Kelsey Hahn didn’t start learning about leadership in a boardroom. She learned it on the ice.
Growing up in Saskatchewan, she played hockey from the age of four and noticed something that stuck with her: talent doesn’t always win. “I was fascinated by how a team of less talented — let’s call them ‘B’ players — with really strong culture and leadership, can beat the team with a few superstars and big egos and a really terrible culture,” she says.
That early insight shaped her path from researcher to consultant to co-founder and CEO of Monark, a Calgary-based platform rethinking how leadership gets built inside companies. At its core is a question that many organizations still struggle to answer: how do you help someone become a great leader in real time, not in hindsight?
As she explained to Digital Journal during a sitdown interview at Inventures 2025, the answer is both technological and behavioural. Monark uses AI to coach leaders while they work, analysing live conversations, nudging for better habits, and helping people practice leadership the way athletes train for game day. It’s not about theory. It’s about how someone leads a meeting when their camera is off, or whether they follow through on a one-on-one.
Across Canada’s innovation sectors, where high growth and high pressure collide, that kind of leadership is becoming a necessity.
Feedback in real time, not after the fact
Traditional leadership development relies on workshops, post-event coaching, or 360-degree assessments. For Hahn, those approaches miss the point.
“We are never actually getting data on the experience between the leader and their direct reports,” she says. “Technology has changed the game with that.”
With more work happening virtually Monark’s platform is able to sit inside internal meetings and provide leaders with immediate feedback on how they’re showing up. The aim is to build what Hahn calls “intentional leadership behaviours” through repeated practice. Think skills like delegation, facilitation, and active listening.
That approach is especially relevant in industries like energy, cleantech, and manufacturing, where many of Monark’s clients operate. “We are often working with engineers and geologists who… have been pushed into leadership roles,” she says. “They’re technically really strong in their roles, and then someone said, ‘now you deserve a team.’ That’s not how it works.”
Hahn believes not everyone should be a people leader, and companies should do more to identify those who are both ready and willing. She points to a growing interest in helix models, where technical experts can progress without being required to manage others. “Have you ever asked your leaders if they want to be leading people?” she says. “Because some of them don’t.”
Managing complexity without burning out
According to Hahn, today’s leaders are managing more than performance metrics. “The complexity of leadership has gotten tenfold,” she says. “We’re now managing personalities, trauma, anxiety, political affiliations, performance, and potential.”
Burnout, as a result, is rising. At the same time, as Hahn explains, it’s a key indicator of leadership success. Monark has tracked it for more than a decade, and she says current levels are the highest they’ve seen. Part of the problem is structural. Teams are larger, meetings more frequent, and the time to actually do the work often comes after hours. “There’s no real time to do the work, except for at night,” she says.
To counter that, Monark’s platform focuses on habit-building over time. That includes basic but foundational skills like how to run a performance review, how to hold difficult conversations, and more advanced coaching on building team resilience and stress tolerance. Monark also separates its programming for executive and emerging leaders, with tailored development that evolves as careers progress.
What all good leaders share, according to Hahn, isn’t a style. It’s a set of behaviours that make others better. “We can all think of great leaders we’ve had, and they all look really differently,” she says. “Not just physically, but they have different personalities… They all likely made us feel very [similar].”
The key to great leadership
Running Monark has required Hahn to apply the same principles internally. “We do not scale if I can’t make super leaders on my team,” she says. That means staying consistent with one-on-ones, being fully present in team meetings, and being intentional about what she models.
The company is growing. A major client in energy services has seen turnover drop by 6 percent among field staff since implementing Monark’s approach, a result Hahn says has had significant cost and retention impact. The team is now expanding into the US and Europe, and a mobile app with real-time feedback features is in beta testing.
What’s at stake, according to Hahn, is more than company performance. It’s about building the kind of leadership that draws people in.
“Great leadership, to me, is about igniting something amazing in others and making them feel the way you just said, especially in the workplace.
Watch the interview:
