (PBS) who has appeared on CNN and NBC’s Today show. He is also the host of “Lessons in Leadership” on News 12+, produced in cooperation with Seton Hall University and its Buccino Leadership Institute.

Paula Alexander Becker, Ph.D., J.D.

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New Horizons to Explore WELCOME TO the first edition of the semiannual In the Lead magazine!

One of us (Ruchin) recently took over the helm of the Center for Leadership Development at the Stillman School of Business, with a vision that includes establishing the center’s reputation as the place for leading dialogue on the topic of leadership. Based on initial market research and discussions, we agreed there is a need for a preeminent magazine that addresses the topic of leadership exclusively. A magazine that is focused on sharing leadership perspectives from the field. Content that is curated from leaders across industries and focused on sharing lessons learned from real-world experiences versus academic literature. Content that is easy to read, easy to understand and easy to apply. And that led to the launch of In the Lead!

It is a collective effort. We are thrilled to be co-editors and look forward to fruitful collaborations with our contributors and our readers.

The vision is to become THE leadership magazine for current and aspiring leaders.

The mission of the magazine is to inform future leaders, generate global dialogue on leadership and build a community of leaders that sees more effective leadership as a prerequisite to building a better world.

We intend to discuss perspectives on leadership arising from current and emerging topics, including globalization, digitalization, crisis management, servant leadership, Gen Z, diversity, organizational transformation, innovation, leadership development, customer centricity, social justice and sustainability.

Ultimately, we intend this magazine to be your magazine.

We would like to hear from you — your reactions and your suggestions. We would like to showcase you; please reach out if you have something to say and would like to publish. We would like you to help us spread the word; share this magazine with your co-workers and your friends. And your children — the future of our world.

We would be remiss if we did not thank the many people who have joined forces in making this magazine a reality in less than six months. We are thankful for the contributors who developed high-quality content in such a short time frame. We want to thank Nick DiBari and Robin Schilke for early creative

concepts that got the ball rolling on the vision for the magazine.

We are grateful to Pegeen Hopkins, the university editor and her creative team — Anthony S. Liptak, Ann Antoshak and Eric Marquard — for achieving our vision of an inclusive, accessible, playful, action-oriented, irresistible magazine; and to Pam Dungee for connecting us with them. We also want to thank Kristina Hummel and Chris Junior for their meticulous copy editing. We are grateful to Seton Hall University President Dr. Joseph Nyre and Provost Dr. Katia Passerini, and the Dean of the Stillman School of Business, Dr. Joyce Strawser, for their encouragement and support. We are grateful to Dr. Jerry Buccino ’63 for his philanthropy that has made the leadership program at Seton Hall University a reality. Finally, we want to recognize the critical financial support from John Papa ’73 to publish this inaugural issue.

Among many necessary factors, effective leadership is comprised of the 3 Ps — Privilege, Purpose and Passion!

Privilege: Leadership is a privilege, as it has the ability to impact lives. It is a privilege, not a position; the fact that you may be in a position to lead is the privilege.

Purpose: Leadership is about purpose — a purpose larger than self, a purpose that impacts the course of the world, a purpose that lives longer than each of us individually.

Passion: Without passion, it is difficult to lead. Leading is difficult. It requires devotion. It requires sacrifices. Without passion to lead, it is a difficult road to travel.

We hope that you will embrace the 3 Ps of leadership in your life. We hope that you will be our passionate partners in this effort!

Ruchin Kansal, Steven Lorenzet and Bryan Price

In the Lead | A Seton Hall University Publication 7

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GOOD TEMPERAMENT is essential to lead through difficult and tense times.

OPTIMISM is critical in leading a team.

PASSION is essential in getting others to believe in your plan.

VISION is important as leaders are truly custodians of the future.

TECHNICAL COMPETENCY is necessary, but not sufficient.

STRENGTH is required when strategic initiatives begin to fail.

RISK TOLERANCE is as an essential trait as leaders will take risks to progress.

ACTION is critical as words alone won’t get it done.

Leaders “do!” L

Nature or Nurture?

A turnaround expert offers his take on how leaders are formed — and what makes them tick.

BY JERRY BUCCINO, Ph.D.

LEADERSHIP IS not preordained. It is not a gene, a trait or a computer chip in our brain at birth. The age-old question asks: Are leaders born or are they made? Well, we are all born, but none of us is born a lawyer, a professor, a doctor or a CEO. Leadership can be learned. There is evidence that those who enroll in leadership programs can be taught leadership skills.

TOP LEADERSHIP CHARACTERISTICS CREDIBILITY is the foundation of leadership; without credibility, leading is impossible.

COURAGE is required to make the difficult decisions.

In the Lead | A Seton Hall University Publication 9

Vina Tailor ’17

Putting the leadership lessons she gained at Seton Hall into play in the world of finance.

HOMETOWN: Clifton, New Jersey SETON HALL STATS: Finance and

marketing double major; The Stillman Exchange (student newspaper); Dean’s Advisory Committee; Alpha Phi Fraternity; Stillman Finance Club; president of the Stillman Marketing Club; graduate of the Gerald P. Buccino Leadership Program CAREER: Finance associate on

the sourcing and vendor management team at BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager

“ Being able to adapt to the environment and understand companies’ everchanging needs is important. It’s so crucial to be open and to be willing to change as needed.”

– VINA TAILOR

IN THE LEAD: Thanks for taking time with us, Vina.

Can you describe your current position at BlackRock?

VINA TAILOR: At BlackRock, I’m on the sourcing and vendor management team, responsible for supporting the marketing and communications spending for the firm. Our team leads negotiations using industry best practices to achieve an optimal balance between value and cost, ensure consistent contract execution, and assist with risk assessment of vendors. I also help drive strategic category planning, vendor rationalization and preferred supplier lists for areas including creative agencies, creative production, market research, media, public relations and print marketing collateral across a number of vendors globally. Our ultimate goal is to mitigate risk and ensure value for the firm.

IN THE LEAD: What skills and experiences did you gain in the Buccino Leadership Program that you think served you well in landing your job at BlackRock?

VT: While there are many — such as working with large teams, networking and group mentoring — what sticks out the most is the FAIR acronym I learned from Professor [Jack] Shannon in our Ideas & Trends course. FAIR stands for Flexible, Adaptable, Imaginative and Resilient. These four traits have not only helped me during my time at Seton Hall, but they’ve helped me every day interning and working at BlackRock.

When I joined BlackRock through the Graduate Analyst Program, I had to rotate through four teams in the finance department, so I had to be flexible and learn to adapt to different types of role, team cultures and management styles.

But I was afforded the opportunity to be innovative and to learn new skills and perspectives when joining a new team from a previous rotation. While diversifying my skill set and serving on different teams, I also needed to be resilient to overcome new challenges and learn new processes.

Having the opportunity to really put FAIR into action at Seton Hall through my various leadership courses was a tremendous help and created a mindset that I routinely employ in my role at BlackRock today.

IN THE LEAD: I’m sure Professor Shannon will be beaming when he reads this! What skills do you think young leaders need more of when coming out college?

VT: The first two skills that come to mind are openness and adaptability. Being open to opportunities and learning new skills that young leaders might not have ever imagined or considered. It’s easy to say we’re only doing this and that is it.

Keeping the task at hand and the mission at the top of your mind is critical, even if how you envisioned it would play out and how it actually turned out is not the same. Being able to adapt to the environment and understand companies’ ever-changing needs is important. It’s so crucial to be open and to be willing to change as needed.

I was fortunate to join a firm where I had rotations, where each one offered a different experience. Just when I had the hang of one rotation, a new one started, and I had to start over again and learn new things. It was a mindset, and I felt like there is a real value to that, which has helped me.

IN THE LEAD: Being adaptable and open to change is especially important in these uncertain times. What leadership skills do you think will be in higher demand in your field as we navigate our way through the pandemic and a changing economy?

VT: I believe communication and relationship-building are key. It’s so important to communicate and have a good relationship with your manager, especially now. It’s all built on trust. When you can’t be there in person and in the office physically, you need that excellent relationship with your team to have a sense of belonging and to help you with your own productivity.

I also think cybersecurity and digital skills are extremely important. Being able to use technology and understand cybersecurity is key now that many of us are working from home. There could be limited corporate controls in place in a work-from-home environment.

Finally, I consider empathy and adaptability to be critical.

I’ve talked to people who have enjoyed the quality time that they’ve spent with their families during the quarantine. Some can’t imagine going back to the same lifestyle they had prior to COVID, and as a result, there might be some impact to the industry overall such as greater demand for remote working.

It is important to understand those different circumstances and determine the best solution.

IN THE LEAD: What do you know now about leadership that you wish you knew in college?

VT: This is a tough one. I’d say that it’s not always about the end result, but more about the process to get there.

It’s about understanding the impact, influence and overall benefit. It’s knowing all of the individuals involved, all of the collaborative thinking, and the valuable experience you gain in the process. Oftentimes, those can be more important than the end result. L

In the Lead | A Seton Hall University Publication 11

New Rules for a Virtual World

An Emmy Award-winning anchor shares lessons on ways leaders can stay connected and communicate better in a remote world. BY STEVE ADUBATO, Ph.D. “NECESSITY IS the mother of invention.”

It is an expression we have heard forever. The message is very clear: We innovate because we must. We innovate because we need to, for if we don’t, we often pay a hefty price. Yet real, meaningful innovation — the kind that significantly changes and at times disrupts organizations and entire industries — is really hard stuff. It can be complicated. Often, despite the “need” to innovate, there is resistance — from individuals as well as entire organizations and their respective cultures.

Yet, one innovation that has been almost universally accepted and embraced (if not always executed effectively), again due to necessity, is the need to lead and communicate remotely. Simply put, COVID-19 has forced us to dramatically rethink how we communicate both internally with our teams and colleagues and externally with key stakeholders.

Organizations are using video technology such as Zoom, Cisco Webex and Google Meet to engage others in day-to-day

12 In the Lead | A Seton Hall University Publication

business that historically had to be done face-to-face.

And while successfully engaging, leading and communicating with others have always been challenging for many professionals, doing so remotely due to public safety and social distancing restrictions has brought forth a new set of obstacles and challenges — along with potential opportunities.

Given this backdrop, the following are some best practices to consider when leading and communicating remotely that will be helpful for all leaders trying to manage in these unprecedented and difficult times: SET CLEAR GOALS AND EXPECTATIONS COVID-19 has forced organizations to look at how and where they are allocating precious resources.

As decisions are being made to cut costs and get one’s fiscal house in order, it is essential to communicate those changes to the team, along with the specific goals and expectations for the organization in the near future. Team members need to know

their role and what is expected of them as it relates to the larger strategic and operational vision for the organization.

UTILIZE THE RIGHT TOOLS One of the biggest challenges when leading remotely is keeping employees engaged. There is no one-sizefits-all approach to the type of leading and communicating that will work best for your team or, for that matter, each individual.

Use email, video, text, conference calls and file-sharing platforms to keep your team informed of important updates and deadlines.

SHARE INFORMATION Especially when leading remotely, all employees need to “buy in” to the need to share information. It could be an article or news story that impacts the organization or a client, or a new system, procedure or innovative approach for a particular function. For example, if you read an article with the top five ways to avoid burnout during a pandemic, share that with your team so that they may gain something from it. Or, if you create a new form or template that helps you keep better track of your prospects, share it so that your team and the organization can benefit. Google Drive is a common tool to quickly share information in one location in real time, as is Dropbox.

PROVIDE OPPORTUNITIES FOR REMOTE SOCIAL INTERACTION Beyond Zoom, Google Meet or Blue Jeans meetings for work-related items, it is important to connect with your team on a social basis to help prevent feelings of isolation.

Try a virtual pizza party, where pizzas are delivered to all team members at the time of the video conference, or a virtual happy hour. Or allow a few minutes in a meeting to talk about nonwork-related matters, like what they have been streaming on Netflix or what they did over the weekend.

OFFER SUPPORT Beyond technical and task-related support, employees may need more encouragement and emotional support. Communicate that you are there to listen to their anxieties, fears and concerns, and empathize with what they are feeling. Go out of your way to check in and ask, “How are things going working remotely?” “What is especially challenging for you given this situation?” “What, if anything, can we do to help you be more effective in working remotely?”

This simple action lets your employees know that you value them as team members.

STAY CONNECTED Create a prioritized list of calls, texts or emails that you will use to connect and communicate with key “stakeholders.” These stakeholders are clients, customers, vendors and, simply put, people who matter in your world.

Make sure you keep track of who you communicate with, when you did it and any action you agreed to, and be sure to follow up.

RECOGNIZE TEAM MEMBERS Make note of specific team members who are stepping up and embracing the sometimes dramatic changes that are needed not just to survive but thrive in difficult times. Let them know that you appreciate their efforts and, more importantly, their attitude. Conversely, it is important for leaders to acknowledge that certain team members will have an especially difficult time adapting to this rapidly changing and uncertain environment. Make a point to coach them, but some team members are simply not equipped, or even willing, to think and act outside of the box. They will hold on to the past, saying things like, “But we’ve always done it that way.” When this occurs, it is the leader’s responsibility to engage the particularly rigid team member and offer alternative ways to adapt to the changing environment, while identifying the specific reasons for the resistance. Moving forward, if the team member still does not budge when things get to the “new normal,” there may not be a place for that person on the bus.

Some leaders hope for a return to more “normal” times.

And while we all want that, this approach is no substitute for having a smart and strategic communication game plan in this remote environment. The best leaders and communicators are really good at playing the hand they are dealt, and COVID-19 and its myriad challenges are, in fact, the hand we have been dealt. Being an excellent and engaging communicator in a variety of remote and virtual settings will be a critically important skill set for any leader at any time — even when things get better around COVID-19 (and potentially a “new normal”) and distribution of the vaccine. More and more organizations will have remote meetings, and leaders will be expected to make remote presentations. We will also coach, mentor and give feedback to team members using remote technology in addition to whatever we do in person. The point here is that even though we all long for being able to lead and communicate in the same space, the reality is that remote and virtual communication will remain a significant aspect of every leader’s future. This is why all of us as leaders must continue to innovate, learn and grow our leadership and communication skills on every possible platform — because the status quo is never an option. L

In the Lead | A Seton Hall University Publication 13

LESSONS

Unlocking the strengths and struggles of our

I have had the privilege of developing millennial and Gen Z leaders for the past 22 years. I’ve developed young leaders in a variety of settings: as an Army officer developing America’s sons and 14 In the Lead | A Seton Hall University Publication

daughters in the military; as a professor and baseball coach at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point; and, more recently, as the executive director of the Buccino Leadership Institute at Seton Hall University. ¶ Along the way, I’ve helped to develop leaders who would go

LEARNED

future Gen Z leaders. BY BRYAN C. PRICE, Ph.D. on to become Rhodes and Truman scholars, pitch in the major leagues, start their own companies and even earn the distinction of being the first woman to graduate from the U.S. Army’s hallowed Ranger School. ¶ The Gen Z population was born after 1996, so technically

I’ve been developing leaders in this generation since 2014 while teaching at West Point. Like the rest of you, I’m still learning about Gen Z leaders and what makes them tick. But what follows are some lessons I’ve learned about Gen Z from a leadership development perspective. >>> In the Lead | A Seton Hall University Publication 15

Gen Z leaders are ambitious, but that ambition must be properly channeled WHILE MILLENNIALS often receive a bad rap for too much complaining about the world’s problems, Gen Z leaders are eager to solve them. And in today’s world of instant gratification, Gen Z leaders are impatient with the status quo.

They want problems solved now. The challenge, however, is that Gen Z leaders sometimes lack the requisite skills, talents and resources to do so. In sports parlance, they have a tendency to “outkick their coverage.”

The best way to learn one’s limits is to test them. At the Buccino Leadership Institute, we give our aspiring leaders as many opportunities as possible to test the limits of their ambition in a safe environment. In fact, experiential leadership is one of the hallmarks of our program.

For example, in the fall of their sophomore year, all Buccino leadership students have an opportunity to pitch their own semester-long projects to their entire cohort. Students with winning ideas become CEOs of an interdisciplinary team of 10 students that they hire via an institute-wide draft and lead over the course of the spring semester.

Sometimes our students fail. They realize their project was too big or too complicated to execute, or they miscalculate how much time, effort or resources the project requires. The students are undoubtedly disappointed when this happens, but they learn. They learn about what works and what doesn’t. And they learn that properly calibrating their ambitions with their team’s capability is a necessary skill for effective leaders to master.

It’s all too common for older generations to disparage the hopes and dreams of younger generations, dismissing them as too ambitious and naïve. But the organizations and companies that successfully tap into Gen Z’s unbridled ambitions and channel them in a productive manner are destined to flourish.

Gen Z leaders tend to be dependent on consensus leadership — that’s good and bad IT IS WELL DOCUMENTED that Gen Z will be the most ethnically and racially diverse generation in American history. Gen Z is also the most digitally native, and it will be the most educated.

And more than any other generation, Gen Zers are what McKinsey calls “communaholics” because they are so “radically inclusive.” They’re just as comfortable engaging with others online as they are in person, and they are extremely adept at engaging with multiple communities simultaneously, many of which exist only virtually.

Although critics of Gen Z sometimes harp on its collective sense of entitlement, my experiences show that Gen Z leaders are more empathetic than leaders from previous/prior

16 In the Lead | A Seton Hall University Publication

generations. Research shows that social responsibility is a high priority for them.

Data collected by the institute over the past two years supports my findings. Each of the first two classes of Buccino leaders (approximately 160 total students) has taken the Eq-i 2.0, one of the field’s gold-standard assessments of emotional intelligence (EQ). It measures 16 different competencies of EQ and compares the results to a baseline derived from 4,000 professionals.

For both of our first two cohorts, our students scored the highest in three EQ competencies: empathy, self-actualization and social responsibility. In fact, the average leadership student in the Class of 2023 scored at the cusp of the top quartile. This is especially impressive given that we’re comparing mostly 18-year-old leaders to much older professionals in the field.

The good news is that Gen Z’s sense of community makes it very difficult for toxic leaders to naturally emerge, and it rewards leadership styles that emphasize consensus building.

All else being equal, these are positive trends.

The problem, however, is that I’ve experienced Gen Z leaders who are too dependent on consensus building. In other words, they spend too much time making sure others are completely on board with their plan for fear of looking like a tyrant. The result is often delayed decision making or decisions that are often watered down to appease those with disparate points of view.

Those developing Gen Z leaders should encourage them to seek a balance between being open and receptive to input from others and the need to make timely decisions, even if it means making decisions that are based on incomplete information or that lack unanimous support.

Gen Z leaders yearn to be independent, but they struggle with independence GEN Z LEADERS have grown up in a society where

helicopter parenting is the norm, not the exception.

While the term first emerged in the decade when Gen Zers were born, it really came into vogue during their formative years.

While I’ve always tried to prepare my students for the path of life, it has been my experience at West Point and Seton Hall that many parents of Gen Z students have worked tirelessly to prepare the path for their child.

The adjustment to college is always a challenging process, but it’s even more challenging for students who suddenly find themselves without a hyper-engaged support system looking out for them.

This lack of independence is borne out in our data as well.

One of the 16 competencies measured in the Eq-i 2.0 assessment looks at an individual’s level of independence. The assessment evaluates how likely the respondent is to be selfdirected and free from emotional dependency.

In 2019, independence was the competency with the second lowest-ranked score (out of 16) within our group, and in 2020, it was the lowest. When compared to the baseline, our leadership students, who are some of the highest-performing students at the university, scored in the bottom quartile.

If the best and brightest at Seton Hall have challenges with acting independently, I believe it is likely a more pronounced problem in the broader college population.

The takeaways for those developing Gen Z leaders are to understand this dynamic, provide meaningful opportunities for Gen Z leaders to actually lead (and fail), and give them time and critical feedback to grow.

The “why” is especially important for Gen Z leaders YOUNGER GENERATIONS have routinely challenged the wisdom of older generations.

Adapting the tagline from the Geico commercials, “it’s what they do.” Gen Z is no different, but when they’re challenging older generations, the “why” is especially important.

I imagine many may be familiar with Simon Sinek’s TED talk, “How Great Leaders Inspire Action,” and his subsequent book, Start With Why. Sinek argues that we buy into products, services or ideas from people not because of who they are or what they represent, but because we understand and are attracted to their “why.”

When it comes to leadership, Gen Z leaders can be quick to challenge status quo ideas, policies and procedures. This can sometimes be interpreted as disrespect or entitlement by older generations, but I believe it’s a product of this generation’s emphasis on the “why.”

And when Gen Z leaders understand the “why,” look out.

Once they buy into the “why,” Gen Z leaders pour every ounce of their skill, talent and soul into the mission.

So, the next time one of your Gen Z leaders questions you, don’t take offense. Take the extra time to clearly articulate your “why” and enjoy the return on your investment.

The best Gen Z leaders have soft skills to match their technological prowess IT’S NO SURPRISE that Gen Z leaders are often technologically far more advanced than previous generations. This generation was born with smartphones and tablets in their hands.

While Gen Z leaders are great at using their technologically savvy hard skills to solve problems, they often struggle with soft skills. These include face-to-face communication, email etiquette, and giving and (especially) receiving feedback. Most of these soft skills have atrophied even further during the pandemic.

This dynamic often causes friction because older generations deem these skills as basic “blocking and tackling” in the workplace. Those tasked with leadership development will have to be patient with Gen Z leaders who lack these skills, but it’s nothing that a little teaching, coaching and mentoring can’t improve with time and experience.

The Road Ahead FINDING EFFECTIVE WAYS to develop future

Gen Z leaders and take advantage of their education and talent will not be easy, but it’s a similar challenge faced by previous generations. The more we understand about what makes Gen Z tick, the more we can take advantage of their ambition, technological savvy and moxie. Given the pace of change in the world today, we can ill afford to do anything but embrace Gen Z to help solve our most pressing problems, and that starts with developing Gen Z leaders. L

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Don’t Just Be Successful.

Be Significant.

The CEO of Investors Bank explains why reaching for success isn’t reaching high enough.

BY KEVIN CUMMINGS

18 Lead | A Seton Hall University Publication

A BUSINESS LEADER, I have spent much time reflecting on the best ways to bridge my personal convictions with those of the capitalist business model of seeking greater returns for my shareholders. So often, business is conducted in a quid pro quo manner: You do something good for me; I do something good for you.

I find myself wondering if business can work from a different paradigm. I have explored an idea that hinges on the question: Can you be successful in the corporate world and still do business by a set of values that aims for the greater good? In other words, can the philosophy of purposeful partnerships — where we put aside self-serving agendas — actually exist in today’s competitive business climate?

The concept of maintaining values in business that look toward achieving a greater good is debated in classrooms, offices and conference rooms. I feel I must respond from my own experience.

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We Are All Interconnected People define partnerships differently. Everyone has his or her own idea of what a “partnership” means.

My own ideas and expectations about partnerships were shaped early in life and began as a reflection of my role models. I was fortunate to have mentors who put other people first and who taught me, through example, that we all are interconnected.

First, there was my father. He was a beacon, a guiding light for me. He always put his family ahead of himself, working two jobs to make sure we had a good life. His selfless acts truly showed me how to live.

Another strong role model was my high school basketball coach. He taught me the importance of putting the good of the team first and accepting individual glory later.

Growing up, I was surrounded by role models who taught me what it meant to be fair and truthful.

Perhaps what impressed me most was that they always considered what was most beneficial to all concerned.

Through their guidance and behavior, I learned that people matter more than things and money. Thanks to those mentors, I also learned early on that the world does not revolve around me. In fact, I discovered that when we put others first, good things happen for everyone. This concept is one of the key principles of my value system, to this day.

Based on my own experience, not only is it possible to be successful in the corporate world and still follow a set of values that aims for the greater good, it is preferable.

roots as a community bank. We work hard to contribute to the prosperity of our local communities. We believe our strategy is a win-win because it means doing business in a way that is most beneficial for all. It is embedded in our core values of character, commitment, cooperation and community.

Be of Value and Put Others First

Attributes of a Good Business Leader

Albert Einstein once said, “Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value.” This message resonates with me.

It is about being a “giver” and not a “taker.” When we aim solely for success, we really are focusing only on ourselves.

We are concerned about our own egos, and are being selfish rather than selfless.

When we work toward being “of value,” we are focusing on the well-being of others. We are striving to be of service to others and to society for a greater purpose. The path to aiming for the greater good then is simple: Put others first.

At Investors Bank, we believe our purpose is to serve others. Banking is a service business, and our goal is to provide superior service and products each and every time we touch a customer. But it is about more than good customer service. I’m proud to say that at Investors Bank, we’ve remained true to our

The best business leaders put the interests of others ahead of their own. It is as simple as asking, “What can I give this person?” instead of “What can I get from this person?” I have found that this kind of leadership is the most rewarding path.

When you truly care about other people and put their needs first, they follow you. Not because they have to or were told to, but because they want to. I’ve learned that it is the servant leader — not the self-serving leader — who wins trust, respect and loyalty. When you genuinely care about other people, they know it. They feel understood, recognized and respected. It connects you on a very basic, human level — and it brings out the best in everyone.

I think our core values at Investors Bank — character, commitment, cooperation and community — reflect the five key habits or attributes of a good business leader:

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Finding Prosperity in Doing for Others

Character - defines where you go and how far. Your reputation is what others think of you, but your character is who you are and the values for which you stand.

Hard work - never goes out of style or becomes old fashioned.

In today’s world, with increasingly intense competition and a fluctuating economy, it is even more important.

Humility - enables you to realize that it is not all about you.

Be a giver, not a taker. A sense of humility inspires others to follow you.

Ability to listen - listening is how you truly learn. But, how many people know how to listen, really listen? More often, people are too busy thinking of how they are going to respond to your comments than truly listening, understanding and communicating.

Give back – you have to give back to the communities where you do business. But this is about more than writing checks.

It is about your personal involvement and enabling your employees to make a difference in the community.

I am very proud of Investors Bank employees, for example, who lend their time and talents by working at soup kitchens, teaching financial literacy and serving on the boards of nonprofits.

These are the habits that inspire a culture of ethics and trust, encourage the servant leader, and support the creation of purposeful partnerships. This is also when all kinds of fruitful and inspiring things happen. I have found that success follows.

When I think about Investors Bank, I have no doubt that the more we have done for our community, our customers and our employees, the more we have prospered. When we focus on being of value — rather than just being successful — we are directed toward the well-being of others. We are striving to be of service.

That, I have found, is the basis for good relationships and fair business practices.

Banks — and really all businesses — can make a difference and be of value when they provide not only smart solutions for their customers, but also incorporate civic involvement in their everyday operations. Government cannot solve all our problems.

Being a good corporate citizen creates self-sufficiency, encourages growth and fortifies our communities.

From my perspective, purposeful partnerships — with employees, customers and community — are those partnerships where the collective good is the goal.

Sometimes, these partnerships emerge and flourish because our value systems are aligned. Perhaps the best example is when two people — or two groups — come together to make a difference for a cause they both believe in. This is often the case with community service.

For me, personally, and for everyone at Investors Bank, giving back to the community is a responsibility we take very seriously. Every year, our foundation awards millions of dollars to nonprofit organizations in the communities we serve. But more importantly, our employees are out in the communities volunteering their time and talents.

These alliances with nonprofits are perhaps our most purposeful partnerships. Investors Bank supports a wide variety of charitable causes simply because it’s the right thing to do. Our values are aligned with their values. We believe in their missions — be it services that improve the quality of life for children, families in need and the physically challenged, or educational and arts initiatives that open people’s minds and hearts.

At Investors, we do not believe that being “successful” is enough. We strive to be significant. It is moving from success to significance that enables a company to create a purpose and a legacy — one that has a lasting impact on its employees, customers and the communities it serves.

It is through purposeful partnerships with community organizations that we strive, in our own small way, to create that lasting legacy that serves humanity and the greater good. We believe nothing could be more important, or more purposeful. L

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SERVANT LEADERSHIP IN ACTION A bestselling author and a management professor explain how you can lead and serve at the same time, and why that leads to better outcomes.

BY KEN BLANCHARD, Ph.D., AND STEVEN LORENZET, Ph.D.

OO MANY LEADERS have been conditioned to think of leadership only in terms of power and control. We believe there is a better choice: to lead at a higher level. When people lead at a higher level, they make the world a better place, because in addition to results and relationships, their goals are focused on the greater good. This is called servant leadership. ¶ In case you’re not familiar with servant leadership, Robert Greenleaf first coined the term in 1970 and published widely on the concept for the next 20 years. Mahatma Gandhi, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Jesus, Mother Teresa and Nelson Mandela are examples of great leaders who practiced this philosophy.

What Is Servant Leadership?

When some people hear the phrase servant leadership, they are confused. They think it is a religious movement. Others believe it means managers should be working for their people, who would make all the decisions. If that’s what servant leadership is all about, it doesn’t sound like leadership to them at all. It sounds more like the inmates running the prison, or managers trying to please everyone, or an effort to convert

people to a particular religious point of view.

The problem is that these folks don’t think you can lead and serve at the same time. But you can, once you understand that servant leadership has two parts: vision/direction and implementation.

People look to their formal leaders for vision and direction.

While leaders should involve people in shaping direction, the ultimate responsibility for the visionary/direction aspect of

TOP MANAGEMENT The Leadership Part of Servant Leadership: Vision/Direction

RESPONSIBLE

MIDDLE MANAGEMENT

SUPERVISORY MANAGEMENT

CUSTOMER CONTACT PEOPLE RESPONSIVE

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CUSTOMERS

CUSTOMERS CUSTOMER CONTACT PEOPLE

RESPONSIBLE

SUPERVISORY MANAGEMENT

MIDDLE MANAGEMENT

RESPONSIVE

The Servant Part of Servant Leadership: Implementation

TOP MANAGEMENT

leadership remains with the leaders and cannot be delegated to others. This visionary role is the leadership aspect of servant leadership and it’s where the traditional hierarchical pyramid is effective.

Once a vision has been agreed upon and people are clear on where they’re going, the leader’s role moves to implementation.

This is where the servant aspect of servant leadership comes into play. If you are a servant leader, you now philosophically turn the traditional pyramid upside down and work for your people. Your purpose is to help them accomplish established goals, solve problems and live according to the vision. Under a servant leader, people serve the vision, not the leader.

Since Seton Hall is arguably most famous for its men’s and women’s basketball teams, perhaps a basketball analogy is in order. Although obvious, it’s worth noting that the coaches do not score any points. Scoring is the job of the players. In their leadership role, the coaching staff must establish the vision and direction by setting the game plan. Then they must turn the proverbial pyramid upside down to implement that plan by coaching and supporting the players to succeed.

Servant Leadership Is a Question of the Heart Effective leadership is all about leadership character and intention. Why are you leading? Is it to serve or to be served?

Answering this question is the key to leading at a higher level.

The most persistent barrier to being a servant leader is a heart motivated by self-interest that looks at the world as a “give a little, take a lot” proposition. Leaders with hearts motivated by self-interest put their own agenda, safety, status and gratification ahead of those affected by their thoughts and

actions. Most of us are programmed this way and entered the world with a self-focus. Is there anything more self-centered than a baby? A baby doesn’t come home from the hospital asking, “How can I help around the house?” As any parent can attest, children are naturally selfish; they must be taught how to share.

The shift from self-serving leadership to leadership that serves others is motivated by a change in heart. These leaders understand an important principle:

You finally become an adult when you realize that life is about serving rather than being served.

Putting Servant Leadership into Action Servant leadership is all about helping people win — to accomplish their goals. In an organizational setting, meeting with direct reports one-on-one is an excellent way for servant leaders to create and sustain good relationships and build trust.

Let’s look at how the process works.

For servant leaders, the performance review system consists of three parts: performance planning, day-to-day coaching, and performance evaluation.

•P ERFORMANCE PLANNING. The leadership part of servant leadership requires that managers make sure their direct reports are clear on what they are being asked to do and what good performance looks like. This is the focus of performance planning.

• The next step is DAY-TO-DAY COACHING. Now leaders turn the traditional hierarchical pyramid upside down and focus on the servant part of servant leadership: praising people’s

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progress, redirecting efforts when they are off track and cheering them on to goal accomplishment.

• The third step is PERFORMANCE EVALUATION, when direct reports meet with their manager — ideally at least quarterly — to assess progress and either celebrate accomplishments or together determine what needs to be done if goals haven’t been met.

When you ask managers which step they spend the most time on, they usually say performance evaluation — filling out forms and rating people.

Servant leaders, on the other hand, spend most of their energy on day-to-day coaching — the servant part of servant leadership. These leaders are constantly trying to find out what their people need to perform well. Their focus is on helping their direct reports accomplish their goals, so that when it’s time for performance evaluations, their people win. And when direct reports win, the leader wins, the department wins, and the organization wins.

Ken’s thinking on the importance of day-to-day coaching dates to his experience as a college professor, when he was periodically in trouble with the faculty. What drove them crazy was that at the beginning of every course, Ken gave his students the final exam. When the faculty found out about that, they asked, “What are you doing?”

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Ken said, “I thought we were supposed to teach these students.”

The faculty said, “We are, but don’t give them the final exam ahead of time!”

Ken said, “Not only will I give them the final exam ahead of time, what do you think I’ll do throughout the semester? I’ll teach them the answers, so that when they get to the final exam, they’ll get As. You see, I think life is all about helping people get As — and not force-fitting them into a normal distribution curve.”

Ken’s focus was on helping his students to really learn.

His final exams were tough; he didn’t give easy true/false or multiple-choice tests. His goal throughout the semester was to partner with students to help them answer the hard questions on the final exam.

Many organizations place too much emphasis on performance evaluation and force their managers to sort people according to a mathematical formula — or worse, rank-order them. Not only are these evaluations demotivating, but they also take valuable time away from day-to-day coaching, where goals are accomplished and real work gets done.

The Importance of One-on-One Meetings One of the servant leader’s best practices is to have regular one-on-one conversations with their direct reports. The leader

schedules the one-on-one meeting, but the direct report sets the agenda. This provides a chance for the direct report to talk about their goals, share personal information, learn more about the organization or ask for help to solve a problem.

As a leader, you might be thinking I don’t have time for more meetings. But we say you can’t afford to not take time for your people. If you can’t find a few extra hours to mentor and develop your direct reports, a leadership role may not be right for you.

Spending time with direct reports in team meetings is not the same. When a servant leader takes the time to connect one-on-one with a direct report, they let that person know their work is important and they are a valued member of the team. These conversations provide the foundation for a strong, productive relationship that aligns the leader and direct report with each other and with the organization.

Servant Leadership: The Power of Love, Not the Love of Power To find out what kind of leadership has the greatest impact on performance, Scott Blanchard and Drea Zigarmi conducted a yearlong study of strategic leadership and operational leadership. The big picture conclusion from this research is that while strategic leadership — the leadership part of servant leadership — is important, it is operational leadership — the

servant leadership part of servant leadership — that has a greater impact on an organization’s success. These findings are consistent with a series of studies Steven published with Angelo Mastrangelo and Erik Eddy that found a leader’s vision (1) begins with them (2) reaches their people through meaningful and supportive interactions, which then (3) lead to a range of positive organizational outcomes.

What does this mean? It means that organizations whose leaders are focused on serving their people are the most likely to achieve the best results.

A few years ago, Ken received a letter from a man in New Zealand with a line that he believes sums up the philosophy of servant leadership:

Teaching people the power of love rather than the love of power.

In this spirit, we invite you to embrace servant leadership.

It’s not about letting the inmates run the prison or handing out easy A’s in classes. It’s about becoming a leader who, in Robert K. Greenleaf’s terms, “serves first and leads second.”

ACKNOWLEDGMENT: Ken and Steven would like to express their gratitude to Martha Lawrence. The article has been substantially improved from its original form thanks to her outstanding editorial skills. L

In the Lead | A Seton Hall University Publication 27

Playing the Long Game

The strategic benefits to keeping long-term goals top of mind, even when solving urgent problems today. BY KAREN E. BOROFF, Ph.D. “THE UNION has rejected our final offer, and it is going on strike.”

These were and continue to be highconflict words, representing the failure of both management and labor to find mutually satisfactory settlement terms. While a strike may commence, at that very moment, both labor leaders and management leaders know that the parties will have to find a way to restart negotiations very quickly.

Even more, they will know that, eventually, they will have to work together again, despite any rancor, hostilities, injuries or arrests that may emerge in the face of the labor dispute. It is the long-game strategy that I believe continues to be one of the most compelling philosophies any leader can follow. Here, the long-game strategy helped us navigate the high-conflict setting

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in which we found ourselves. The long game for us was both to navigate the immediacy of the hostility and to build a wholesome pathway to preserve the ongoing relationship that will follow after the dispute ends.

THE LABOR DISPUTE I learned the long-game mental discipline from a labor dispute.

I, along with six others, represented management in its contract negotiations with a union. We were all headed toward the contract deadline. Sadly, the company’s final wage offer was rejected, and the union struck.

That offer, and indeed the entire bargaining package, was in writing, part of a large written memorandum of understanding that was exchanged across the bargaining table. When the

union went public with the strike, it heavily referenced only the company’s initial wage offer of a 3.5 percent increase for the first year of the contract, with no increases in years two and three of the agreement. No mention was made of the company’s interim offers nor its final offer. We on the team believed that only discussing the company’s opening gambit was terribly misleading. Strikes could damage families and livelihoods.

We could also lose public support. We all felt that our unionrepresented employees deserved to know precisely what the final terms of the offer were before going on strike, and we wanted to put out a statement of our final position, correcting the union’s claim.

That, however, was not going to happen. The company’s chief negotiator, a person we all greatly respected, was solemn. He said, The union has gone on strike. We believe this is a significant mistake on its part, and that mistake may be rooted in some disagreement among the union negotiators themselves.

Whatever the cause, our work now is to get the union back to the bargaining table, find common ground and try to keep as wholesome as possible an after-the-strike working relationship with the returning strikers and their management team. The union is going to have to convince its membership that the strike was worth it. So, let me ask you this: Is it better for a union employee to see that, by going on strike, the union secured a significant wage increase, using the company’s opening position as the starting point? Or is it better, as we seek to close the contract and preserve an ongoing relationship, for the union to tell its members that they went out on strike and improved their position only in a very small way, which would be the case if the union used our last offer as the anchor?”

We became silent. We understood the hypothetical scenarios at play and the potential “long game” at stake.

One of us said, “I don’t like the masking of the truth. The union is lying, and we know it.”

The chief negotiator replied, “What union leaders say to the press is their business. But we are not going to correct it.

What will that do for any of us to call the union liars when we have to restart negotiations, get everyone back to work and try to heal divisions?”

Another team member probed a bit more. “Won’t that just embolden the union to repeat that kind of bad behavior in the future?”

Certainly, we all were getting tense, but this kind of hard press on challenging ideas was exactly what the chief negotiator had demanded from his team.

The chief negotiator replied, “It might, but I believe it will be more effective for me to call out the union negotiators at the table, and not in the press. It is with the union, and not some media outlet, with whom we have to settle and with whom we have to work going forward the moment this thing is settled.”

The importance of the work relationship, in the heat of what is arguably the worst of a workplace conflict, became the long game and the overarching goal of our efforts.

LESSON LEARNED I reflect on the lesson to define the long game all the time. It is a universal lesson, especially appropriate to consider in any form of conflict — at work, on campuses and, if we might even say, in politics. In the face of a dispute, what is a leader doing to solve the immediacy of the conflict while simultaneously taking care to preserve the future relationship that will be fundamental to organizational success?

“Preserving the relationship” does not mean one tolerates or exonerates the mischaracterizations or worse that may erupt in a conflict. Indeed, the union leaders did get an earful about

“ Preserving the relationship” does not mean one tolerates or exonerates the mischaracterizations or worse that may erupt in a conflict. their press releases from our head negotiator. They learned that if we hope to settle this strike, this kind of behavior did none of us any good, and perhaps now was the time to work between ourselves and not with the media.

“Preserving the relationship” does not mean that one forsakes deeply held principles, such as truthfulness and fair dealing. “Preserving the relationship” does require, however, playing the long game in almost every endeavor a leader undertakes. The long game here was ensuring that the workplace returned to normalcy. After all, these might have been union members on strike, but they were our employees.

My takeaway: I work to examine issues and opportunities as they come to my desk, asking myself, “What is the long game?” that will provide the strategies and tactics to bring about the best solutions for the many I serve. As one reflects on business leadership miscues (or worse), chances are one will see that the playbook for the long game was not even opened. L

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The ‘Big Four’ Are Tracking You A new book explores how corporate digital surveillance affects our lives.

REVIEWED BY PAULA ALEXANDER, Ph.D., J.D., AND STEPHEN WOOD

SHOSHANA ZUBOFF’S The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power (PublicAffairs, 2019), honored by The Financial Times and McKinsey as a short list Best Business Book of the Year 2019, has been placed by some in the canon of socioeconomic investigations: Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations, Max Weber’s Economy and Society, Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring and Karl Marx’s Das Kapital. “Everyone needs to read this book as an act of digital self-defense,” writes Naomi Klein, author of This Changes Everything.

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Zuboff defines surveillance capitalism as “a new economic order that claims human experience as free raw material for hidden commercial practices of extraction, prediction and sales…” It is a profound book, building its judgments regarding surveillance on foundations of fundamental, timeless societal issues: the individual versus the collective, the right to sanctuary, the right to one’s future, and the difficulties posed by power asymmetries between large corporations and the consumer-public.

Surveillance capitalism is enabled, and conducted, by the “big four” (Google, Facebook, Amazon and Apple,

expanded to the “big five,” to include Microsoft), and technology companies that have created digital platforms for communications, including market transactions. Zuboff credits Google with creating data scraping from consumer transactions, made possible by the invention of browser “cookies” by an engineer at Netscape.

Most of us see Big Tech companies’ surveillance as merely a privacy issue. Perhaps we are comfortable with a naïve view we have “nothing to hide” or are happy with the trade-off that our web searches are free on this wonderful thing called the internet. A search for golf equipment results in a machine placing us among “people who golf.” Our life is made easier because we now see ads for golf gear, but not tennis gear. What could be wrong with that?

For starters, digital surveillance is now everywhere and becoming more intrusive. For example, “wearable tech” can help diagnose and control the spread of COVID-19. New sensors will measure multiple body functions and proximity to others, enabling social distance monitoring and contact tracing. This data will be permanently stored. It will be collated with location data, product searches and receipts, creating thousands of data points generated by our functions and activities.

Algorithms will sort, categorize, predict behavior and, ultimately, influence our behavior to accomplish the ends desired by “advertisers.”

WHO OWNS YOUR INFORMATION? Zuboff identifies the real customers of the surveillance companies as the advertisers and other companies that utilize the data created in the course of the transactions by the users — we who think of ourselves as the “customers” of Google, Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft and other digital platforms. Indeed, each of these companies creates “value added” for the users who engage in the transactions, giving rise to our scraped data: with Google, it is searches; with Facebook, it is facilitated social connections; Amazon, purchases shipped to our homes or steamed videos; and so on.

Zuboff illustrates how Big Tech companies have boldly laid claim to the behavioral data of our everyday lives. She outlines several stages and tactics to cast light on these companies’ tactics, including dispossessing users of their data, habituating

users to constant data extraction, deflecting objections and lobbying extensively to preserve their business model. At the heart of this issue is, who owns your information? Big Tech has laid claim to the data by arguing that because they collect, aggregate and analyze our data, they own it.

BEHAVIORAL FUTURES MARKETS Surveillance capitalism originated in a virtuous cycle, the use of data for product and service improvement and the personalization and customization of user experience. These are fundamental principles taught in business schools.

Google added experimentation into its data collection and created predictive models of behavior. This scraped data has been used to create what Zuboff identifies as “behavioral futures markets.” The digital companies’ machines do not care who buys the prediction product.

It can only get worse: Greater predictability means greater “efficiency” of marketing dollars. Achieving greater predictability is accomplished by everlarger files of data collated through ever more sophisticated predictive algorithms. And prediction can lead to behavioral influence or control. We may see a purveyor of golf gear as benign, but a political “influencer” may not be. FacebookCambridge Analytica provides a cogent example. Data collection and modeling by a Facebook client led to the identification of “persuadables.” Cambridge Analytica allegedly implemented its models of prediction and control by developing the “Do So” campaign on behalf of protagonists in the 2015 general elections in Trinidad and Tobago.

Another issue is the explosion of disinformation. Zuboff shows how this, too, has its roots in the digital platforms’ algorithmic processing of user data. Surveillance collection and prediction have no dependency on truth or fact. User “click-through” rates, “likes” and “retweets” are generated by disinformation just as easily as by truthful or factual information. The algorithms’ predictive success is just as effective, regardless of the quality of the content under circulation. Those who would sow disinformation to harm our society know this. Nonetheless, the imperative surveillance grinds on, sorting and collating users for targeting, fertile for sensational reactions, be they based on fact or fiction.

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Regarding the massive assembly of a dossier on every member of our population, Zuboff asks, “Who knows? Who decides? Who decides who decides?” We would recoil instantly if the answers given to these questions were, “The government knows. The government decides it is entitled to decide, and the government does indeed decide,” resonating in George Orwell’s dystopian 1984. But because this surveillance is conducted by “successful” companies led by “farsighted, prosperous geniuses,” we are blind to the outrage and violation of our rights. Zuboff’s book removes the blind spot. She quotes Thomas Paine’s The Rights of Man, “a body of men holding themselves accountable to nobody, ought not to be trusted by anybody.”

REGULATORY APPROACHES Regulators in the United States are now addressing the role of the “big four” in terms of new approaches to antitrust. Google

on the part of the agencies who collect and use individuals’ personal data, and protects its security.

U.S. law currently does not offer an answer, but it does not have to be so. Tim Wu, who is a leading thinker about new models of antitrust and who authored The Curse of Bigness: Antitrust in the New Gilded Age, suggests that privacy laws are an inadequate approach. Wu urges that the U.S. Congress pass anti-surveillance laws, which prohibit the “gratuitous surveillance and the reckless accumulation of personalized data … by allowing only the collection of data necessary to the task at hand … and after collecting data, firms would be forced ... to get rid of it, or fully anonymize the rest of it.”

Zuboff writes, “What is at stake here is the human expectation of sovereignty over one’s own life and authorship of one’s own experience ... the inward experience from which we form the will to will and the public spaces to act on that will.” The book will be invaluable to anyone seeking to sort

Most of us see Big Tech companies’ surveillance as merely a privacy issue.

Perhaps we are comfortable with a naïve view we have “nothing to hide” or are happy with the trade-off that our web searches are free on this wonderful thing called the internet. has been sued by the U.S. Department of Justice for violations of antitrust law. And the CEOs of Facebook, Apple, Amazon and Alphabet (Google’s parent) are currently undergoing congressional investigation. Regulators in the European Union are ahead of the U.S. in terms of addressing privacy concerns and have recognized and protected the “right to be forgotten.” The right to be forgotten implies that we own, or co-own, our scraped data and can exert some control over it. Europe’s EU General Data Protection Regulation, grounded in the right to privacy recognized in the 1950 European Convention on Human Rights, maintains that people own their information, and it creates obligations and limitations

out Big Tech issues: privacy, antitrust and the explosion of political disinformation.

By raising the alarm, Shoshana Zuboff invites us to consider, engage and debate the economic forms and institutions we are currently developing and their consequences. As servant leaders, we are challenged to address the problems that Zuboff identifies.

Robert Reich, author of The Work of Nations, has differentiated knowledge workers, whom he calls “symbolic analysts,” as problem identifiers and problem solvers; and “strategic brokers” who connect problem identifiers with problem solvers. Having identified the problem, Zuboff invites us to fashion solutions to the problems she identifies. L

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THE FUTURE OF

Survey

Insight and foresight

about the future of leadership from the leaders of the future

Summary Report in Lead Magazine Summer Issue

LEADERSHIP WORD SEARCH BY ARIANNA WELING

T R U T H F U H U M I L I T Y

C T C M F A S C I E O T I R C

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P I R O S F H H O E P C P I A

N C V E A G WM S A F A T L A D R A L T O W U E S N T I S D

E V E E P M R Y E R E N I O C

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T D E D I C A T E D T A T S D

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In the Lead | A Seton Hall University Publication 35

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