A first-of-its-kind business leadership training effort in the Eastern Sierra culminated in the graduation ceremony of 27 local professionals who completed the Eastern Sierra Business Resource Center’s five-month-long Leadership Development Program on Tuesday, Jan. 6.
“To our knowledge this is the first time a world-class, intensive leadership training program like this has been staged in the Eastern Sierra, with a mission not just of growing great leaders, but doing it in-person to forge deeper connections,” Sierra Jobs First communications coordinator Heather Hawkins stated in an email.
The original plan had been to accommodate 25 participants, but the demand was so great, the ESBRC made room for 27, organizers said.
Among the program’s graduates were local leaders in the public, for-profit, and nonprofit sectors, representing such businesses and organizations as outdoor recreation-focused Sierra Mountain Center, Eastside Sports and Sage to Summit; coffee and food vendors Looney Bean Bishop and Little Looney, Great Basin Bakery, and Cloudripper; nonprofits Whitebark Institute, Friends of the Inyo, and High Sierra Energy Foundation; Tribal and county-affiliated entities such as Bishop Paiute Development Corporation, Bishop Paiute Tribe Food Sovereignty Program, Inyo County Probation; and others.
Sierra Jobs First, a regional initiative focused on job growth, environmental resilience and economic development in the Sierra Nevada region, provided grant funding to keep tuition affordable for participants, according to Allan Pietrasanta, chair of the Sierra Business Council board. The participants each paid $200 for a total of 42 class-hours offered over one or two days a month since last September.
Participants learned about building self-awareness as a leader and leading with emotional intelligence, navigating difficult conversations, cultivating and leading high-performance teams, managing change and building resilience under pressure, setting goals, and creating strategic partnerships in the community.
“The facilitation was excellent, and the consensus was that Bishop needed and continues to need professional development programs to grow and unify leaders,” said High Sierra Energy Foundation program specialist Jenna Horiuchi. A resident of Independence, Horiuchi said a big takeaway for her was the opportunity to network with dozens of people from Bishop and other Eastern Sierra communities.
Facilitating the program was local leadership coach and consultant JaRae Birkeland, founder of Maitri Leadership. Maitri, she explained, is a Sanskrit word that is pronounced “my-tree” and means “lovingkindness toward oneself and others.” It is a concept she incorporates in her coaching and leadership training, she said.
Maitri Leadership, then, is “leadership development rooted in compassion,” Birkeland said: “It is helping individuals and organizations create sustainable, positive change while building compassionate and resilient leaders.”
And being a compassionate leader is directly linked to improved talent retention, she said.
Her work takes her out of the Eastern Sierra often, to train clients in such places as San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego, Birkeland said, so she was glad to be able to lead a months-long training for a local group.
“There is a tremendous amount of intelligence, strength, knowledge and wisdom in this community,” she said.
During the graduation ceremony, as participants were called to come up to receive their certificate of completion, each one was given the opportunity to share either their biggest takeaway, or an action the program had emboldened them to take going forward as a better-equipped leader in the community.
For Erin Dews, co-executive director of C5 Studios Community Arts Center, getting to know so many fellow community members and being able to say, “I have your back because I know you,” was a big win, she said.
For Scott Gadea with Inyo County Probation, public speaking had been a challenge, he said. Now it is turning into a skill he wants to continue developing.
Dennis Lim, owner of East and Southeast Asian cuisine ambulatory vendor Cloudripper, appreciated learning “how to be cognizant of your own attitude and how you are projecting that to the team.”
Jean Redle with Friends of the Inyo recalled an exercise the team did involving music, which had helped her learn that “we all carry a certain vibe, a positive energy we can bring to our work,” she said.
“We are not conductors from a distance,” Redle said.
Expanding on the music metaphor, she likened the harmonic experience of turning different sounds into music, to turning different individuals into teams.
After the graduation ceremony was over, graduates and their guests had an opportunity to mingle over drinks and tasty finger foods and desserts from Eastside Eats while continuing to talk about the leadership development program experience.
Grant Schmitz is a senior engineer and the Bishop office lead for international environmental and engineering consulting firm Stantec. Schmitz oversees a team of 35 employees throughout California, he said, and the projects he and his team work on can involve clients and stakeholders that include local municipalities, utility companies, public land agencies, local businesses, tribes, and highly specialized professionals such as archeologists or cultural experts.
For him, learning about how to lead high-performing teams was particularly useful.
Matthew McCarthy, co-owner of Eastside Sports since June 2024, said he had consulted with Pietrasanta when he bought his business.
After ESBRC opened at the end of that year, he attended a couple of the monthly trainings the center offers on such business matters as finance and marketing, and learned about the training, which he said was very different from reading books about leadership.
“As a new business owner, especially of a small business, it’s amazing how many hats you have to wear: accounting, IT, marketing, finance, and be a manager as well,” he said. “Having self-awareness as a leader helps you identify your own strengths as well as other’s strengths, while nurturing yourself and your staff so you can be ready to accept the challenge of wearing any of the hats as needed.”
Perhaps Sage to Summit mountain sports shop owner and Bishop City Councilmember Karen Schwartz summed up the ESBRC leadership training experience best for all involved: “It made me feel that the future is very bright for Bishop.”
To learn more about the Eastern Sierra Business Resource Center, its monthly trainings and possible future multi-month leadership development programs, visit easternsierrabrc.org or email [email protected].
