(upbeat music) - Recently, together with my colleague, Mary Gamba, on our series Lessons and Leadership, we had a conversation with Amanda Tibok, who's executive director of the Sharing Network Foundation, an important conversation about organ and tissue donation, an important conversation about passion in the work you do every day, and making a difference in the lives of others.

This is Amanda Tibok.

We're now joined by Amanda Tibok, who's executive director of the Sharing Network Foundation.

Good to see you, Amanda.

- Good morning, Steve, Mary.

So great to see the both of you.

- Great to see you.

The website will be up for the foundation.

Tell us exactly what the Sharing Network Foundation is because it's really important.

- It sure is important, Steve.

The Sharing Network Foundation was created to support the work of New Jersey Sharing Network, who you've been partners with for a long time.

New Jersey Sharing Network is New Jersey's organ recovery agency and simply put, we recover and placed donated organs and tissue for the purpose of transplant for the New Jersey residents who are waiting for that second chance at life.

The foundation's role is to facilitate the gratitude that our families have for the care that they receive, both at the bedside and for transplant recipient families, that second chance at life that they did receive.

And we do that through philanthropic giving.

The funds raised through our foundation support, clinical advancement and research in our state-of-the-art laboratory, family support programs for donor families and transplant recipient families alike, and then most importantly, the public education component.

Educating people about the importance of saying yes to registering to be an organ donor.

And that's what it's all about.

- And the "Say Yes, Save Lives".

That's a campaign, right, Amanda?

- It is.

So we call that a thematic goal.

Here at New Jersey Sharing Network, our senior leadership team works very hard to create these rally cries, if you will, for our staff and our community to rally around.

Our current theme is "Say Yes, Save Lives", as you mentioned, and it has various meanings, say yes in regards to the registry, the importance of registering to be an organ donor.

In fact, that will be the messaging on this year's 5K T-shirt next to our sunflower, which as you know, is a big icon of New Jersey Sharing Network.

But secondly, for our internal staff and our volunteers, it's about saying yes to going above and beyond the job description, going to help your neighbors saying yes to maybe dropping off a copy for a fellow staff member who's on site, supporting families, saying yes to whatever it might be that we can support that next family and ultimately give someone else a second chance at life.

- So, to disclose a couple things.

Number one, Carolyn Welsh, the CEO, is a trustee of the Caucus Educational Corporation and also the Sharing Network, longtime underwriters of what we do in terms of our public awareness programming around organ and tissue donation.

I say yes to Mary Gamba jumping in right here.

- That was a great segue, Steve.

- What a smooth transition.

Amanda, talk a little bit about leadership, partnerships, collaboration.

You and I talked a little bit offline just about how important it is, no money, no missions, Steve and I talk about that all the time, always looking to raise money for our own nonprofit on this end.

How important are the partnerships with your volunteers, your trustees, the donors?

Talk about that connection between leadership and relationship building.

- Sure.

It is so important, Mary, and relationships, partnerships, it's really at the core of what we do here at the Sharing Network Foundation.

You know, when you think about philanthropy, giving, there's really a well-known kind of cycle of how gifts and support is received.

And it always starts with creating an extraordinary experience.

You have that extraordinary experience, you know, you build the relationship with, whether it's a volunteer, a board member, all the way to, you know, accepting their support, whether it's by their time, their financial giving, their support in their community, all the way to stewarding them and saying thank you.

And that's a big part of what we do.

But you know, that creating the extraordinary experience to me is all about the relationship.

It's about how we can kind of bring the mission front and center for those that we serve, but also for our partners thinking what can they get out of this partnership as well?

You know, certainly the mission is why we're all here.

We want to save and enhance lives through the miracle of organ and tissue donation.

But, you know, other than that, what can we do for our partners to get even more out of this partnership for them, whether that be employee engagement, opportunities for more volunteers to come to events like our 5K celebration of life and education.

You know, we love to visit different organizations to do education around organ tissue donation.

- Speaking about partnerships, together with our partner, Jacqui Tricarico, I'll be joining the, the 5K is coming up and we look forward to that every year we'll be doing a series of interviews of all kinds of folks who are connected to the Gift of Life and The Sharing Network.

But Mary and I talk about this all the time, we talk about "strategic relationship building", meaning, for a lot of people, they think relationship building is organic, it just happens.

And in lot of our leadership research and work, we argue," Hey listen, it's not always organic and it just happens.

You have to be consistent, strategic, you have to be persistent about it."

And someone says," Well, then aren't you manipulating a relationship?"

And I'm like," No, because it just doesn't happen by chance."

Where did you learn this relationship building thing?

I'm fascinated by that.

- Yeah, that's an interesting question.

You know, when I think of relationship building, you're absolutely right.

There's a fine line between what's organic and what's innate in someone that makes them a good connector, if you will.

But then there also is the strategy behind it.

How often are you following up with someone how genuine are you being in your interest in what they bring to the table?

- And hold on one second Amanda, or is it just transactional?

I'm trying to get something from you, so that's it.

When I get something from you, we're done.

That's not a relationship that matters.

Go ahead.

- It sure isn't.

And you know, here at New Jersey Sharing Network and specifically within the Foundation, relationships, like I said, it's the heart of what we do.

Philanthropy is all about the give and the take.

And so, when our team focuses on sponsorships and partnerships, it's all about staying connected.

And, you know, having those conversations about what's meaningful to our supporter, whether it's visibility on a T-shirt or whether it's having us come in for, you know, or offering them in for a tour, offering our meeting space.

But other than that, you know, for me it kind of boils down to friendship.

You know, I find myself in being real in and out of the office.

Who I am at home is who I am here at New Jersey Sharing Network and I've always been about connecting.

It's always been something that's kind of innate in me.

- That's you, that's who you are.

- It is.

- I'm from a big Italian family, so you know, it's natural.

- Oh, there you go, you said it.

- Hold on one second.

you went there.

Are you saying Amanda, that those of us who happen to have parents, grandparents, other generations who came from Italy, mostly southern Italy because it was so poor and people were coming to the United States to, because there was no work there.

Are you saying that Italian-Americans are better at relationships?

- Certainly not all I can speak about is- - I dunno where to go from here.

- No, I'm teasing, I'm joking.

- I actually have a very important question to ask.

- Oh, okay.

- If I may jump in saying, how do you like that segue, that transition that- - Amanda, our relationship, Mary basically shuts me down and says, " I'm gonna do something serious right now."

Go ahead, Mary.

- Steve was asking about where your passion came from and sure, the Italian-American background, definitely interesting.

You also shared offline with me just the fact that you had studied dance at college and Steve and I on Lessons and Leadership, often talk about the connection between sports and leadership.

And can you share a little bit about how that dance background, how you apply it to your positive attitude, your grit, your resilience, and just simply your approach as a leader at the Sharing Network Foundation?

- Yes, absolutely.

So, you know, I've been with the Sharing Network for 12 years now.

I started in 2012.

This is actually my 12 year anniversary coming up this month in April.

And before that, you know, I held various roles at the Sharing network.

Our marketing team, I worked very closely with our volunteers.

But prior to that, I was fresh out of college and as you said, Mary, I studied dance.

I can't remember a time when my life didn't include dancing.

It's something I have a passion for.

And as you said, I think it translates so perfectly in thinking about leadership.

There's a lot of team building as you can imagine, that goes into dancing.

And while a lot of my peers at the time were busy studying for midterms and finals, you know, I would do the same for my academic courses, but I would also be rehearsing late at night for our mid and end of year performances.

And so, you know, when you think about performing, I spent a lot of time on stage.

You have the opportunity to connect with not only your fellow dancers, but also with your audience.

And it's a unique opportunity to kind of get to know yourself in a way where you understand, both internal reflection and how others perceive you.

And you mentioned the grit, the perseverance that comes along with it.

Of course, those are all things that are part of it.

But really it comes down to, for me, is authenticity.

And you know, in a leader as a dancer, no one cares if you're perfect.

You know it needs to come from the heart, it needs to be real or you're gonna lose your audience.

And, you know, I feel the same way here about the Foundation, our generous board, our amazing staff, we're all part of a huge team and I think I owe it to them and to myself to just be authentically me, each and every day.

- Amanda, I never thought about the connection between dance, leadership, teamwork, but that's an interesting way to connect things.

And to you and your colleagues and partners at the Sharing Network and Sharing Network Foundation, we look forward to being there.

We're taping this the beginning of April.

So the 5K's coming up, we will be there, we look forward to those interviews because for those who have followed that series that we've been doing, that public awareness effort for so many years, the stories of people who are survivors, family members of those who gave the gift of life, those who received the gift of life, they themselves and family members of those who received the gift of life is extraordinary.

It's beyond all the statistics, the facts, the figures, it's about people's lives.

It is about saving lives.

And so to you and your colleagues, I wanna thank you for the work you're doing every day.

We appreciate it, Amanda.

- Thank you Steve.

We appreciate your partnership and helping us get the message out.

- It's our honor.

We'll be right back right after this.

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

Celebrating 30 years in public broadcasting.

Funding has been provided by Hackensack Meridian Health.

The New Jersey Education Association.

Valley Bank.

The Russell Berrie Foundation.

Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey.

PSEG Foundation.

Seton Hall University.

The Healthcare Foundation of New Jersey.

And by The Turrell Fund, a foundation serving children.

Promotional support provided by BestofNJ.com.

And by NJBIZ.

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