Lives of Consequence
Stephen L. Cohen ’67
Founder and Principal, Strategic Leadership Collaborative, Inc.
For Stephen L. Cohen ’67, who has more than 40 years of experience in human resources management and talent development, helping “organizations become more supportive and empowering entities while improving their productivity” goes hand in hand with “helping people in the workforce become all they can be.”
His private consulting practice, Strategic Leadership Collaborative, Inc., focuses on business strategy and leader development, offering leadership solutions designed for a rapidly changing and unpredictable business environment. As the organization’s founder and principal, Cohen provides services ranging from educational experiences and strategic planning to performance and succession management.
During his career, Cohen has developed a wealth of expertise, working with more than 150 major corporations around the globe across numerous industries, including technology, financial services, pharmaceuticals, consumer/food products, media, transportation and government. He has created hundreds of groundbreaking consulting engagements for Fortune 500 as well as training supplier companies. He has served on more than 15 advisory boards in the training and education industry and has facilitated strategic growth planning initiatives for numerous others.
Combining his interest in business and his background in psychology and economics, Cohen found an early home in “a burgeoning, albeit relatively nascent, field” of industrial/organizational psychology. In his graduate studies, which integrated psychology and business, he “knew from the get-go that this was the field I wanted to be in and create a long term career.”
Initially, Cohen entered the field from the academic side as a professor at the University of South Florida, but during that time he began working as consultant “to bring real world situations into the classroom.” But the prospect of consulting full time, “helping both employees and their organizations become more productive and grow,” finally lured him away from teaching.
“Two years later, my previous major professor in graduate school and I co-founded a consultancy in the area of employee assessment and development,” Cohen recalls. “As they say, the rest is history. Seven consulting firms later, several of which I was fortunate enough to sell, I felt it was time to pull together all that I had learned about building a growing a business in this industry, and write The Complete Guide to Building and Growing a Talent Development Firm (March 2017).”
Written for training suppliers, independent consultants and corporate learning executives, Cohen’s book offers lessons for firms to start anew or build existing businesses. He has also written and delivered scores of refereed articles, chapters and presentations on a wide spectrum of talent development topics, including leadership and organizational assessment, development, delivery and evaluation. In addition to his service on the HWS Board of Trustees for the last decade, and past president of the Alumni Council, he has been an active volunteer for talent management industry associations.
A psychology major at Hobart and William Smith, Cohen went on to earn a master’s degree and a doctoral degree in industrial/organizational psychology from the University of Tennessee. He also obtained the Certified Performance Technologist designation from the International Society for Performance Improvement and completed the Carlson Executive Education Program through the University of Minnesota’s Executive Education Department.
“I would never have pursued my career without the HWS education,” he says. “Not only was the advice of my psychology professors instrumental in me going to graduate school in this field, but the incredible liberal arts education without question set me up for success. I learned to think and communicate clearly in both oral and written form, and of all that I took away from the Colleges academically, I believe this is what has served me best.”