President Whelan is a Guest on “Steve Adubato’s Lessons in Leadership”

We have to learn from the past so we can shape the future, said Caldwell University President  Matthew Whelan on “Steve Adubato’s Lessons in Leadership” with Adubato and co-host Mary Gamba 

Dr. Whelan joined Adubato and Gamba on Sept. 13 to talk about the importance of modeling behavior as a leader (including wearing masks during the pandemic), the changes facing higher education and how to build a strong team.    

They discuss being strategically agile and the importance of commanding and evaluating situations. “You have a goal. You know what the long term goal is but you also have to have the agility and the nimbleness, and the people around you who can help you deal with what the distractions are but also keep going towards the goal,” said Dr. Whelan.  They talked about leadership books on different topics including emotional intelligence. “I grew up in a bookstore,” said President Whelan who from a young age was drawn to reading and history.  In college he started thinking about how leaders in different areas—colleges and universities, medical systems, politicians, elected officials—shape the future. “And that is when I really began to become interested in leadership as a vocation,” said Dr. Whelan.   

Asked by Adubato what the number 1 leadership lesson is that he has learned during this challenging and difficult time, Dr. Whelan responded, “Trust your team. You have to be able to build and trust your team and create a team that can be nimble.”   No one does it alone, he said. “We have to be able to build a team, trust the team and move forward, keep them—as we drive the bus—headed towards the goal.”