Steven Klar shares thoughts on leadership during visit to Toledo

On December 4, Steven Klar, patron of the Klar Academy for Leadership Excellence within The University of Toledo College of Business and Innovation, came to Toledo and visited with students now participating in the Academy.

Klar, president of the Klar Organization, a diversified real estate development, building and brokerage firm, was honored as The University of Toledo College of Business and Innovation 2005 Business Pacemaker of the Year. Klar received a bachelor’s of business administration from UT in 1969, then went on to earn a law degree from Brooklyn Law School in 1973.

During his visit, he spoke from the heart to the Academy students, sharing various thoughts about leadership in life:

“I, as a builder deal with crises every day; it’s about how you deal with them.”

“Treat your neighbors kindly, and you’ll be a leader.”

“You have a blank canvas. Be constant. Grow. Take the risks. If you never take the risks, you’ll never have the rewards.”

“That first step gets you a thousand miles.”

“We try to live with the motto, ‘Do it right the first time.’  From a leadership perspective, do it right the first time.”

“Everything you do in your life and for your family is all connected.”

“We’re all going to make mistakes.”

“If something is out of the ordinary, it’s your job to do something.”

“I developed a lot at The University of Toledo, all from my own growth and from the people at The University of Toledo. You never know what turns your life around, such as a great member of the academic community.”

“The Academy is doing some remarkable things. We need you to lead.”

“You’ve got the foundation, it’s what you do with it now.”

The mission of the Klar Academy for Leadership Excellence is to expand and accelerate the development of the leadership acumen and talents of a select cadre of outstanding university undergraduate students so as to increase their career success, ability to impact the world for good and improve the human condition.

The goals of the Klar Academy for Leadership Excellence are to provide Academy participants with a transformational learning experience to build on their COBI education, enabling them to better lead themselves, others, teams, organizations and communities. The focus of this development effort is to provide Klar Academy students  with a hands-on, unique and difference-making educational experience so as to expand and develop core competencies such as the ability to think bigger and create vision; skill at achieving goals and delivering desired results; emotional intelligence, interpersonal and teaming skills; an expanded worldview and community service mindset; ethical decision making; confidence to lead others and demonstrate self-leadership; and a mentoring mindset.