From left to right: Arati Pandit, Julie Greenwood, Randi Rubin Rodriguez, Linda Lindroth, Ilona Somogyi, and Hope Chávez at the Yale University School of Management for the "Women in Charge: A Conversation about Leadership." Mindi Englart Photos.
Women lead in ways that often differ from their male counterparts – at least that’s the argument a respected panel of local women leaders made during a recent discussion at the Yale University School of Management.
The occasion was the “Women in Charge: A Conversation about Leadership,” event hosted by Yale SOM in collaboration with the Arts Council of Greater New Haven and the New Haven Department of Arts, Culture and Tourism.
Artist Linda Lindroth, who produced the event, said that the discussion was designed to introduce the SOM community with leaders who interact daily with the New Haven Community.
With Arts Council Executive Director Hope Chávez facilitating the discussion, the four panelists agreed that they didn’t pursue leadership. They took on responsibilities in communities they cared about and became leaders.
"I’m not a born leader,” Arati Pandit, director of Cold Spring School, said. “There were people around me who saw something in me that made me a leader.”
Julie Greenwood, executive director of Squash Haven, said helping people in the sports community she cared about helped her grow into a leadership role in that community.
“Some people still call me ‘Coach Julie,’ because I help people feel their best and do their best,” she said.
Audience members continued the discussion after the panel.
Unlike their male counterparts, the speakers said they were driven into leadership because they saw a need they could meet.
Ilona Somogyi, executive director of Ball & Socket Arts in Cheshire, said it’s the idea of slowing down and focusing on what matters most instead of doing more.
“It’s not intentional yet,” Somogyi said of her leadership style. “I feel like I'm always still reacting, and sometimes, I can see myself and make an adjustment.”
Pandit, who grew up in an Indian family, said she had 1,300 people at her wedding and she and her family cared for all of them, she said. In her role at Cold Spring School, she leads 38 faculty members and 156 students with that same energy by inventing and then reinventing herself for the people around her.
“We take care of people,” she said.
The panelists agreed prioritizing collaboration over hierarchical structures, as well as the ability to self-reflect and pivot, were important parts of making their careers as women in leadership sustainable and effective. They also said change-making also is an important function of their leadership raison d’etre.
Artist Maxim Schmidt, who helped Lindroth produce the event, talks with Randi Rubin Rodriguez and husband, Sergio Rodriguez after the event.
The necessary change that Randi Rubin Rodriguez, executive director and co-founder (with her husband Sergio Rodriguez) of ’r Kids saw nearly 30 years ago was a need for families experiencing foster care to be treated.
Meeting mothers who wanted to go into recovery but had to relinquish their babies because their children were under one years old tugged at her heart. At the time, Rubin didn’t have foster care experience herself, but believed that if someone is going to do work in their community, they must be immersed.
“If I’m not a part of that fabric, how can I be expected to lead?” she said.
As a result, Rubin Rodriguez and her husband have had 50 foster and adopted children in and out of their house over the years and ’r Kids has a 95% reunification rate, which far exceeds the state or national average.
The panelists clearly thrived on nurturing others and, over time, they’d all come to understand the need to nurture themselves, too.
“During the day when I need self care, I go to be with the three and four year olds, and they fill my bucket,” Pandit told the crowd.
Rodriguez said her biggest act of self-care is coming in about six months when she retires.
“I feel it’s time,” she said. “I’m excited about new opportunities. It’s been incredibly rewarding and demanding, politically and emotionally.”