CoAching | Consulting | Facilitation
Create vision. Lead with Purpose. Manage Change.
Rose Hendricks, M.A. — Principal
Rose's passion and life's work is supporting people and organizations as they unlock their extraordinary leadership potential. As a coach, consultant, and facilitator, she partners with leaders and teams to develop vision, lead with purpose, and navigate change. Rose helps leaders and teams meet the world's great need for their elevated leadership.
Rose is privileged to coach diverse clients who are deeply curious about their potential and committed to their growth and development as leaders. Rose works with a range of clients from small business and nonprofit leaders and teams to executives at global organizations. It has been an honor for her to support leaders at the United Nations World Food Programme, the National Park Service, National Outdoor Leadership School, Goldman Sachs, Outdoor Recreation Roundtable, Emerson Electric, Toyota, American Avalanche Institute, MIT Sloan School of Management, and many others. She often collaborates with Leadership at Play. She especially loves supporting leaders focused on triple purpose development: inner development, team and culture development, systems development.
Rose works with clients who are passionate about their evolution and face complex leadership challenges. Through one-on-one coaching, team coaching and facilitation, and culture change initiatives, Rose helps clients build self-awareness, create vision, connect with purpose, and enhance their positive impact. Rose holds a master’s degree in leadership and organizational development. As a lifelong student of leadership and change, she grounds her service in evidence-based practices from leadership theory, adult development, neuroscience, systems thinking, internal family systems, organizational development, and change management. Rose’s core values of curiosity, courage, and stewardship guide her work. Clients become more developed and connected as leaders, and cultures become more generative and vibrant as a result of working with Rose.
Rose has made her home in the Teton Mountains since 2008. Along with her husband Ty (a talented rock climber, father, and retired business owner) and two sons, she enjoys the peace, beauty, and adventure the mountains offer. She can also be found serving on nonprofit boards, playing fiddle in several local bands and appreciating the vibrant community of humans who call Teton Valley home.
Kat Smithhammer — collaborating partner
Kat approaches life with curiosity, creativity and awe. Usually laughing (at times referred to as a “katcophony”) and smiling, she is passionately fascinated with the growth and development of individuals, teams and organizations.
Kat has led over 100 wilderness expeditions in N.A., Europe, Argentina, Chile, and Australia, teaching mountaineering, whitewater canoeing and back-country skiing. Highlights include canyoneering with NASA Shuttle Crew STS 122 during 100-year flood conditions and the second ascent of Mt. Burney in southern Chile, 30 years after its first ascent.
A few of Kat’s past clients include: NASA, Google, the United Nations Development Programme, the Wharton School, Wharton Executive Education, National Park Service, National Forest Service, the Prevention Management Organization of WY, Teton Science Schools, the Kellogg Graduate School of Management, Timbuk2, Four Seasons, and Tata Steel.
With a unique talent for inspiring people to be their best and concluding discussions positively, Kat offers insights, builds common understanding and encourages contributions from all team members. A firm believer in learning from practical experience and cultivating robust self-awareness, Kat practices her own lifelong learning with passion and focus. She has a M.A. in Leadership and Training (Royal Roads University), a B.Ed. (Queen’s University), and a B.A. (Trent University). Kat is a certified professional ICF coach and is a certified Integral Master Coach with Integral Coaching Canada. Kat is also a Wharton Senior Fellow.
Kat is happily married and lives in the Tetons. She loves soaking in remote hot springs, exploring the backcountry by bike or skis, sketching, cooking and slowing down.
Allison Bergh — Collaborating Partner
Allison’s passion for leadership development started at a young age. From being the captain of two high school sports teams, to always listening and asking thoughtful questions of her friends and acquaintances, Allison has been leading and coaching people all her life. She started working for the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) in 1994, which she credits with developing her personal leadership style and inspiring her adventurous spirit. Allison launched Leadership at Play in 2010 with her business partner, Kat Smithhammer, with the goal of sharing their passion for helping individuals and teams develop their leadership capacity.
Examples of Allison’s work include teaching a communication class to a NASA astronaut crew in the canyons of Utah, to facilitating a leadership development and teambuilding experience for the United Nations Development Programme, to developing, implementing and managing an organizational wide mentoring program for the Prevention Management Organization of Wyoming.
With an honest and direct communication style, an easy way of connecting with people, and a knack for asking the pertinent question or observing the relevant leadership behavior, Allison has a real talent for helping people and teams grow. She won the NOLS annual staff award in 2006 for her excellence in coaching and mentoring female instructors. Allison currently sits on the Board of Womentum, whose flagship program is a women’s mentoring program designed to effectuate meaningful social change for women. She lives in Wilson, WY, with her three dogs, and always finds the time for wilderness adventures with friends.
Meghann Mcniff — collaborating partner
Meghann is a generator with a big engine. A truth-teller and a truth seeker. Her unique fluency and passion for leadership development was minted at age 15, earning her second place at the International Science Fair for a project studying Jean Piaget’s stages of development.
Curiosity, adventure, and a zest for life weave Meghann’s story. She is a graduate of the Air Force Academy who holds a Master of Arts in Critical and Creative Thinking and a Master of Public Health in International Maternal and Child Health. She is a yoga teacher who has trained as a pilot and a midwife - who also played division one college soccer. She has worked across diverse settings and with a wide range of groups: from corporate executives in North America, to Air Force pilots and Afghan midwives. From engineers in the National Security Agency to community health workers in rural Malawi.
Across all this depth and breath, Meghann’s clients share an appreciation for her ability to ‘get’ them; and express gratitude for her speedy attunement to where they are now, and where they want to go next. She is known for keeping the coaching relationship as fun as it is driven for results.
Meghann lives with her family in Snoqualmie, Washington - where the iconic show Twin Peaks was filmed. When she’s not at her computer - she can be found trying to keep up with her husband and two kids on a ski run, dispersing snacks while floating a canoe, or exploring the backcountry in the family RV.
River Story
/ˈrivər//ˈstôrē/
The most expansive story we tell about ourselves, others, and the world
We often tell limiting stories about what is possible for ourselves and others. The most insidious part of these narratives is that we are generally not aware of them. They have us in their grip. We are subject to them in our thoughts, feelings, and actions. Developing awareness gives us choice and liberation–an invitation to our best selves. Rose and River Story collaborators help people and teams become aware of limiting narratives and patterns to create and live their River Story–the most expansive and impactful expression of themselves.