Chicago, IL
Karen Szymanski, PhD
Change and complexity, contradiction and paradox, uncertainty and dread. These words characterize the challenges that leaders at all levels must face and navigate – on their own and as they engage others in a journey to a new goal…a new level of excellence. The root words connected with leadership say it all. Lithar – a leader is one who goes first into uncharted territory. Laedare – a leader is one who takes others with and guides, inspires, and empowers them along the way.
In her coaching and organizational work, Karen Szymanski supports leaders and change agents at all levels as they develop themselves “from the inside out” and build the capacity and competence needed to face the unknown, take risks, engage more powerfully with others, and deliver results.
Karen’s passion for this work emerges from 30+ years of hands-on leadership in a non-traditional career. She’s transitioned from higher education and corporate marketing to solo practice and client/colleague collaboration…from studying large-scale historical change and its impact on human behavior as part of her doctoral work to being a change agent within organizations and to supporting clients who serve as change agents in challenging contexts.
Her knowledge and expertise has been honed in the trenches with others – experiencing failures, successes, and lessons learned together. Her “practice laboratories” include the institutions where she worked – Syracuse University, North American Philips, and GE – along with client companies in healthcare, advertising/ marketing, commercial construction, financial services, and technology.
Life itself has been the practice laboratory for Karen. As a teenager, she became the first female in her immigrant family to attend college and step into a new world. She married, divorced, and remarried while learning lessons of personal integrity, trust and intimacy along the way. Through a more recent near-death experience during a head-on car crash, Karen has come to know first-hand the preciousness and impermanence of life – holding it more lightly while engaging with more creativity and gusto.
This journey has provided a more expansive view of life, work, relationship, and the power of possibility in the midst of chaos and fear. Karen brings this perspective to her coaching and organizational work through Gateways Learning, Inc.
Karen trained with New Ventures West and is a certified Integral Coach®. She also completed additional training in executive coaching through Loyola University. She is trained to use the Leadership Development Profile, as well as the Executap executive alignment process. Training in Wendy Palmer’s Conscious Embodiment process, hatha yoga, mindfulness practices, and neuroscience ground her work in managing stress, increasing awareness, and strengthening emotional intelligence. Her PhD in American Studies and MA in English are from Syracuse University.
Karen assists as adjunct faculty for New Ventures West’s yearlong Professional Coaching Course. She serves on the Board of Directors for A Safe Place, which provides services to victims of domestic violence in need of shelter, safety, and healing. She has served on the board of the Chicago Coach Federation and on the business advisory committee for the Gannon Center for Women and Leadership at Loyola University.
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Karen Szymanski, PhD
847.735.1431 (office)
847.894.5503 (mobile)
www.gateways-learning.com
Change and complexity, contradiction and paradox, uncertainty and dread. These words characterize the challenges that leaders at all levels must face and navigate – on their own and as they engage others in a journey to a new goal…a new level of excellence. The root words connected with leadership say it all. Lithar – a leader is one who goes first into uncharted territory. Laedare – a leader is one who takes others with and guides, inspires, and empowers them along the way.
In her coaching and organizational work, Karen Szymanski supports leaders and change agents at all levels as they develop themselves “from the inside out” and build the capacity and competence needed to face the unknown, take risks, engage more powerfully with others, and deliver results.
Karen’s passion for this work emerges from 30+ years of hands-on leadership in a non-traditional career. She’s transitioned from higher education and corporate marketing to solo practice and client/colleague collaboration…from studying large-scale historical change and its impact on human behavior as part of her doctoral work to being a change agent within organizations and to supporting clients who serve as change agents in challenging contexts.
Her knowledge and expertise has been honed in the trenches with others – experiencing failures, successes, and lessons learned together. Her “practice laboratories” include the institutions where she worked – Syracuse University, North American Philips, and GE – along with client companies in healthcare, advertising/ marketing, commercial construction, financial services, and technology.
Life itself has been the practice laboratory for Karen. As a teenager, she became the first female in her immigrant family to attend college and step into a new world. She married, divorced, and remarried while learning lessons of personal integrity, trust and intimacy along the way. Through a more recent near-death experience during a head-on car crash, Karen has come to know first-hand the preciousness and impermanence of life – holding it more lightly while engaging with more creativity and gusto.
This journey has provided a more expansive view of life, work, relationship, and the power of possibility in the midst of chaos and fear. Karen brings this perspective to her coaching and organizational work through Gateways Learning, Inc.
Karen trained with New Ventures West and is a certified Integral Coach®. She also completed additional training in executive coaching through Loyola University. She is trained to use the Leadership Development Profile, as well as the Executap executive alignment process. Training in Wendy Palmer’s Conscious Embodiment process, hatha yoga, mindfulness practices, and neuroscience ground her work in managing stress, increasing awareness, and strengthening emotional intelligence. Her PhD in American Studies and MA in English are from Syracuse University.
Karen assists as adjunct faculty for New Ventures West’s yearlong Professional Coaching Course. She serves on the Board of Directors for A Safe Place, which provides services to victims of domestic violence in need of shelter, safety, and healing. She has served on the board of the Chicago Coach Federation and on the business advisory committee for the Gannon Center for Women and Leadership at Loyola University.
