Stephanie Rogen
Each month RG175 does a "deeper dive" to get to know one of our Independent School colleagues. This month we are spotlighting Stephanie Rogen. Stephanie, principal and founder of Greenwich Leadership Partners LLC, is a consultant, coach, and facilitator to educational and not-for-profit leadership. Her work integrates more than 25 years’ experience in the corporate, educational and not-for-profit sectors. Stephanie brings a fresh approach to strategy, leadership development, and transformational change in schools and organizations. An experienced executive coach and facilitator, she works with a diverse range of nationally recognized schools and not-for-profits ranging from Columbia University to The White House Project and Northwell Health.
To find out more about Greenwich Leadership Partners, LLC, please check out their website.
What do you enjoy most about your job as it pertains to Independent Schools?
The people! We work with extraordinary educators and trustees—and we’ve built enduring relationships that enrich our work in so many ways. The people are inseparable from the work we are most proud of: work that is the most fun, the most challenging, and the most rewarding. Over the last decade or so, I’ve met exceptional leaders and joined them on the journey to learn and evolve their schools. They’ve expanded my world and my perspective—I like to think we’ve done the same for them. Many have become great friends, collaborators, and colleagues—people I hold dear personally and professionally. I can’t think of a better outcome.
What are some of your greatest achievements?
I’m proudest of the wildly different projects, across sectors and industries, that shape our work—and our ability to focus on the intersections and connections that expand our understanding of education. For example, as educational advisor to the 2015 Sundance Documentary film Most Likely to Succeed, working with Ted Dintersmith, Tony Wagner, and filmmaker Greg Whitely, I had unparalleled access to thought leaders, expert practitioners, teachers, and students grappling with the biggest questions in education. We’ve worked with universities, corporations, and non-profits in a variety of engagements spanning reorganization, culture, and strategy. Healthcare disruption, women’s leadership development, adult learning, supporting millennials in the workplace, new governance models—we’ve found gold in all these places and more. Making connections between seemingly unrelated contexts, seeing the big picture, and helping independent schools innovate in ways that make the student experience the best it can be is what I’m most proud of.
How has Covid-19 affected your job/business and how have you adapted?
Our work has become even more serious, and with higher stakes! Covid accelerated and made acutely apparent vulnerabilities and opportunities of the “VUCA” environment that we’ve been naming for the last ten years—that once felt abstract or academic to many schools and organizations. We needed to be ready to dive right into the space, and at first, schools were so overwhelmed that our normal pace and routine came to a halt. In March 2020, we responded by writing and convening: offering support via our blog, our newsletter, and virtual meetings to connect heads, practitioners, and other experts. Now schools are confronting the issues head-on, and we are busier and entirely virtual. We’ve signed on to a number of new projects with long term horizons, and our focus has shifted to a lot more just in time support to boards, heads, and the head-board partnership as they confront hard (and exciting) questions about the future. The conversation has changed—and the possibilities are expanding for boards and leaders. We think that’s healthy. But oh, we are excited to start visiting schools again!
What is your connection to RG175?
I’ve enjoyed connections with wonderful consultants like Tom Olverson, Debbie Reed, and Coreen Hester over the years. We’ve enjoyed many instances of overlap—working with great schools and leaders and thinking together about leadership; about how talent develops, and about how schools support Heads and create conditions for success. I regularly connect with RG 175 for insight and perspective, and deeply value the collaboration.
Anything you would like to add?
Finding and developing talent will continue to be one of the greatest levers for change in schools—and we face some extraordinary challenges and opportunities right now with respect to this issue. We are on the cusp of a new generation of leaders—and I think we need new ways to identify, prepare, and support them so they can be successful. We’ll need leaders with the skills and dispositions to navigate through waters that most do not become familiar with in the course of a typical independent school career. We are going to see major reorganizations, deep cultural change, and most important—new understandings of how the best learning happens for all kinds of learners. We need leaders who are ready and well supported! This is our shared work.