Growth in expert environments isn’t random. It follows a rhythm — one that turns knowledge into influence, and expertise into leadership.
Why expertise alone isn't enough anymore.
The room is quiet except for the hum of the projector.
A consultant walks their client through the numbers, precise, confident, backed by weeks of work. Then a senior stakeholder interrupts with a question they didn’t see coming.
In that instant, the flow breaks. The consultant searches for the perfect answer, trying to sound certain instead of staying curious.
The focus shifts from understanding the stakeholder to defending the analysis. The conversation stops being a dialogue and becomes a test.
It’s not lack of competence. It’s conditioning.
Years of training have taught them to deliver information, not to build connection.
To be right, rather than real.
We’ve seen this scene play out in countless forms in consulting, finance, STEM. Experts who know their field inside out, yet lose influence when challenged. It’s one of many moments where expertise meets its limits and where growth begins.
That’s the space where Spark works.
And over fifteen years of working with expert-driven organisations, we’ve seen that growth doesn’t unfold randomly. It follows a recognisable rhythm, one we call the Arc of Growth.
A pattern behind excellence.
Across thousands of professionals we’ve coached and trained, the ones who truly advance don’t just add more skills. They grow through defined transitions, predictable moments when what used to work stops being enough.
The analyst who learns to hold their ground in a boardroom.
The manager who starts inspiring instead of directing.
The senior leader who begins shaping culture, not just strategy.
Each of those shifts marks a phase on the Arc of Growth, a path we’ve observed in professionals who move from expertise to leadership, from contribution to influence.
When growth is left to chance, people get stuck reacting to pressure instead of developing through it.
But when both the inner journey (confidence, mindset, self-awareness) and the outer journey (communication, collaboration, leadership) evolve together, professionals thrive. They lead with clarity, and teams follow with trust.
“Growth will happen. It always does. The question is whether it happens by design or by chance.”
Oscar Vega
Managing Partner Spark
The six phases of the Arc.
Every professional we've worked with over the past decade finds himself within these six phases, each one reflecting a different way of turning expertise into influence and influence into leadership.
1.
Ignite — Finding your voice
For many experts, this stage starts small: speaking up in a team call, sharing an idea in a meeting, asking a question when the conversation moves too fast. It’s not about performance. It’s about participation.
Here, confidence begins to form not from knowing everything, but from daring to contribute anyway.
The shift: from observer to active contributor.
2.
Connect — Building collaboration
Excellence in isolation only takes you so far. This is where people realise that real impact depends on others, on listening, on trust, on creating the space where diverse ideas meet.
Collaboration becomes less about compromise and more about shared ownership.
The shift: from individual performance to collective success.
3.
Influence — Turning ideas into action
At this point, technical mastery meets communication that moves people.
It’s the consultant presenting a recommendation to a CEO twice their age, or a financial analyst shaping the story behind the numbers. It’s learning to communicate strategically - clearly, concisely, and in the language of decisions - while managing the internal voice that whispers, “Who am I to tell them this?”
Influence is both mindset and method: it’s about balancing confidence with humility, structure with empathy, and ideas with buy-in.
The shift: from being right to being understood, trusted, and followed.
4.
Trust — Becoming the advisor
Here, professionals begin to build credibility that goes beyond expertise.
Trust forms when people consistently show good judgment, listen well, and create genuine relationships. It’s no longer about having all the answers. It’s about asking the right questions and helping others reach the best conclusions.
In one client case, a consultant realised he didn’t need to be the expert on every topic. He needed to be the expert on getting his team to deliver their expertise effectively.
At this stage, people move from being valued for what they know to being relied on for how they think.
The shift: from delivering input to being seen as a trusted partner and advisor.
5.
Lead — Creating other leaders
Leadership is no longer measured by your performance, but by the performance of others. This stage is about the mindset shift from “Am I doing well?” to “Are they doing well?”
It’s where delegation becomes development, feedback becomes motivation, and influence begins to multiply.
The shift: from leading work to leading people.
6.
Shine — Representing the organisation
At this level, professionals lead not only teams, but narratives. You carry the voice and reputation of your organisation in conferences, in crises, in conversations that shape the market.
Presence, composure, and authenticity define you.
The shift: from leading teams to leading the narrative.
Growth isn’t linear.
The Arc of Growth doesn’t unfold in a straight line. Growth rarely does.
We’ve seen leaders excel in one phase while still developing skills from another.
One chief investment officer at a global investment bank - a strong, visionary leader - struggled most with the earliest stages of the arc: Ignite and Connect.
He led multimillion-euro decisions with ease, yet hesitated to speak up in informal settings or connect authentically at networking events.
For him, leadership wasn’t the challenge - visibility and connection were.
That’s what makes the Arc such a powerful tool to us: it reflects how development really works.
No one moves perfectly from one phase to the next. Some circle back, some skip ahead. The goal isn’t to complete a sequence. It’s to recognise where you already shine, and where small shifts could multiply your impact.
The Arc is not a prescription, but a lens.
It helps you see yourself more clearly: what’s working, what’s missing, and what will move you forward next.
Why this matters now.
The workplace has changed more in the past five years than in the two decades before it.
Expertise is everywhere but clarity, empathy, and trust are what turn that expertise into results.
Hybrid teams, automation, and constant change have made communication and leadership not “soft skills,” but survival skills. The professionals who succeed now aren’t the ones who know the most, but the ones who can bring others with them - across disciplines, generations, and ways of working.
And beyond performance, the Arc matters for retention. Professionals who feel unseen, unheard, or stuck in the early stages of growth often leave, not because they lack skill, but because they lack space to develop it.
When organisations intentionally guide people through their arc - helping them find their voice, connect, influence, and lead - they don’t just raise capability. They keep their best people growing with them.
In consulting, that means turning analysis into advice clients can act on. In finance, it means influencing without formal authority. In STEM, it means leading innovation through collaboration, not hierarchy.
These are the capabilities that move people and organisations forward.
How organisations use the Arc.
The Arc of Growth gives companies a shared language for development, one that links individual growth to business performance.
For early-career professionals, it clarifies what “next level” actually means.
For managers, it creates a framework for coaching, feedback, and promotion.
For HR and leadership teams, it provides a roadmap for aligning learning with strategy.
Growth becomes visible, measurable, and deliberate, not left to chance or personality.
The Spark difference
Every Spark programme is built around this philosophy.
We don’t teach skills in isolation. We help people connect who they are with what they do because that’s where performance and fulfilment meet.
We meet professionals where they are on their arc, and help them move forward with clarity, confidence, and care.
Because when your people grow intentionally, your organisation transforms naturally.
