Who We Are

Ruhmann Associates is a business consulting firm dedicated to developing the leadership potential of individuals and organizations. We mentor and coach C-Suite Executives, Physician Leaders and Emerging Leaders. We help organizations grow to be outstanding organizations by: 

  • Making better hiring and promotion decisions
  • Building teams with a shared vision and values
  • Maximizing individual performance by growing leaders, not just managers

Sharon Hickman, President

Sharon Hickman joined Ruhmann Associates, LLC in October 2007. She has 17 years of experience in coaching and mentoring Teams and Executives. She specializes in helping her clients build solid teams at every level of their organization. Her greatest joy is helping her clients create an environment where the staff is aligned to company goals and departments function in a seamless manner, all of which enhances a culture of respect and personal accountability within their organization. Sharon is a graduate from North Carolina State University with a degree in Business Managment and Marketing. She studied under Jim Farr at Farr Associates in Greensboro, North Carolina in a year-long leadership program. She was fortunate enough to cross paths with Rich Ruhmann and began her career in Team Communication and Development and Leadership Coaching. 

Some of her areas of expertise include:  Executive Coaching, Leadership Development, Culture and Climate Study, On-Boarding, or Team Building and  Development.  She is experienced using and working with customers to understand results from popular assessment instruments including: DISC, Motivators, Hartman Value Profile, AQai, MBTI, EQi, CCL Benchmarks 360, 360 degree assessments. Her interest, enthusiasm and quest for the knowledge necessary to best serve our clients, have spurred her to achieve the following: 

  • Certified DISC and Motivators Model TTI™
  • Certified Global Models and Benchmarking™
  • Certified Values Model Train-The-Trainer™
  • Certified Compass Suite DISC, PASSIONS and Judgment Feedback and Trainer
  • Certified in Personality Adaptations - Southeast Institute for Group and Family Therapy
  • Certified in Transactional Analysis - Southeast Institute for Group and Family Therapy
  • Certified in Leading with Emotional Intelligence and 360s
  • Certified in Positive Psychology

Rich Ruhmann, Founder and Partner

Rich Ruhmann, founder, has more than thirty-five years of experience in organizational development, human resource consulting, leadership development, and personnel management. He has a diverse background having consulted with industry/manufacturing and service organizations, as well as education and governmental organizations. Rich completed his Masters Degree in Psychology and Education from Kansas State College at Pittsburg, Kansas. He taught leadership at the US Army Service Schools, was the Senior Organization Development Consultant to the Commanders of the XVIII Airborne Corps and 82nd Airborne Division before retiring in 1983. Rich studied under Dr. Jim Farr, one of the leading pioneers in the field of leadership and organizational development, from 1983 until Dr. Farr’s death in 1999. Dr. Farr was the first director of the Center for Creative Leadership and president of Farr Associates for more than 40 years. Rich has continued to seek out the most effective tools available to assist leaders and managers in the realization of their full potential. Certificates and certifications received include: 

  • Certificate of Achievement from the Advanced Study of the DNA of Competencies
  • Certified Professional Behavioral Analyst (CPBA)
  • Certified Professional Values Analyst (CPVA)
  • Certified in Path of Dialogue®
  • Certified to Administer and Interpret Benchmarks®
  • Certified in the Administration and Interpretation of Myers Briggs and FIRO-B
  • Certified in Transactional Analysis Personality Adaptations
  • Certified Personal Coach for Executives

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In my 20 plus years experience in executive education, most development programs focus on the acquisition of organizational knowledge, operational systems, and business tools.  Little time is devoted the leader’s self discovery. Ironically, the greatest programmatic impact I have personally experienced, and witnessed, has been through the exploration of the impact of self on the leadership role. Rich Ruhmann does a masterful job of guiding even the brightest and most skeptical leaders through a process where they come face to face with the ways in which they sabotage their own efforts. And importantly, Rich helps leaders draw on their unique strengths to improve their effectiveness. Significantly improved partnerships across disciplines, more authentic relationships with subordinates, clearer communication, and more deliberate team decision-making are some of the visible successes of Rich’s work across the Yale New Haven Health System.

Dr. Michael Pepe
VP and Executive Director, Institute for Excellence
Yale New Haven Hospital