Over 100 years have gone into this

And for anyone wondering, yes, that’s our experience combined.

Leaders are under a lot of pressure to deliver results, while rising to the challenges of an unpredictable work environment. While being a leader can be challenging, it doesn’t have to come at the cost of personal sacrifice and well-being. With our help, leaders will become better at building relationships, stronger at dealing with change, and hungrier for success.

Meet Our Team

SparkWorks founder Liza Provenzano

Liza Provenzano

SparkWorks employee Joanne Rivard

Joanne Rivard

SparkWorks employee Linda Morgan

Linda Morgan

Dave Kirkconnell

SparkWorks employee Lesley Petracco

Lesley Petracco

Remembering Dave McLean

(1954-2024)

SparkWorks employee Dave McLean

On July 11, 2024, SparkWorks Leadership & Coaching lost a true friend and trusted colleague. Our Associate, Dave McLean passed away peacefully after an inspirational fight to “kick cancer in the butt”.

Over the years, Dave worked with hundreds of leaders helping them to build relationships and get better results. He is credited with introducing Q4© Leadership, a high-impact, award winning leadership development experience, to SparkWorks and as a result, our clients have benefited from working with this model of leadership, it’s tools and most notably, Dave’s expertise. Dave had the ability to take concepts and explain them in practical, clear, concise, and meaningful ways. As a result, it was a common occurrence in one of Dave’s sessions to hear a client say, “Ah, now I get it!”.

He graciously and regularly offered support to colleagues and could always be counted on. He was genuinely interested in others and brought his friendliness and sense of humor into meetings and the Q4© sessions he facilitated. He made others feel comfortable and he made people laugh.

We are so much better at what we do for having known and worked with Dave and so are the leaders who have been fortunate enough to work with him.

In his absence, we will be guided by his philosophy of life…

“Make the best of every day. Make the day of others better. Tell those you love that you do.”

We’ll miss him very much.

And this is how we work

  1. Caring

    We won’t treat you like a name on a roster. There’s a genuine desire to get to know and understand each and every person we work with.We listen to learn, too. And never assume that what works for one will work for another. So, everything we do and say is unique to you and your business.
  2. Credibility

    We’ve been in this industry a long time. And we’ve helped a lot of businesses and professionals along the way. So yes, we’ve been there, done it, and got the fluffy socks.When you work with us, there’s no umming and ahing, toing and froing. You get experienced, knowledgeable professionals who use proven models and methodologies.
  3. Contribution

    Nothing beats seeing the people and businesses we work with achieve their goals. It gives us a kick like no other. It’s why we do what we do. For us to win, you need to win. And by that, we mean seeing your business and personal growth reach a new level.
  4. Open and honest

    Open, honest and respectful. That’s us in a nutshell. What you see is what you get. There’s no fakery, and we won’t tell you what you want to hear because it’s what you want to hear. And if we can’t help you, we’ll tell you (though there’s a good chance we can).
  5. Flexible

    Everything we do is unique to you. Yes, we have specific programs, but we can tailor these to suit your business needs and wants. Need more of one thing and less of something else? No problem. There’s no ‘one size fits all’ approach to coaching and leadership as far as we’re concerned.

We have a lot of happy clients.

Here’s what they have to say:

We collaborated with SparkWorks to bring a leadership development initiative to our leadership team to help our managers continue building their coaching skills. Leadership development is important to us, so it was a priority to ensure we could sustain the team’s learning back on the job. We didn’t want a “one and done” experience. SparkWorks delivered a high-impact, engaging leadership development experience and further supported us with sustainment actions. We saw increases in employee engagement, and we attribute our work with SparkWorks as one of the drivers of that result.

Chuck Hamilton, C.Dir., FSA, FCIA, President & CEO, Educators Financial Group

My time spent with Liza showed me how values-based executive coaching can result in exceptional growth, as a person and as a professional. Liza, in her kind, honest and thoughtful way, helped me understand and improve my leadership style and recognize what an honour it is to be a leader.

Mark Brohman, CPA, CA , Firm Managing Partner, Durward Jones Barkwell & Company LLP

With our constantly changing workforce, and limited in-house resources, we reached out to SparkWorks to help us catch up, and build on both compliance issues and good HR Practices. The professional team of SparkWorks took the lead to help our HR department go above and beyond. Not only did SparkWorks help us move forward, but they taught us valuable lessons in team building and how to have a respectful culture that would allow us to advance as a more self-sufficient team! Working with Liza and her team proved to be a very valuable experience for us and we look forward to working on future projects with the entire SparkWorks Team.

Drew Thorne, Plant Services Manager, Surteco

Our engagement with SparkWorks was productive and successful. We made improvements to several people practices and this has had a positive impact on our business. Throughout the engagement, we were able to have candid conversations and that created honesty and trust in our working relationship. We found them to be highly adaptive and able to provide sound guidance as needs evolved. Their advice and expertise have made a significant difference for our organization.

Don Watt, President, Dahl Valve Limited

We enlisted SparkWorks to help us several aspects of our people practices. While there were several HR objectives we implemented, what stands out is the work that we did with our leadership team. As a result of their expertise and guidance, we had more quality discussions, collaborated more on cross functional goals and came together more as a team. Overall, they were flexible and responsive to changing requirements and we communicated well together. They made a valuable contribution to the organization.

Tim Valters, CEO, Surteco Americas Plastics Division

“SparkWorks was pivotal in shaping our servant leadership culture at Little Canada. Liza took the team through a deliberate process in defining our Five big people values supporting my vision, my mission and why I started this endeavour. Little Canada would not be where it is today without the guidance and support of Liza and her team. I would highly recommend Liza for all your leadership needs.”

Jean-Louis Brenninkmeijer, , Founder & President, Little Canada

“I worked with Liza and we used The Leadership Circle Profile to support my leadership development. This assessment gives you raw feedback. To get the most from it, you must be courageous and want to develop. It’s very accurate and if you are open to it, you will get clear on the areas that need development. I learned about living “above and below the line” and it helped me to get clearer on my purpose and vision which helped me to communicate more clearly, effectively and with confidence. The currency with ROI is significant, not just with self but in how I work with the business and the team.”

Neil Shepherd, President & CEO, The Shepherd Group

“The work we did throughout my coaching engagement with SparkWorks helped me to become a better leader. I went in with clear objectives and made the progress I was looking for. As a result, I have a better understanding of myself and this increased awareness is having a positive impact on how I respond to the situations I deal with in my work.

Liza respectfully nudged me to have conversations that weren’t always comfortable but were valuable and she created a trusted space for that to happen. It was time well spent and I can see myself engaging with her again in the future!”

Sharlene, Banking Professional

Sparkworks worked with a team in our organization and through that collaboration, the team increased their level of cohesiveness. They now work together more effectively, demonstrating improved communication and less stress. The sessions Sparkworks led with the team were productive and the team walked away with concrete actions they could implement immediately. As a result, they’re having more positive work experiences and are coming up with more solutions that are saving time and benefiting the firm’s work. Engaging with SparkWorks helped us achieve our objectives successfully!

Paige Haggett, HR Manager, DJB Chartered Professional Accountants

Certifications

The Leadership Circle

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