It gives me great pleasure to welcome back to AST Shari Hubert, Associate Dean of Admissions at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business. Shari earned her BA at Dartmouth and her MBA at Harvard. She worked at several elite companies, and in 2009 became Director of Recruitment for the Peace Corps. In 2012 she returned to the MBA world when she became the Associate Dean of MBA Admissions for Georgetown McDonough, and she joined Duke Fuqua as Associate Dean of Admissions in October.

Can you give an overview of the Duke Fuqua FT MBA program for those listeners who aren’t that familiar with it, perhaps focusing on its more distinctive elements? [1:32]

All of our programs excel at creating a certain type of leader – one who collaborates well with others. We call it Team Fuqua, which we define as a special way of working that brings out the strengths in others to work toward a common goal. You are required to work in teams for much of the program. The teams are intentionally diverse in order to learn from each other – not just gender and race diversity but functional background and industry as well. Team Fuqua is not just a student concept but it follows into your career as well. Tim Cook is arguably our most famous alum, and he talks about how he developed his own collaborative style from Fuqua. The program taught him how to learn, collaborate, and think.

From an academic perspective, our faculty are developing new courses for the ever complex world we live in. We were one of the first business schools to offer courses in block chain (cryptocurrency). Cam Harvey, a faculty member, is one of the experts. Last month we started a new course, CEO Activism, which is about the decision-making process in complex situations that leaders have to go through to decide whether to speak out about a political or social issue or not.

Finally, one thing I’ve been impressed with is the student-led culture. Students are constantly organizing events and conferences with high level people, and they manage the campus visit program. Students are always finding ways to learn from each other. One example is from a student who was in the military who founded Operation Blue Devil which gives students a firsthand perspective about what it’s like to serve. Another example is Fuqua Talks and Fuqua Listens – initiatives that help develop a more inclusive culture. With Fuqua Talks anyone can get up and talk about what they feel is important. With Fuqua Listens there is a topic of discussion – the most recent one was about professional athletes kneeling during the national anthem.

What does it mean to be a consequential leader? [6:21]

Team Fuqua embodies what it means to be a consequential leader, and is synonymous with demonstrating collaborative leadership, which is the ability to pull out the strengths of others to make the best team. This is the key to innovation – it’s not just a nice concept but a winning strategy to harness the best team.

One great example of this type of leadership is when a research firm interviewed recruiters about the value of our graduates. One recruiter mentioned an exercise where MBA students from several schools came in to solve a problem in the same room. Not surprisingly, most students approached the situation by highlighting their own strengths, hoping to land that job offer. The recruiter said that Fuqua students were generally different. Instead of discussing their own strengths they worked to understand the other tea...