Beneath every challenge a leader carries
is a level of possibility they have not yet stepped into.
At The Ascent, every element is intentionally designed
to create the conditions for insight, clarity, and meaningful change.
The Ascent is for the senior leader who has already built the career, led others through complexity, and reached the point where more time in a classroom is not what’s needed next.
Whether they are navigating a significant transition, preparing for the next level, or representing a succession investment their organization is serious about protecting.
At this level, the constraint isn’t knowledge. It’s clarity.
Most leadership development adds knowledge. The Ascent changes how a leader thinks, decides, and leads. That difference is felt the moment they return.
The Canadian Rockies are not a backdrop. They are the anchor.
The mountains don’t care about your title. Research shows that immersion in a landscape of this scale restores attention, expands perspective, and creates the cognitive conditions that high-quality thinking requires. Add coaching and the right questions, and leaders begin to hear themselves again.
“I have watched leaders stand in front of a mountain range and exhale for the first time in months. In those moments, nature becomes the co-facilitator. And often, before I’ve asked my first question, the real work has already begun.”
– DAVID GRAHAM, CO-HOST
Leaders who complete The Ascent return differently. Not with a certificate and a binder. With
something harder to manufacture and more valuable to an organization.
Adaptive Leadership
Strengthen your ability to lead through uncertainty, complexity, and continuous disruption while maintaining clarity, confidence, and strategic focus.
Strategic Judgment
Enhance the quality of your thinking and decision-making by developing the perspective required to identify patterns, evaluate risk, and navigate competing priorities.
Executive Alignment
Close the gap between who you are and how you lead, strengthening your ability to inspire confidence, create alignment, and lead with authenticity.
Collective Intelligence
Challenge assumptions, expand your thinking, and gain insight through candid dialogue with accomplished leaders facing similarly complex realities.
Sustainable Performance
Develop the capacity to maintain high performance, sound judgment, and strategic effectiveness amid demanding and rapidly evolving environments.
Facilitated conversations that create what the pace and pressure of leadership often prevent:
- Space to challenge assumptions and think differently
- Candid conversations with peers about the challenges of leadership and the personal costs that are rarely talked about
- Learning to lead with precision and why it outperforms over the long-term
- Conversations that rarely happen inside a packed calendar
- Individualized coaching sessions tailored to meet each leader where they are at
- Immersive experiences in the Rocky’s designed to shift your physiology, restore your thinking, and deepen the work happening in the room
- Structured reflection and post-experience coaching to integrate new insights into how you lead
Where artists, thinkers, and leaders have come to do their most important work since 1933.
Nestled on the side of Sleeping Buffalo Mountain and surrounded by the Canadian Rockies, Banff Centre offers a setting unlike any other.
As Canada’s leading arts and cultural organization, it brings together creativity, learning, and breathtaking mountain landscapes to create the ideal environment for reflection, connection, and deeper thinking.
Private accommodations, locally inspired dining, and immediate access to Banff’s natural beauty allow you to step away from daily demands and fully immerse yourself in the experience.
David Graham, MA, MCC
Executive Coach, Facilitator
Helping leaders think differently about what comes next. TEDx speaker, Master Certified Coach (MCC), and founder of EDGE3.
Melanie Patten
Executive Coach, Facilitator
Helping leaders uncover possibilities they have not yet stepped into. Founder of Iron Essence and executive coach to senior leaders navigating complexity and growth.
Two coaches. One experience. Uncommon by design.
- Four days/three nights at the Banff Centre
- All meals and programming
- Facilitated group coaching experiences
- Private executive coaching session
- Guided Banff experiences
- Access to galleries and creative spaces
- An intimate cohort of just eight leaders
“In the mountains, you’ll step out of distraction and into awareness. Creating clarity for what’s possible, and what needs to shift. From there, you are faced with a real decision: what comes next?”
– MELANIE PATTEN, CO-HOST
$4,595 CAD per participant
Reserved by application only.
The Ascent is priced to reflect the calibre of the experience, the intimacy of the cohort, and the depth of transformation it is designed to create.
Continue the Conversation
Follow David and Melanie on LinkedIn for leadership insights,
retreat updates, and reflections leading up to The Ascent.
