As the founders of People Spark Consulting, Kristen Ireland and Erin Mies guide and support ag and feed leaders to build strong teams and thriving companies. Since leadership development is a cornerstone to lasting success, Kristen and Erin share how the new People Spark Leadership Transformation program is now more effective than ever.
Q: It’s been five years since the first People Spark Leadership Transformation cohort. With the upcoming launch of the 2025 program, what’s changed?
A: Our program is more robust and effective than ever. Initially, we offered one eight-week program. Now participants get a full year of learning, training, and support through two integrated programs: Ignite to Transform for Team Leaders™ (I2T4TL) and Fan the Flame™ (FTF).
During the training, cohorts turn new leadership skills into deeply ingrained habits. We teach, reinforce, and support behavior changes so they become second nature—and a crucial driver of business success.
Q: What can people expect from the integrated programs?
A: Ignite to Transform™ consists of eight modules (virtual and interactive) to equip participants with expert coaching skills. With weekly assignments, personalized feedback, and group coaching calls, we go deep on topics including how to define your role as a leader and build a company based on trust, listening, and empathy, and how to coach for recognition, performance, and progressive discipline.
Fan the Flame™ is all about reinforcing and sustaining what you’ve learned. We provide ten months of support through monthly group coaching calls, quarterly workshops, and access to our online resource library.
We also offer bonus content about specific situations and scenarios like leading through change; interviewing and hiring; and applying coaching models to specific scenarios including performance reviews and writing a termination document.
Q: What inspired you to change the leadership development program now?
A: We talk a lot about the importance of feedback, and we’ve made changes based on what participants have told us. We could see where people consistently needed more time to discuss and practice essential skills, and we made changes to support those needs.
Our goal is the same: to make it simple and practical for leaders to learn and apply new skills immediately—and to keep using them no matter what’s happening at work.
Q: What’s an example of an essential skill for leaders to master?
A: Learning to ask open-ended questions is a game-changer for engaging and retaining employees. If you’re frustrated by workers (or even your kids!) who mutter one-word responses to your questions or who aren’t at all curious about the what/how/why behind a project or task, it might be time to reframe your questions from “closed” to “open-ended.”
Closed questions like “Do you understand?” or “Do you have any questions?” invite short answers and don’t reveal if someone truly understands an assignment. On the other hand, open-ended questions like “What’s your understanding of the project?” and “What challenges are you facing?” spark conversation and discussion and ensure everyone’s on the same page.
Q: What differentiates the PSC Leadership Transformation program from other leadership development programs?
A: Our program isn’t your typical “check the box” training, where leaders and teams go through a program, complete all the activities, and then forget what they learned as soon as they get back to business (and busy-ness!).
We go deep and narrow, rather than broad because leaders don’t have time to learn countless, complicated ways to communicate or give feedback. However, everyone can develop a few key skills that work across multiple situations.
Q: Who will benefit from the program?
A: We work with all types of leaders—from first-level leaders who are hungry for training (and don’t have a lot of “bad” habits to unlearn) to seasoned managers who tell us, “I wish I’d known these things a long time ago.” For leaders who send their direct reports through our program, we share progress reports and weekly materials so they can continually reinforce the new skills and learning.
The bottom line is managers significantly influence how their teams show up. As we always say, 70% of the variance between a lousy culture and a strong culture is the knowledge, skills, and talent of your leaders. Plus, nearly 60% of surveyed leaders believe training directly improves their performance.
Q: How can people register for 2025 cohorts?
A: Enrollment for the January 2025 Leadership Development cohort is already underway. Here’s a video overview of the program, and we’d be happy to answer any questions. Drop us an email at erin@peoplesparkconsulting.com.